Ken Patera

Ken Patera (born November 6, 1942, in Portland, Oregon) is a former professional wrestler and weightlifter.

Weightlifting career
Patera is a former Olympic Weightlifter and USA powerlifter. His greatest success was as an Olympic Weightlifter. He won several medals at the Pan American Games (including gold), and finished second in the 1971 World Weightlifting Championships. He was the first American to clean and jerk 500(503 1/2) lbs (227 kg), which he achieved at the 1972 Senior Nationals in Detroit. He is also the only American to clean and press 500 lbs (227 kg), and he was arguably the last American to excel at weightlifting on an international level. He was a serious competitor to the Soviet legend Vasily Alexeev at the 1972 Summer Olympics, but he failed to total and was not among the medal recipients. After the press (a lift Patera was disproportionately talented in) was eliminated from competition, Patera's weightlifting career was over.

Patera's career best lifts were all achieved in a meet in San Francisco on July 23, 1972 (Wilhelm, 1994):
 * Snatch - 387½ pounds (175.7 kg)
 * Clean and press - 505½ pounds (229.25 kg)
 * Clean and jerk - 505½ pounds (229.25 kg)

When measured for the 1972 Olympics, he weighed 340 pounds at a height of 6'1¾" (Wilhelm, 1994).

Patera also competed in the first World's Strongest Man contest in 1977, finishing third behind Bruce Wilhelm and Bob Young.

Patera also performed feats of strength during his wrestling career. On an episode of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, in 1978, Patera and Tony Atlas performed various feats of strength, including driving nails through boards, blowing up a hot water bottle until it popped, bending spikes wrapped in a towel and bending bars over the neck. 

Wrestling career
Patera was one of the first "strongmen" in professional wrestling following his weightlifting career. He wrestled mainly as a heel for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and American Wrestling Association (AWA) during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976, he challenged Bruno Sammartino for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) Heavyweight Title. This was a huge draw around the northeastern part of United States and at Madison Square Garden and was one of Sammartino's last challenges before he lost the title to Superstar Billy Graham. When Bob Backlund won the title, Patera unsuccessfully challenged him. At the height of his career (in the early 1980s) he simultaneously held the WWF's Intercontinental Championship, and the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship, two of the most important non-world championship titles of that era. He also was one of the most hated heels in wrestling during this time. Patera often used his Swinging Full Nelson to "injure" opponents during matches (most notably Billy White Wolf in August 1977). The Swinging Neckbreaker was a simple full nelson applied with the opponent then swung in a circle so his feet would leave the ground.

Patera was an integral part of the Heenan Family in the AWA (1982-1983) and later with the WWF (1984-1985). While in the AWA, he feuded with Hulk Hogan, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell. During Heenan's absence in 1983, caused by a back injury, Patera joined forces with manager Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie and formed a tag team with Jerry Blacwell known as the Sheiks; both men wore Arab garments and feuded with the High Flyers Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell over the AWA Tag Team Titles. Patera won the AWA World Tag Team Championship with Jerry Blackwell, defeating Gagne and Brunzell. Patera and Blackwell would later lose the titles to Baron Von Raschke and The Crusher.

On April 6, 1984, Patera and fellow AWA heel Masa Saito were denied service after hours at a McDonald's restaurant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, prompting an angry Patera to throw a large rock through the window. He and Saito assaulted police sent to arrest them later at a hotel. Sixteen months later, by which point Patera had returned to the WWF, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

In the WWF prior to his sentencing, Patera resumed his feud with Hogan and also assisted Big John Studd in his feud with André the Giant, most notably helping Studd cut Andre's hair after attacking him 2-on-1.

The WWF brought Patera back to the company in the spring of 1987, airing some vignettes and releasing a Coliseum Video cassette entitled "The Ken Patera Story" chronicling his career and his return. He was in top physical condition at this point, and his appearance had changed, as he wore natural brown hair, rather than his previous bleached blond look. To ensure Patera would be accepted as a babyface, he claimed that former manager Bobby Heenan had abandoned him and "sold him down the river" while he was in prison. Patera and Heenan held a debate to air their differences, which naturally turned into a physical confrontation between the two that culminated in Patera swinging Heenan with a belt around his neck, causing Heenan to appear on television with a neck brace for months. Patera then began feuding with the Heenan Family (at the time comprised of Paul Orndorff, Harley Race, King Kong Bundy and Hercules Hernandez).

Some wrestling publications speculated that Patera would reunite with Heenan to face Hulk Hogan in the main event of WrestleMania IV. But his push was short-lived. Within six months, Patera was being used to put over newer, younger talent and found himself floundering in a mid-card tag team with fellow Oregonian Billy Jack Haynes. In his final televised WWF matches in late 1988 (losses to Bad News Brown and "Outlaw" Ron Bass), commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes openly remarked that Patera's skills were in decline and that he should consider retirement.

Patera signed with the AWA in early 1989 and challenged the new AWA World Champion Larry Zbyszko for the title, but ended up in a tag team with Brad Rheingans as "The Olympians." The team would defeat Badd Company for the AWA World Tag Team Championship shortly thereafter, but their reign was brief. Fellow weightlifter-turned-wrestler Wayne Bloom challenged Patera to a "car-lifting challenge" in order to get a title shot. When it was Patera's turn to lift, Bloom, partner Mike Enos and manager Johnny Valiant attacked and injured Patera and Rheingans. This led to the AWA stripping Patera and Rheingans of the titles.

Rheingans left wrestling for several months in order to have a legitimate knee operation not related to the incident. Patera continued to feud with Bloom and Enos until he left the AWA. Upon his return to the AWA in early 1990, Rheingans resumed the feud until the AWA's demise.

Patera went on to wrestle for the PWA and on independent cards primarily in the Minnesota area well into the 1990s, sometimes even promoting his own events.

In wrestling

 * Finishing Moves
 * Lifted swinging full nelson submission
 * Bearhug, sometimes to two people


 * Managers
 * Lou Albano
 * Ernie Roth
 * Adnan El Kassey
 * Bobby Heenan

Championships and accomplishments

 * American Wrestling Association
 * AWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Brad Rheingans (1) and Jerry Blackwell (1)


 * Big Time Wrestling
 * NWA American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)


 * Continental Wrestling Association
 * CWA International Heavyweight Championship (2 times)


 * Georgia Championship Wrestling
 * NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time)


 * Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
 * NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
 * NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with John Studd


 * NWA Tri-State
 * NWA Tri-State Brass Knuckles Championship (1 time)
 * NWA United States Tag Team Championship Tri-State Version (1 time) – with Killer Karl Kox


 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him # 127 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003
 * PWI ranked him # 75 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" – with Jerry Blackwell


 * Southwest Championship Wrestling
 * SWCW Southwest Brass Knuckles Championship (1 time)


 * St. Louis Wrestling Club
 * NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)


 * World Wrestling Federation
 * WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)


 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter
 * Match of the Year award in 1980 – vs. Bob Backlund (Texas Death Match, May 19 1980, New York City, New York)

Trivia

 * Patera is the younger brother of Jack Patera, who coached the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks from 1976 to 1982.
 * Patera is mentioned in the GZA song "Shadowboxing":
 * I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera