The Beasts Of Arizona

In keeping with Wild West mentality, it seemed logical for Arizona to attract a number of brutal wrestlers who acted like wild brutes. Many were simply beastly. A handful even took the nickname.

Here are a few of the ":Beasts" that wrestled in Arizona.

The Beast or at east the first one I can find in the record books, wrestled under a  mask at the Phoenix and Tucson arenas in the late 1960s. He was nothing to write back to the jungle about.

The next Beast was a Canadian who also wrestled briefly with a man named Butcher Brower in Amarillo. He came in once in the early 1970s and quickly lost to Ron Pritchard when The Sheik made a failed attempt to invade Arizona. 

J.C. Mills nicknamed himself  The Arkansas Beast and was a likable fellow outside the ring, but when inside  became one of the "stiffest" comeptitors ever. During a Phoenix match in 1983 he had several teeth knocked out by his opponent, but thought that was just great. The next week in the rematch he gave his opponent a concussion and said opponent was likewise bragging about it later . Go figure.   This particular Beast also had some decent matches with Jody Arnold and Pedro El Grande, but often came out on the losing end, though he kept the rest of his teeth inside his mouth in these encounters.

Then we had The Beast who was an accountant from California,  named Randy something-or-another, who appeared in the late 1980s in Phoenix. He was the best built physically of any of the various beasts and backed it with considerable ability. His opening was odd, where he came into the ring to bongo drums, while carrying a skull and wrestling in trunks made to resemble a loin cloth. 

The Beast discussed here had some hectic matches with The Black Mamba, Thrillseeker Terry Zeller and Ron "Section 8" Sutherland.

Then we have Dan "The Beast" Severn who wad sane outstation wretsler at Arizona State University before entering shootfighting and finally pro wrestling. As a pro Severn came in for the WWF and also made one brief appearance at Rage In The Cage in Tucson,  but most of his action seen back in an eastward direction, near his Michigan/Ohio home base.

Bestia 666 worked mainly in the Mexican border towns and came from either Agua Prieta or San Luis Rio Colorado, but I am not sure which.   He had a handful of matches for varied independent offices in Arizona, but did not gain much ground.  He passed away a while back from a heart attack.  I had heard his real name, but damned if I can remember it.

With that, unless I am forgetting one of them, Arizona has run out of Beasts.