Pat Patterson

The Canadian wrestler, Pat Patterson, would rank as one of the greatest wrestlers and certainly the best brawlers of all time and I say that quite confidently. He would also rank as one of the most brilliant minds in booking and matchmaking that I can think of. personal opinion, mind you, but I believe many will agree. His long run in te San Francisco area, his overseas appearances and his varied WWF actions over the decade are well known. From his donning a mask while still using the Pat Patterson name and not hiding his identity in California, but loading the mask to win matches illegally to his thing with Slaughter and Brisco as one of the "Stooges" in the WWF, he was always over big with the crowd. Sometimes he was loved (as when he turned on manager Lou Albano and was blasted with a chair for this) and sometimes hated (as in the bulk of his California/Nevada  run for Roy Shire.) In any case,. he was not ignored.

Patterson received a push in Arizona in the 1960s, where the audience went with hating him. In 1964, he saw considerable action in Phoenix and Tucson, both in tag team matches and in singles events. He teamed with Tony Bernardi and with Don Kent, as he feuded with Frankie Cain.

Tito Montez, Arizona's eternal good guy, also had some encounters with Patterson that escalated from scientific opening moments into bloody wars.

"I remember wrestling him," Tito said in a 2005 phone conversation. "We were both a lot younger then."

Montez also brought up that Patterson formed  a brief team with a more obscure regional grappler named Koko Tojo. At first I thought Tito's memory was failing him, but research proved there was indeed a wrestler  by this name in the 1950s and 1960s in the state,. He and Patterson did team up, where theory usually faced Tito and Frankie Cain.

 Where Tito chose to remain in Arizona as a home base,  occasionally traveling out as the bookings came, Patterson did not stagnate in the Wild West. He went everywhere, won championships and became a star of global proportions.

Though his Arizona matches in the 1960s were often outstanding ones, Patterson would not be seen regularly in the state again until the 1980s, when the WWF started invading all the territories and becoming a mega promotion.  By this time, however, it was more often than not behind the scenes in an "office" or "road agent" capacity.