King Kong Bundy Flashbacks

A Tribute to an '80s Pro Wrestling Icon

April 1986

Since I discovered professional wrestling eight months earlier, I have become absolutely obsessed with it and it has quickly become my primary interest.

I watch every single wrestling show I have access to and that adds up to hours a week between numerous shows from WWF and NWA, as well as the AWA and World Class. If I’m not able to watch a show when it broadcasts, I tape it on a VCR since I don’t want to miss anything. I also go to the newsstand every week and buy every new wrestling magazine that comes out, and there are dozens of such publications.

I’ve made a few new friends because they liked wrestling a lot just like me. I’ve also had quite a few people make fun of me when they hear I like wrestling, but I don’t care about that, and I zealously defend professional wrestling whenever someone mocks it.

They tell me it is “fake”, missing the whole point. I debate back that it’s about performance, athleticism, and storylines that emotionally draw you in, as well as characters to feel connected to. I recognize all this even in in my “rookie” year of watching wrestling.

I just wrote about pro wrestling for the first time a few weeks ago. It was in response to an editorial in the local newspaper where the pompous sports editor made fun of wrestling and the people who watched it, calling us “stupid.”

He published my response and mocked me in print for writing it. I’m thinking though my defense of pro wrestling perhaps I got some people in the community to actually watch it for the first time and a few of them became fans as a result.

I’m excited about WrestleMania 2 but also extremely disappointed that it’s not being offered through my local cable provider. It’s being broadcast on this new thing called pay-per-view, where you call up the cable company on the day of an event and order a program, and then they descramble the picture on your TV.

Cable is too new it seems in my area for this show to be offered, and I’m jealous when I hear that it is being offered in other areas relatively nearby. My other option to view the event is to find a movie theatre that is showing WrestleMania 2 on closed circuit or go to the local city arena for the same experience. The problem is tickets have long been sold at the nearest places broadcasting it, which isn’t that near at all to go to from where I live anyway.

WrestleMania 2 is being held in three different cities with four matches at each venue. It’s starting in New York, with Roddy Piper vs Mr. T in a boxing match as the showcase attraction. Then it’s onto Chicago where a showcase match is a battle royal featuring wrestlers and NFL players, including the popular Bears player William “The Refrigerator” Perry.

It’s the main event of the entire show that I’m most excited about though. The match is taking place in Los Angeles inside a steel cage, with Hulk Hogan defending his world title against King Kong Bundy.

The set up for the match occurred on the episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event from the prior month. Hogan was defending his title against Don Muraco, and close to winning, when King Kong Bundy’s manager, Bobby Heenan, ran into the ring to break up the count, causing a disqualification in the process.

Hogan grabbed Heenan and lifted him in the air, choking him. From behind came Bundy, who hit Hogan and knocked him into the corner in the process. Muraco then grabbed Hogan from the outside of a corner and restrained him. Plan in motion, Bundy ran into the corner, slamming his full weight onto Hogan’s back (called an “avalanche”), and then repeated it two more times.

Hogan fell to the mat and Bundy delivered a big splash, leaping down onto Hogan. Muraco rolled Hogan over and Bundy did it again, this time doing the splash on Hogan’s back.

Several wrestlers came into the ring to help Hogan, cueing Bundy, Heenan, and Muraco to take off. Hogan was left motionless in the ring. The announcers screamed of injustice. On the next TV broadcast, we are told that Bundy’s attack severely injured Hogan’s ribs.

In his quest for revenge, Hogan has accepted Bundy’s challenge for a title match at WrestleMania 2, and to up the ante the match will take place in a steel cage. The only way to win is to beat down your opponent enough to escape the cage.

I’m a fan of Hulk Hogan like most other wrestling fans, but it’s actually his opponent in the match that is the reason I’m most excited about the match.

There’s just something captivating about King Kong Bundy. He’s bald, where’s a black singlet, and is extremely large and round. He always has a scowl on his face, but there’s something playful in his demeanor, like he could as easily tell you a joke as hurt you. It’s this contrasting vibe he gives that makes him one of the more compelling characters to me in WWF. He’s the “bad guy”, yes, but I find him entertaining and want to see him anointed as world champion.

The day after WrestleMania 2, I’m anxious to find out the results, but pro wrestling, even a big event like WrestleMania, is not largely covered in newspapers, radio or TV.

Some good news comes my way in the days following the event. There’s word that someone knows someone whose father has a VHS tape of the event that they recorded off TV from the pay-per-view. Turns out the guy had access to getting the pay-per-view at home when nobody else in the area did. I don’t ask for details, but through my network of wrestling friends I’m provided a copy of the sought after tape within a short amount of time.

I rush home and pop in the VHS tape and watch the show in reverse, starting with Hogan vs Bundy.

The match starts out with Hogan immediately going on the offensive, chopping and punching Bundy. It makes sense. Hogan’s mad and wants revenge for the rib injury. However, Hogan’s unable to take Bundy off his feet, so he starts choking him.

Then with Bundy dazed, Hogan throws him headfirst into the steel cage. From there, Hogan starts battering Bundy’s ribs.

Through all this, Bundy never goes off his feet. Hogan turns to play to the crowd and Bundy goes on the offensive for the first time, pummeling Hogan and then rips the protective tape off Hogan’s injured ribs. Then he starts choking him with it.

Hogan rallies back and whips Bundy against the cage once again. This time, though, the steel scrapes Bundy’s forehead, causing rivulets of blood to flow down his face and drip in his eyes. Bundy fights back, wrestles Hogan to the mat, takes control and delivers a big splash.

But fate is not with King Kong Bundy on this night. Hogan prevails once again and retains the title when he climbs out of the cage first.

Bundy angrily vows he will be back and will win the WWF title in a re-match.

In many ways, this single match will be the high point of King Kong Bundy’s career and be the match he is best remembered for decades later.

King Kong Bundy figure recently released by Zombie Sailor (from the author’s personal collection).

NINE YEARS LATER

I’m standing behind the curtain waiting to hear the bell ring, my cue to walk down the aisle as referee and get into the ring before the introductions of the wrestlers for the opening match.

The crowd is nosier than normal before a wrestling show.

I peer through the curtain to survey them. I’m impressed and excited by what I see. This will be the largest crowd I have ever refereed in front of. It’s a small-town arena with a capacity of several thousand people, and it looks sold-out.

The event is a charity fundraiser for some local organizations, I’m told.

A up and coming wrestler I helped get some publicity for in one of the newsstands wrestling magazines got me booked on this high-profile show. I’ve never worked for this promoter before and he already has two regular referees, both veterans, and has booked me to only referee the opening match and one other preliminary match towards the beginning of the show. I’m told it’s a try-out and if he likes how I work, he’ll consider adding me into his referee pool.

One of the key reasons the building is packed tonight is because of the main event. It will feature Bam Bam Bigelow vs King Kong Bundy, and both are fresh off WWF TV and have only recently parted ways with the promotion. They’re also two huge names from the ‘80s WWF scene and many in the audience have likely followed their careers for some time.

The two wrestlers in the opening match are standing by my side. The bell rings, and I step to pass through the curtain when a hand grabs my shoulder. I turn around to see the promoter standing there.

“Change of plans, boys,” says the promoter. “Bigelow’s booked in the main event of another show a couple of hours away and he’ll never get there in time if he goes on last here. I’m putting Bundy and Bigelow on in the first match.”

We all turned to walk back to the locker room.

“I need you out there,” says the promoter, guiding me back forward. “The other two referees haven’t showed up yet and we need to get started.”

I hustle out to the ring. The fan in me is both excited and slightly nervous about being part of the match. The professional in me tells myself to stay calm and it’s just like any other match.

But it isn’t. This is Bam Bam Bigelow and King Kong Bundy facing each other, and they are two wrestlers I watched on TV for many years before getting into the business myself. I am also a huge fan of both of them.

Bam Bam Bigelow comes out first and gets a thunderous response and acknowledges the fans.

With the announcement of King Kong Bundy’s name over the microphone, the crowd erupts with an equally as enthusiastic response they provided Bigelow.

Bundy lumbers through the curtain, and I see one of my favorite wrestlers in person for the first time. He looks every bit as enormous as he looked on TV all those times.

He pauses after a few steps to survey the surroundings. His face is expressionless. Could it be that after over a decade of getting consistently booed at arenas around the world that Bundy’s touched by the enthusiastic support he is receiving from this independent wrestling show audience?

To Bundy’s left, a group of college age male fans are leaning over the railing, paper and pens in hand, obviously seeking an autograph. A smile begins to spread across Bundy’s face. He extends his hand towards one of the fans, and in one swooping motion slaps the paper and pens out of all of their hands. I struggle to keep in character in the ring and suppress a smirk. This is classic old school heeling and Bundy has delivered a better memory for those fans than if he had actually signed the paper. He made them part of the show.

It’s standard that I know the finish of the matches at minimum, but often key spots of the match flow as well. It helps to know this because it allows me as the referee to flow better with the action, particularly on the eventual three count.

Since I didn’t have a chance to talk to Bundy or Bigelow before the match, I incorporate the standard technique of checking the villain’s (Bundy) knee pads and wrestling boots for weapons, On the shows where I’m the only referee, this is how I get the finishes since I can’t, and don’t want to try, to remember the endings of every single match before the show begins.

When I lean in close to the wrestler, it’s my chance to speak to them without the audience noticing.

“What’s the finish?” I ask Bundy.

He says something but it’s largely inaudible due to how loud the crowd is, and it’s not like I can ask him to repeat himself and say it louder.

I try the same technique with Bigelow, but he can’t even hear what I’m saying to him.

The match gets started with Bundy and Bigelow trading heavy-handed looking blows back and forth. Bundy catches Bigelow with a stiff looking clothesline, and he goes down.

With his opponent down, Bundy grabs the microphone and turns his attention to the crowd. The insults fly from his mouth, and so do the boos from the crowd. He clearly doesn’t want the audience to cheer him just because he was a WWF TV star.

Bundy starts targeting a specific person in the crowd with his insults. I noticed it’s the person at ringside who was cheering for him the loudest. It’s fascinating to watch a wrestler who started in the territory days, but also wrestled on the biggest of wrestling stages, do live performance art in the old school tradition of heeling, as he makes a singular fan part of his shtick.

A few minutes later, after some more back and forth, Bundy knocks Bigelow down again and this time delivers one of his famous finishing moves, the big splash. He covers Bigelow and looks over at me and says loudly, “Give me the five count. It’s five count rules, pal.”

I assume this means Bigelow will kick out at four based on seeing Bundy’s past matches.

You see, the “five count” was a signature gimmick of Bundy’s in various wrestling promotions. He would demand the referee count to five, instead of three, to show how thoroughly he had decimated his opponent.

So, I count.

I assume (wrongly because I don’t know the actual spots and this is all pure referee improv, which is never ideal) that Bundy will get a three count and Bigelow will kick out at four.

I also assume (wrongly) Bundy’s cue here to me was telling me to count five. The pace of my counts are a little faster than normal because I assume I’m counting past three.

My hand goes down for the three count and the second it touches the mat, Bigelow kicks out.

I react quickly, doing a sudden rolling movement with one of my hips that I had often incorporated to make counts look extra close to three. Here, it was too close, as my hand slightly grazed the mat.

To try to cover it up, I pop up to my feet quickly. Clearly to me I just made a three count and that should signify the end of the match.

I did not call for the bell though.

I was schooled by veterans to always call the matches as if they were real, and to never expose the business if there was an error in the ring regardless of who caused the error.

That wasn’t going to work here. We were only a few minutes into a main event match in front of a huge crowd, and it was too soon to ring the bell.

So, in an effort to cover the miscue more, when I jumped up to my feet, for extra emphasis, I yelled, “2 count” and held up my two fingers high in the air. Nobody seemed to notice on the side of the crowd facing where I made the count that I had counted three.

It was the first and last time I ever flubbed a count, but not the last time I didn’t know the finish of a match.

Since nobody, crowd and wrestlers, seemed to notice I had counted three, the match went on to its planned finish.

I was relieved when the promoter and both Bundy and Bigelow thanked me in the back for doing a good job in the match.

Bigelow rushed off to get to the next town, but Bundy hung around for a while so he could sell photos and other merchandise at intermission, something all the ex-TV stars did at small-town shows.

After intermission was over, Bundy sat with the other wrestlers and told some stories about wrestling for WWF.

As he finished a story, a local wrestler came over and told everyone he sold phone cards and started one-by-one asking everyone in the vicinity if they would buy one.

Each wrestler, varying in age from early to late ‘20s, gave the same response.

 “I live with my mother”.

After ten or so such responses, Bundy says, “Does everyone in this locker room live with their mother?”

Behind Bundy was a veteran independent wrestler named Tom Brandi (who shortly would join the WWF and be rebranded Salvatore Sincere).

“Chris,” said Tom, referring to Bundy by his real first name, “don’t you live with your mother too?”

“Oh, that’s right,’ said Bundy with a hearty and jovial laugh.

BECOMING KING KONG BUNDY

Life sometimes has ways of taking us in directions we never expected. For King Kong Bundy, during his youth he never imagined he would someday be a world-famous professional wrestler.

Born Chris Pallies, the King Kong Bundy story begins in 1980 in a New Jersey nightclub.

Pallies is a bartender and, in his own mind, his life is at a crossroads.

He just recently graduated from Hofstra College, where he was a heralded Division I heavyweight amateur wrestler.

Pallies is not sure what he wants to do with his life and has been trying to find a new focus for his competitive energy.

Then one night Dick Woherle, the most recognized pro wrestling referee of the time, comes into the nightclub where Pallies works.

Woherle sees Pallies and immediately knows he would be a natural for pro wrestling.

Pallies is tall, 6’4”, and husky, with a stern facial expression.

A few minutes after first seeing Pallies, Woherle sits on a bar stool and strikes up a conversation. He tells Pallies all about the world of professional wrestling, making a “sales-pitch” of sorts in favor of the business.

Pallies is intrigued. The idea of traveling around the world sounds exciting. So does making a lot of money and getting to “beat people up” in a wrestling ring.

On Woherle’s suggestion, Pallies contacts wrestler Larry Sharpe (who a few years later would open one of the earliest and most famous wrestling schools, The Monster Factory).

Larry Sharpe works Pallies hard, drilling him with wrestling holds and lecturing him about ring psychology. Sharpe shows no mercy on his young pupil, resolute in the belief that intensive training is the only way for a new wrestler to have a hope at making an impact.

Sharpe’s hardline approach brings out an aggressive side in Pallies’s personality that Sharpe thinks will lend well to him leaning into being a “bad guy” wrestler. Finally, confident his trainee is ready for a match, Sharpe helps Pallies secure his first booking.

Pallies wrestles his first march in March 1981.

THE TERRITORY YEARS

At the beginning of his career, King Kong Bundy wrestled under the name Chris Canyon and most of his initial matches took place in the Knoxville, TN and Atlanta, GA areas.

Pallies quickly decided he needed a more memorable wrestling name, something with more personality. He decided on the name King Kong Bundy, he tells me, but didn’t get the chance to use it until Fritz Von Erich invited him to come to Dallas to wrestle for World Class Championship Wrestling in 1982.

There, he started to garner national attention for his work against the Von Erichs.

When Bundy first joined World Class Championship Wrestling, he was presented as a “good guy” and an ally of the Von Erichs. He turned heel on them and also lost his hair during the feud. He would remain bald for the rest of his wrestling career.

Next, Bundy traveled to Mid-South. It was here that Bundy began insisting on a five count over his opponents. He spent time in Memphis too, where he frequently wrestled against the area’s top star, Jerry Lawler.

In character, Bundy reflected on the psychology of the five count to me for a magazine article in the ‘90s.

“When I beat a man, I like for him to feel the shame that comes from being pinned in front of thousands of fans. Guys make excuses when they get beat for the three count. My response to that cop-out was to insist that a five count be used on my opponents. Incidentally, I’ve never been beaten by a five-count.”

From Mid-South, Bundy made his way to Atlanta to wrestle for Georgia Championship Wrestling. He started out there as a “bad guy” but turned “good.”

The turn came when Bundy’s manager, Paul Ellering, began insulting him during a television interview. Ellering claimed he was in debt from paying for King Kong Bundy’s meals. The ridiculing continued on interviews with Ellering even when Bundy wasn’t there with him.

A feud ensued between Ellering’s Road Warriors against Bundy and assorted partners, including Pez Whatley, Angelo Mosca and Wahoo McDaniel. In Atlanta, Bundy instituted for the first time his $10,000 Body Slam Challenge where he offered to pay that sum to any wrestler who could body slam him.

ARRIVAL IN WWF

In early 1985, Bundy was signed by the WWF. It was an exciting time period to be involved with the promotion, he told me when reflecting on it in the mid 90s. He said that the WWF’s popularity skyrocketed while he was there, and he wrestled every night in front of sold-out crowds at arenas across the country. The wrestlers received a great deal of mainstream recognition too.

Bundy was initially paired with Jimmy Hart as his manager, but relatively quickly was shifted over to Bobbt Heenan. The two had great chemistry together, and Bundy’s rise up the ranks was quick in storyline.

At WrestleMania 1, he defeated SD Jones in ten seconds. By the end of summer, there were plans in place to make him Hulk Hogan’s next major opponent for an extended feud. This all led to the WrestleMania 2 steel cage main event match

While in the WWF, Bundy also feuded with Andre The Giant. He recalled that the first time they wrestled against each other was in front of a sold-out crowd at the iconic Madison Square Garden.

“I had tremendous respect for Andre,” Bundy told me. “I respected him in the ring and outside of it.”

After WrestleMania 3, Bundy took a hiatus from wrestling and turned his attention to acting. Among other things, he appeared in a Richard Pryor movie called “Moving” and an episode of the TV show “Married…with Children”.

In 1994 Bundy returned to the WWF and was put in a storyline as a member of Ted Dibiase’s, Million Dollar Corporation. Bundy’s last match in WWF was in October 1995. He spent the next twelve years wrestling for independent promotions all over the country.

King Kong Bundy died in 2019.

The following are a few gems Bundy said to me during interviews for assorted magazine articles I wrote about him in the ‘90s. He always did the interviews completely in character.

Bundy on attacking Hulk Hogan and breaking Hulk Hogan’s ribs on Saturday Night’s Main Event.

“What do you mean ‘attack’? You reporters always say I jumped him from behind. Let me set the record straight. It wasn’t like that at all. I confronted the man eye-to-eye, and he wound up in the middle of the ring, flat on his back. So, I gave him a couple of avalanches and left him with a few broken ribs. Now, Hogan will tell you a different story, whining about unfair advantages. What do you expect? Hogan’s a fraud. His recent actions in WCW [reference to Hogan joining the New World Order] prove that. King Kong Bundy has never jumped a man from behind.”

Bundy on his WrestleMania 2 match against Hulk Hogan:

“Maybe I made the mistake of not beating Hogan enough before I tried to get out of the cage. One thing was for sure. I wasn’t going over the top of the cage. So, that put me at a disadvantage right there. I know could have beaten Hogan if I had another chance, but that coward always dodged me.”

Bundy on the Von Erich family

“I made Texas wrestling’s first family’s life a living hell. You see, from my first night in Texas I was disgusted by the whole Von Erich family. As far as I was concerned, they were nothing but a bunch of pretty boy punks with no ability. I got sick of listening to everyone say how great the Von Erich’s were, so I challenged the entire family, one by one, to step into the ring with me. Do you know what? I wiped the mat with each and every one.”

Bundy on Jimmy Hart

“Hart sold my contract to Bobby Heenan. Let me tell you, that was the biggest mistake of Jimmy’s managerial career. I assure you he regrets to this day not keeping me under contract.”

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