| Colonel DeBeers | |
|---|---|
 Colonel DeBeers,c. 1987 | |
| Birth name | Edward Wiskoski |
| Born | (1945-01-10)January 10, 1945 St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2025(2025-01-22) (aged 80) |
| Alma mater | Northwest Missouri State University |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Colonel DeBeers[1] Dereck Draper[1] Mega Maharishi Imed[1] ThePolish Prince The General[2] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)[3] |
| Billed weight | 275 lb (125 kg)[3] |
| Billed from | Buffalo, New York, U.S. (as Ed Wiskowski) Johannesburg, South Africa (as Colonel DeBeers)[1] |
| Debut | 1972 |
| Retired | 2005 |
Edward Wiskoski (January 10, 1945 – January 22, 2025) was an Americanprofessional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances in theAmerican Wrestling Association under thering nameColonel DeBeers from 1985 to 1990.[1]
Wiskoski was born inSt. Joseph, Missouri, in 1945.[1] He was the first member of his family to graduate from college, attendingNorthwest Missouri State University.
After being trained byHarley Race andLord Littlebrook, Wiskoski debuted in 1972. Wiskoski primarily wrestled in thePortland, Oregon area during his career. His teaming with "Playboy"Buddy Rose was famous across the West Coast, holding thePacific Northwest Tag Team titles on multiple occasions, and theNWA World Tag Team titles (San Francisco version).[1] Wiskoski was also the United States Heavyweight champion and Pacific Northwest Heavyweight champion.[1]
He held theCentral States Heavyweight title in 1975[1] and regularly visited Germany and Austria in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the season of tournaments run by the IBV (the futureCWA) and its older rival, theVDB. He worked as a heel forLeroy McGuirk in theTulsa, Oklahoma area in the early 1980s. He was known as "Easy" Ed Wiskoski[1] and was managed bySkandor Akbar. They feuded with Tommy Gilbert and his son,Eddie Gilbert. He also wrestled a few matches in the WWF as the Polish Prince in 1983, managed byFred Blassie.
During one of his many tours of the Pacific Northwest territory (where he eventually retired), Wiskoski took up the gimmick of Mega Maharishi Imed (the last name being pronounced 'Ahmed', the joke being that it is 'I'm Ed').[1] This character played upon potentially the hottest topic in the state of Oregon in the early to mid-1980s, that ofBhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his group of followers essentially raising their own city in Eastern Oregon, outside the town of Antelope, and ending with the1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack on the small town ofThe Dalles, Oregon, causing the sickening of about 750 people from salmonella poisoning, though no deaths. Wiskoski played the role to the hilt, growing out his facial hair, donning red robes and a stocking cap, much like the Bhagwan himself. During this time he managedKendo Nagasaki.
Wiskoski was best known as Colonel DeBeers in theAmerican Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1985 until the organization stopped promoting in late 1990. His interviews and persona were based on a pro-Apartheid mentality and he played on the fragile race relations and political climate ofSouth Africa at the time. He was billed as being from Cape Town, South Africa, though he bore no accent whatsoever. It was never directly mentioned, but his name was meant to link his status and wealth to the South Africa-based diamond mining and trading corporation, theDeBeers Group. DeBeers also wrestled in Herb Abrams'Universal Wrestling Federation and various promotions across the West Coast.
During his stint in the AWA he feuded with"Big" Scott Hall[1] and"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka[1] in 1986,Sgt. Slaughter in 1988, briefly withDerrick Dukes in 1989, and jobberJake Milliman throughout 1990. DeBeers feud with Snuka was notorious in that, even in an industry known for characters based on racial stereotypes, DeBeers's overt racism was still shocking. DeBeers essentially refused to wrestle Snuka because he was not white. After a series of standoffs between the two, the feud was magnified after an injury angle where DeBeers interfered in a match with Snuka, throwing him off the top rope to the floor and delivering several piledrivers on the floor, resulting in a bloody and battered Snuka being wheeled off on a stretcher. This led to a series of high-profile matches with Snuka.
DeBeers and Milliman competed in, quite possibly, one of the most infamous matches in the history of wrestling while in the AWA. In the company's dying months, the AWA created theTeam Challenge Series (TCS) to try to attract more viewers. One of the matches in the TCS pitted DeBeers and Milliman in the Great American Turkey Hunt, a match where the object was to be the first to pull an uncooked turkey off of a pole tied to one corner of the ring. DeBeers was the first to grab the turkey, although the referee had been knocked out. Milliman pulled a fast one and stole the turkey from DeBeers just before the referee got back up, and was awarded the victory. Also in the AWA in 1988, DeBeers was briefly managed byDiamond Dallas Page,[4] the leader of theDiamond Exchange stable, and hisDiamond Dolls.[3] During that short time, he would try to force his opponent to leave on a stretcher.
While inHerb Abrams' UWF, DeBeers became involved in more controversy based on race, this time involving referee Larry Sampson, an African-American. After a match withLouie Spicolli, DeBeers attempted to attack Sampson beforeIceman Parsons came to the save and became involved in a short feud with DeBeers. He also demanded that Sampson be replaced before his match withBilly Jack Haynes stating "I will not have a black man refereeing my matches". Despite Haynes' attempts to have Sampson reinstated DeBeers' request was granted and he was replaced byJesse Hernandez. After a separate match with Haynes, DeBeers attacked Sampson from behind and hit him with a DDT. DeBeers was to be suspended for 180 days for his actions but Sampson refused to sign the contract initiating it and instead wanted to sign a contract that allowed him to referee a match involving DeBeers. During the 1990s, DeBeers promoted theAryan Nations andRichard Butler'sChurch of Jesus Christ–Christian during his performances.[5]
On January 29, 2005, DeBeers wrestled his last match atWrestleReunion teaming with his former tag partnerBuddy Rose andBob Orton Jr. as they lost toRoddy Piper,Jimmy Snuka andJimmy Valiant in Tampa Bay, Florida.[6]
Wiskoski and Rose ran a wrestling school in Portland, Oregon[1] from 2001 until 2006. One of their students received a tryout fromWWE in May 2006, Caden Mathews, who wrestledFinlay on an edition ofSmackDown! that took place in Portland in May 2006. Another student of theirs was Brian Zane, who hosts the YouTube seriesWrestling With Wregret and later served as a color commentator withRing of Honor.
Wiskoski retired in Arizona. He died on January 22, 2025, at the age of 80.[7][8]
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