I met Tony Atlas when I worked at JFK airport back in the 80's.He was very friendly,signing autographs and just being a very down to earth class act guy.
Tony trained at a gym in Hamden, CT when he was in the WWF. Saw him flat bench 500 pounds. He was about 6'2.5" for those who are interested because of the exaggerated heights of wrestlers. His legs looked even worse in person. As an aside most of the WWF wrestlers of that time worked out in Hamden. Jesse Ventura mostly stood around and talked more than he lifted. Jesse was also about 6'2" tall. Good sized guy but not huge. Swede Hanson had the biggest wrists I ever saw on a human being. He was in the gym on a Sunday morning going thru the motions and said to me - "I need a beer".
About five years ago, I watched Tony still bench 405 five times as if it were weightless. (I could barely bench press my body weight at my best.) I put 270 on one of those safety squat bars you can squat from the floor, which weighed 75 pounds, put a foam pad on the bar, lifted it on my forearms across my chest and walked it across the floor as part of my deadlift workout. He stopped to watch me as I showed what I could do well at 50+. I already had told him I could never do what he does so easily.
I used to workout in a now defunct Gold’s gym and the wrestlers would workout there when in town to wrestle at Maple Leaf Gardens. I met many of them including Ventura, Steamboat, Studd, Mosca etc, etc. None of them blew me away in terms of their size or workouts. Ventura was trying to forge a career as a rock singer and his voice was trashed. This was sometime around when he was in that terrible sci-fi movie Abraxis.
In 1979, a new pro wrestling publication hit newsstands and magazine racks across the nation. It was Pro Wrestling Illustrated. When the first issue went to press, Ken Patera was ranked at #4 in the National Wrestling Alliance and in the Most Hated Wrestler category. He and John Studd were also ranked at #4 in the Tag Team Division.
Saw Ken Petera when I was a kid at a AWA . All Star show these were like the big house shows they did with a loaded roster the main event was a Battle Royal were the last 2 in the ring was Petera. and Andre he picked up Andre up to his shoulder s carried him across the ring and put him outside the ropes with ease Andre would recover and throw Ken over the top rope to win but it was still impressive to see him carry Andre around like that.
I wouldn't waste your time this was a house show that wasn't filmed. Least I think it wasn't it was a long time ago. One other match I remember was Hulk Hogan vrs. David Shultze. Hogan came out to Eye of The Tiger it was a couple of months before he would go to the WWF.
Atlas and Patera were a whole head taller than Bob Caudle. I had never gotten a sense of how tall and massive those wrestlers back then were until I saw a card in person at the Greensboro Coliseum. Guys I thought were a certain height shocked me as they walked pass me in the hallway on their way to their dressing room. I had thought Kevin Sullivan was a short dude because that's the way he looked on TV but nope, he walked in with Mark Lewin who was a good head taller than himself. Sullivan was at least 6 feet tall so Lewin was about 6'5". Dory Funk Jr., Baron Von Raschke, Jimmy Valiant, Paul Jones, all these wrestlers were huge. Much respect to them for being so big but so fluid in the ring.
I remember this. I never saw Patera in person, but I saw Atlas twice; June 1978 against Cyclone Negro in Columbia, SC, then in November 1992 as a heel against Brad Armstrong in Greenwood.
As long-time wrestling fans, this brings back many happy memories for us. These guys are LEGENDS in the wrestling industry, way before the use of steroids was considered in sports. Mr. Atlas has always been a good-natured individual and so has Mr. Patera. They both look great in their current age(s). And for all the ignorant folks who posted stupid shit about the legendary Tony Atlas - shut up!
Athletes have been abusing steroids since before this. They were developed in Germany back in 1935. They've been banned since 1975. They'd already been around 40 years and abused at every level by then though. There are videos right here on UA-cam of both Patera and Atlas admitting to using steroids. Both try to downplay it though which abusers tend to do a lot.
As someone who’s dabbled in bodybuilding for years now, I can tell you for a fact Tony was on the juice. As for Patera, at least in this he looks pretty clean. None of exaggerated delts that look inhuman, no gyno, and a few other things indicate he’s not on a course. That’s not to say he didn’t use, I’m sure he did, as during those times 99% of those wrestlers were on A-Z If their gimmick was about their body. I just don’t think he was on anything at this moment. Not only has Tony proven his use from his body telling on him during his prime, but he’s been open about his steroid use the last few years.
i might be wrong here but i think the trick to exploding the hot water bag is, if you look at tony's left hand which is on the side of the bag that you cant see, he has a finger taped likely with a blade so when the bag is stretched enough he cuts it.
maziku If he could inflate it until it turned white like that, that is really dangerous. If it blows back into his lungs, it could cause a pulmonary hemorrhage.
Because he was a loose cannon that fit the heel role perfectly. Patera always seemed awkward as a babyface. He was much more suited to be a heel. A perfect example of his real life loose cannon persona would be the McDonalds incident in which he tossed a 30 pound boulder through a McDonalds window after being refused service. He then beat the shit out of several cops as they tried to arrest him. He spent 2 years in prison. Thats why he was the perfect heel, cuz he was also one in real life
i lived in minnesota in 1973, when gagne was crowing about snagging patera after the olympics. gagna snagged and trained so many top shelf wrestlers but couldn't keep them.
I wish the network had the late 70's mid Atlantic shows. are they just holding back? i am about half way done with the mid atlantic content - wish they added older stuff
"Did you see henry ripping off ken's act by holding back a car." Yes I did, the WWF/WWE wants legitimate strongmen to do that so they do it.What's your point? "Henry didn't compete long enough in any sport to be considered the strongest." He did not compete long,but nonetheless he came up with the highest Supertotal of all time,all-time squat and deadlift and drug-free total World Records&an instant Strongman Champion at the ASC-The short time and little effort makes all even more impressive!
"Alexeev won 8 world titles,two olympic golds,8 russian titles.8 european titles and 80 world records but henry is stronger." Yeah Henry's stronger because he had more absolute strength. Patera was arguably stronger than Alexeev as well. Alexeev was none the less a better Oly.Lifter than both without a doubt. Why? Superior technique, skill, balance, flexibility, practice, agility. Alexeev is a weightliting legend but not the strongest man in history!
You have to remember that henry had no competition for those olympic titles when he was winning them.Ken did it during the golden age of american weightlifting.When ken won the nationals in 69 Joe Dube from the USA won the world title.Ken was beating the likes of bednarski and dube during his later years.he was alsop competing againest Alexeev for the world titles.
He was dangerously close to Alexeev in his prime. Patera had great potential and Alexeev admitted Patera was actually stronger but he had superior technique.
He wqs supporting himself and his family. Wrestlers didn't make as much as they do now in Tony's day. I'm sure he did whatever was asked of him in order to pay the bills. Wouldn't you if you were in his position. Alot of these interviews with the older wrestlers have them talking about being on the road all the time to make money to support thier families.
@ThorMaxx No, I mean, literally SMASHING THE NAIL. As in destroying the nail, bending it, crushing it. Without damaging the piece of wood used to smash the nail with. I would love to see that.
does anybody know what the white guy said at 2:02???? i thought he said "im not gonna show NOBODY" but then when you really listen and watch his mouth it dont look like that is wat hes sayn
He was 320 in the Olympics, but I think he was about 350 give-or-take when he started wrestling, he was also several inches shorter than Henry. I've seen pictures of Patera back then and the height/mass ratio was pretty similar. He was a big block of a guy. But I wasn't comparing Patera to Henry in strength, I was talking about how he dropped his mass and altered his in-ring style.
@@fjccommish Ken can kiss my Barbie. I know, that was crude, but I couldn't resist. 😅 Seriously though, in wrestling, I'd say overall they had roughly equal success, they both wrestled roughly the same amount of years, but while Patera had more overall titles spread throughout the Territories he was never really The Guy, at best he was the guy to get through to get to The Guy
+kelamo It's probably because he has heat with WWE. Patera has had some not so nice things to say about Vince over the years including that he wears dresses at night. Plus, Patera blames Vince for getting convicted for the McDonalds thing, where as he got Jimmy Snuka off the hook with a murder charge.
@@AlbanianMan As far as I know he doesn't blame Vince for him getting convicted. In fact, he said himself that Vince took care of his family while he was in prison. He does have heat with WWE however, but Patera is kind of a loose-cannon and the last thing they need to do is give him a live-microphone in this PC atmosphere.
D2K Prime he holds a grudge against Vince because while he was sending checks to his family, it was also seen as a loan in which he had to pay Vince back with money that came out of his WWE salary. He is also part of that concussion lawsuit that was filed a little while back. But I think the main reason is like has been mentioned , He’s a loose cannon and they don’t want to give someone like that a live mic in WWE’s current PC atmosphere.
I met Tony Atlas when I worked at JFK airport back in the 80's.He was very friendly,signing autographs and just being a very down to earth class act guy.
Was he supposed to spit on you?
@@wileecoyote5749 WTF??
"The way we did it back home, we used a hammer" Had me cracking up!
This is a great example of the good thing's that surrounded pro wrestling at that time. Tony was very young in this video too.
Thank you!
awfully
thing apostrophe s?
No doubt, this is the best Patera promo I've ever seen.
I had the honor of meeting and hanging out with Mr. Patera back in the late 80's , he was one hell of a nice guy .
Ken Patera was one of my all time favorite wrestlers, His brother Jack was the original head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
No way. I didn't know that
Tony trained at a gym in Hamden, CT when he was in the WWF. Saw him flat bench 500 pounds. He was about 6'2.5" for those who are interested because of the exaggerated heights of wrestlers. His legs looked even worse in person. As an aside most of the WWF wrestlers of that time worked out in Hamden. Jesse Ventura mostly stood around and talked more than he lifted. Jesse was also about 6'2" tall. Good sized guy but not huge. Swede Hanson had the biggest wrists I ever saw on a human being. He was in the gym on a Sunday morning going thru the motions and said to me - "I need a beer".
It cause it was an upper body business back I the day
About five years ago, I watched Tony still bench 405 five times as if it were weightless. (I could barely bench press my body weight at my best.) I put 270 on one of those safety squat bars you can squat from the floor, which weighed 75 pounds, put a foam pad on the bar, lifted it on my forearms across my chest and walked it across the floor as part of my deadlift workout. He stopped to watch me as I showed what I could do well at 50+. I already had told him I could never do what he does so easily.
Jesse was big dude in his day and he was a navy seal. He was legit
I work in Hamden
I used to workout in a now defunct Gold’s gym and the wrestlers would workout there when in town to wrestle at Maple Leaf Gardens. I met many of them including Ventura, Steamboat, Studd, Mosca etc, etc. None of them blew me away in terms of their size or workouts. Ventura was trying to forge a career as a rock singer and his voice was trashed. This was sometime around when he was in that terrible sci-fi movie Abraxis.
Tony was great, he played a role and matched Ken Patera's bad guy role move for move, classic!
"have an opportunity to find out how much hot air you have" Love it!
Love this channel. So many classic videos from a great wrestling era. I grew up watching these wrestlers. I love that i can show my kids these.
In 1979, a new pro wrestling publication hit newsstands and magazine racks across the nation. It was Pro Wrestling Illustrated. When the first issue went to press, Ken Patera was ranked at #4 in the National Wrestling Alliance and in the Most Hated Wrestler category. He and John Studd were also ranked at #4 in the Tag Team Division.
Love these guys, Great performers
Atlas doing his little boogie reminds me of me when I’m challenging my little kids to feats of strength. 😂🤣
The tony shuffle is by far the best celebration
Funny thing is, Patera has overhead-pressed 505.5 lbs. It's fair to say that Tony Atlas,(a very strong man), can likely press no more than about 300.
Tony Atlas Was Massive , Legend in the Sport ..... not to mention he was Strong as all outdoors .
This is funny....Times have changed....lol
These guys were putting on a show....great gentlemen.. literally..... listen to the crowd!!!!!
Tony Atlas…rocking the socks
I was 13 when this came out wow 👏
Patera was every bit as strong on the mic as he was in person!
Silly foolishness!
Oh come on, that was embarrassing.
Saw Ken Petera when I was a kid at a AWA . All Star show these were like the big house shows they did with a loaded roster the main event was a Battle Royal were the last 2 in the ring was Petera. and Andre he picked up Andre up to his shoulder s carried him across the ring and put him outside the ropes with ease Andre would recover and throw Ken over the top rope to win but it was still impressive to see him carry Andre around like that.
Wow. I gotta try to find that. Very impressive
I wouldn't waste your time this was a house show that wasn't filmed. Least I think it wasn't it was a long time ago. One other match I remember was Hulk Hogan vrs. David Shultze. Hogan came out to Eye of The Tiger it was a couple of months before he would go to the WWF.
This is more entertaining then what the WWF/E puts out today
John fromSpace
*than
Not then
1:47 "We'll put all that stuff over there, for the time being." I don't know why, but that line killed me.
giantkiller56 because it was just a lil spike and a steel rod lol
I dunno, man. I think it's more about how awkward the delivery was. The whole segment was just, wow.
This is really interesting, actually.
Hell I had almost forgot Patera , the Man is quite amusing .
Patera looks surprised when Tony drove that nail through that pine board.
Gotta love the OG strong men of wrestling from back in the day 💪
"im like coca cola in everywhere"
good lord could Patera give an interview
Now who could not like this video, hilarious!
Atlas and Patera were a whole head taller than Bob Caudle. I had never gotten a sense of how tall and massive those wrestlers back then were until I saw a card in person at the Greensboro Coliseum. Guys I thought were a certain height shocked me as they walked pass me in the hallway on their way to their dressing room. I had thought Kevin Sullivan was a short dude because that's the way he looked on TV but nope, he walked in with Mark Lewin who was a good head taller than himself. Sullivan was at least 6 feet tall so Lewin was about 6'5". Dory Funk Jr., Baron Von Raschke, Jimmy Valiant, Paul Jones, all these wrestlers were huge. Much respect to them for being so big but so fluid in the ring.
Saw Tont Atlas jogging in Auburn Maine years ago
Sounds to me like Tony Atlas watched a few Amos & Andy reruns to prep for this promo. He sounds like Kingfish.
I remember this. I never saw Patera in person, but I saw Atlas twice; June 1978 against Cyclone Negro in Columbia, SC, then in November 1992 as a heel against Brad Armstrong in Greenwood.
As long-time wrestling fans, this brings back many happy memories for us. These guys are LEGENDS in the wrestling industry, way before the use of steroids was considered in sports. Mr. Atlas has always been a good-natured individual and so has Mr. Patera. They both look great in their current age(s). And for all the ignorant folks who posted stupid shit about the legendary Tony Atlas - shut up!
Love Toney and Ken, great performers and fricken hilarious. LOVED "WRASSLIN" IN THOSE DAYS,
Both of them are super juiced up here
Steroids had been used by athletes for decades at that point.
The public just was not aware.
Athletes have been abusing steroids since before this. They were developed in Germany back in 1935. They've been banned since 1975. They'd already been around 40 years and abused at every level by then though.
There are videos right here on UA-cam of both Patera and Atlas admitting to using steroids. Both try to downplay it though which abusers tend to do a lot.
As someone who’s dabbled in bodybuilding for years now, I can tell you for a fact Tony was on the juice. As for Patera, at least in this he looks pretty clean. None of exaggerated delts that look inhuman, no gyno, and a few other things indicate he’s not on a course. That’s not to say he didn’t use, I’m sure he did, as during those times 99% of those wrestlers were on A-Z If their gimmick was about their body. I just don’t think he was on anything at this moment. Not only has Tony proven his use from his body telling on him during his prime, but he’s been open about his steroid use the last few years.
Ken Patera is fantastic wrestling I love watching his stuff
He came to my high school when I was a kid and did this
Black Atlas was my favored wrestler
I remember this as a kid…
love ken's sideburns !!!
Good old days
I wish I could have witnessed the 70's...
This stuff ain't easy.
Tony Atlas was so jive!!!!LMAO!
Tony Atlas sounds like Cleveland Jr. Lol
i might be wrong here but i think the trick to exploding the hot water bag is, if you look at tony's left hand which is on the side of the bag that you cant see, he has a finger taped likely with a blade so when the bag is stretched enough he cuts it.
maziku If he could inflate it until it turned white like that, that is really dangerous. If it blows back into his lungs, it could cause a pulmonary hemorrhage.
Lol. Love Tony's down-home, country, plain-speak.
Atlas was a charisma machine!
Ken patera bubbling the lines haha
I always enjoyed Ken Patera especially on his shoots he's no holds barred, between Atlas and Patera neither really was super for mic work; lol
Umm why does tony atlas's tights looks like a diaper..
paul kersey fuck u little bitch
Hey man Tony's cool. Save that for New Jack
paul kersey don't say dat shit no more..
J'ron Hardiman fuck outta here nigga
it's called a "fight diaper"
Because he was a loose cannon that fit the heel role perfectly. Patera always seemed awkward as a babyface. He was much more suited to be a heel. A perfect example of his real life loose cannon persona would be the McDonalds incident in which he tossed a 30 pound boulder through a McDonalds window after being refused service. He then beat the shit out of several cops as they tried to arrest him. He spent 2 years in prison. Thats why he was the perfect heel, cuz he was also one in real life
Gotta love ken the man.
3:20 with headphones in you can hear ric flair cutting a promo
those side burns were epic those are KILLER AWESOME side burns
Thats epic? do you know what epic means?
Ken Patera was a good sport
i lived in minnesota in 1973, when gagne was crowing about snagging patera after the olympics. gagna snagged and trained so many top shelf wrestlers but couldn't keep them.
Ken Patera is a gentleman's gentleman.
LMAO! My God! I had no idea how Tony Atlas talk s-o-o-o-oo-o-o-o-o-o country.
Thank God they weren’t having a mike skills contest.
They are more about action than talking.
Love these dudes..from youth
LMFAO
What a classic!
Imagine myself having the strength of Ken and Tony all in person by age 25. I would have had loads of fun.
Dude, I'm telling you, old ladies can smash a board with their fists. Now, smashing the nail without breaking the board. That's something else.
Nostalgic
LOLz at the little victory dance at the end.
Tony Atlas was great with this "Yessabossin" act
Yassuhh Massa Jones
Stephon Fitchett
True, but of course nobody really kept anybody back then. That was the name of the game in those days, the Territorial Shuffle
Very great acting!
Ken patera seems rediculously competitive
Tune in to ECW on the scy fi channel Tues night and listen to the way he laugh and dance
“I don’t have to talk about myself” he says after 30 seconds of him talking about himself and his accomplishments.
I wish the network had the late 70's mid Atlantic shows. are they just holding back? i am about half way done with the mid atlantic content - wish they added older stuff
WTF !!!,............. TONY ATLAS sounds just like AL SHARPTON when he speak., lol
"Did you see henry ripping off ken's act by holding back a car." Yes I did, the WWF/WWE wants legitimate strongmen to do that so they do it.What's your point?
"Henry didn't compete long enough in any sport to be considered the strongest." He did not compete long,but nonetheless he came up with the highest Supertotal of all time,all-time squat and deadlift and drug-free total World Records&an instant Strongman Champion at the ASC-The short time and little effort makes all even more impressive!
Looks like Flava Flav after ten years of steroids, lol
"Alexeev won 8 world titles,two olympic golds,8 russian titles.8 european titles and 80 world records but henry is stronger." Yeah Henry's stronger because he had more absolute strength. Patera was arguably stronger than Alexeev as well. Alexeev was none the less a better Oly.Lifter than both without a doubt. Why? Superior technique, skill, balance, flexibility, practice, agility. Alexeev is a weightliting legend but not the strongest man in history!
You have to remember that henry had no competition for those olympic titles when he was winning them.Ken did it during the golden age of american weightlifting.When ken won the nationals in 69 Joe Dube from the USA won the world title.Ken was beating the likes of bednarski and dube during his later years.he was alsop competing againest Alexeev for the world titles.
He was dangerously close to Alexeev in his prime.
Patera had great potential and Alexeev admitted Patera was actually stronger but he had superior technique.
Tony Atlas was of walking minstrel show. I can't believe he allowed himself to be displayed in this manner.
Atlas was a lovable lummox that played his part well!
It was beautiful.
He wqs supporting himself and his family. Wrestlers didn't make as much as they do now in Tony's day. I'm sure he did whatever was asked of him in order to pay the bills.
Wouldn't you if you were in his position. Alot of these interviews with the older wrestlers have them talking about being on the road all the time to make money to support thier families.
@@teller121 fuck you
@@joeyburrows8256 Man you do realize wrestling was scripted don’t you? It was ALL an act to get fans to go see the live shows .
Is that andrew dice clay?
Both classy guys....
I have a feeling that Tony Atlas has blown more than water bottles... lol
@ThorMaxx No, I mean, literally SMASHING THE NAIL. As in destroying the nail, bending it, crushing it. Without damaging the piece of wood used to smash the nail with. I would love to see that.
Atlas should have been a comedian
Costanza owns the feats of strength!
Ran into ken at a bottle shop in Roseville Minnesota he looked scary but was a nice man
Pure Heat Patara
The hit water bottle looks like a whoopie cushion
It’s the battle of the kneecaps!!!!
does anybody know what the white guy said at 2:02???? i thought he said "im not gonna show NOBODY" but then when you really listen and watch his mouth it dont look like that is wat hes sayn
I'd be afraid to let that bottle pop in my face like that.
Tony Atlas, the black Superman.
"OK Tony......CAN YOU DIG IT!!!!!!"
He was 320 in the Olympics, but I think he was about 350 give-or-take when he started wrestling, he was also several inches shorter than Henry. I've seen pictures of Patera back then and the height/mass ratio was pretty similar. He was a big block of a guy. But I wasn't comparing Patera to Henry in strength, I was talking about how he dropped his mass and altered his in-ring style.
In wrestling, Henry doesn't hold a candle to Ken.
@@fjccommish Ken can kiss my Barbie.
I know, that was crude, but I couldn't resist. 😅
Seriously though, in wrestling, I'd say overall they had roughly equal success, they both wrestled roughly the same amount of years, but while Patera had more overall titles spread throughout the Territories he was never really The Guy, at best he was the guy to get through to get to The Guy
HAPPY FESTIVUS!
Amazing! The 2nd Intercontinental champion, Ken Patera is NOT in the WWE Hall of Fame!
+kelamo It's probably because he has heat with WWE. Patera has had some not so nice things to say about Vince over the years including that he wears dresses at night. Plus, Patera blames Vince for getting convicted for the McDonalds thing, where as he got Jimmy Snuka off the hook with a murder charge.
@@AlbanianMan As far as I know he doesn't blame Vince for him getting convicted. In fact, he said himself that Vince took care of his family while he was in prison. He does have heat with WWE however, but Patera is kind of a loose-cannon and the last thing they need to do is give him a live-microphone in this PC atmosphere.
D2K Prime he holds a grudge against Vince because while he was sending checks to his family, it was also seen as a loan in which he had to pay Vince back with money that came out of his WWE salary. He is also part of that concussion lawsuit that was filed a little while back. But I think the main reason is like has been mentioned , He’s a loose cannon and they don’t want to give someone like that a live mic in WWE’s current PC atmosphere.
Is that Bob Cottle?? I’m sure I didn’t spell it correctly
why the hell Tony is talking like that? Its 1980s not the 1880's man.
tony's celebration dance @ 3:29 LOL
Why does tony sound like chicken George?