The story Tom Ramirez initiated as a spokesman for this lurching hulk was that he had been a popular wrestler in Mexico and had been in a bad car wreck in Toluca. besides physical scars, the story said he had lost his mind and believed himself to literally be the Frankenstein Monster.
Be that as it may, Ramirez also used this opportunity to launch his son into the wrestling realm as a manager for Masked Frankenstein calling himself The Keeper.
The masked villain received a major push and was thrown into a feud with Mr.Wrestling (David Rose) when he suddenly received a chance to tour Mexico, then onward to Los Angeles to work for Labell,. The evil <asked Frankenstein was out of Phoenix faster than someone could say "Growl" in search of bigger bookings.
The Los Angeles run saw Masked Frankenstein's name changed to The Monster, where he again gained ground and received a big push. He ended up leaving Los Angeles, however, when he and Andre The Giant became engaged in the fight to end all fights, with both men injuring each other, If anyone doubted the masked man's toughness, one need only consider this match where he came closer to handing Andre the greatest legitimate beating of his life than anyone. the Giant won out,. but it was not pretty. Several bookers were perturbed at both men, for both reportedly missed bookings due to injuries they gave each other.
In 1981, The Monster was back circulating between Arizona and Mexico, but with his more familiar alias as Frankenstein. He ended up facing his old nemesis, David Rose and others. The Lumberjacks, Pedro El Grande and Jody Arnold had their hands full with him too.
Masked Frankenstein called it quits or was perhaps disassembled in 1989.
Dale your work keeping the history of this little known promotion alive is priceless. I was in LA and saw the Monster bring the final nail to the coffin, yes pun intended, to a once glorious promotion.
ReplyDeletei could find the date of his match with Andre, but I narrowed it down to Sept. 1981. In August he was a heel managed by the Great Goliath and in Oct. he was a face battling Goliath. Goliath started mistreating him after the Andre match so its right around September and they had two matches not one.
I remember Jeff Walton announcing on TV that Andre was NO LONGER undefeated so the Monster went over him maybe by Countout.
Thank you for this article.I remember the monster scaring me as a lil boy watching wrestling with my grandfather. Those were the good old days of wrestling.oh how they have changed!!
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