Dutch Savage (June 9, 1935 – August 3, 2013) was the ring name of Frank Stewart, who was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, best known for his time spent competing in Pacific Northwest Wrestling.
Career[]
Savage made his pro debut in 1962 in Macon, Georgia using the ring name Lonnie Brown, then spent the next few years competing across North America, in Hawaii and in Japan (going by the ring names Mr. X and Dutch Schultz) before he settled in the Pacific Northwest region in the late 1960s, splitting his time between PNW in Portland and NWA All-Star Wrestling in Vancouver, British Columbia, and adopting his most famous ring name. Dutch had a brief stint in the AWA territory where he formed a solid tag team with Hard Boiled Haggerty. However, when a trip to Japan was offered, Dutch opted to leave the AWA after only a few months. His most memorable matches while in the AWA were with the masked Doctor "X" (Dick Beyer, aka The Destroyer).
Savage wrestled mainly as a heel early in his career, but would turn face around 1971 during a feud with Bull Ramos in Portland. He also formed a legendary tag team in PNW with Jimmy Snuka that won six Pacific Northwest tag team titles; one of their reigns lasted for a record 11 months in 1974-75. He originated the Coal Miner's Glove match in 1972 in Eugene, Oregon, and went undefeated in that specialty match during his career. In Vancouver, Savage captured 13 NWA Canadian tag team titles, second only to the record of 18 Canadian tag titles won by Don Leo Jonathan (with whom Savage won the championship once, in 1977).
On the promotional side, he later bought out Sandor Kovacs' ownership stake in the Washington territory and would also purchase a one-third portion of PNW, getting into promoting as well as doing color commentary for PNW's Portland Wrestling program on Portland station KPTV (syndicated outside of Portland to the rest of Oregon and Washington as Big Time Wrestling) after his retirement from active competition around 1981.
Savage was involved in real estate for many years after his wrestling career, but eventually retired. He later became an administrator for his official website (Dutch Savage.com) and hosted a program called "Dutch's Corner", where he taught King James Scripture, on public access cable out of Portland, Oregon. He and his wife Willa lived on their farm in the mountains of southwest Washington State, close to Mount St. Helen's, and adopted Yacolt, Washington, as their home town.
On April 13, 2013, it was reported that Savage had suffered a stroke on April 10, which left him with paralysis on his left side and other complications. According to his daughter, Mitzi Stewart Graham, Dutch Savage passed away August 3, 2013 in Vancouver, Washington.
Championships and accomplishments[]
- NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Central States version) (1 time) - with Rocky Hamilton
- Mid-Pacific Promotions
- NWA Hawaii Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (13 times) - with Don Jardine (1), Stan Stasiak (2), John Tolos (1) Bob Brown (2), John Quinn (1), Steven Little Bear (4), Gene Kiniski (1), and Don Leo Jonathan (1),
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (2 times) - with Don Jardine
- NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (7 times)
- NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (12 times) - with Jimmy Snuka (6), Moondog Mayne (2), Steven Little Bear, (1), Jonathan Boyd, (1), Beauregard, (1), and Stan Stasiak (1)