 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dennis Waters (1943-03-20)March 20, 1943 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | December 30, 2022(2022-12-30) (aged 79) Smithville, Ontario, Canada |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Johnny Powers Lord Anthony Lansdowne |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 265 lb (120 kg)[1] |
| Trained by | Jack Wentworth Johnny Valentine Lou Thesz Toots Mondt Pedro Martínez |
| Debut | 1960 |
| Retired | 1982 |
Johnny Powers (bornDennis Waters; March 20, 1943 – December 30, 2022) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He competed in several North American and International promotions includingNational Wrestling Alliance (NWA),American Wrestling Association (AWA),Maple Leaf Wrestling,National Wrestling Federation,International Wrestling Association and theWorld Wide Wrestling Federation feuding with thenWWWF World Heavyweight ChampionBruno Sammartino during the early 1960s NWA's Lou Thesz, Gene Kiniski and AWA's Verne Gagne.
As a sports event promoter and television producer since 1967, he has presented over 3,500 livewrestling and sports events fromSingapore toNew York City toTrinidad. He co-founded theNational Wrestling Federation (NWF), which he sold toJapanese interests in 1973. Powers was the first major international syndicator of television wrestling with programs in over 27 countries.
Dennis Waters was born inHamilton, Ontario. At 15, he started training under the tutelage of Canadian light heavyweight wrestling champion Jack Wentworth. Powers had his first professional match in 1960 in Detroit at age 17 while attendingMcMaster University in Hamilton. He left university and became a professional wrestler, formally turning professional at age 20 in Detroit as Lord Anthony Lansdowne.
Powers wrestled Larry Chene many times, who then mentored Powers. Powers dyed his hair blond and wrestled as Johnny Powers, the Golden Adonis, in the Northeast United States and Canada in 1964. Powers wrestled six times for theWWWF Heavyweight Championship againstBruno Sammartino in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Powers turned heel and was managed byBobby Davis. He foughtWhipper Billy Watson many times acrossCanada and was main event for two years in Canada's Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Powers foughtNWA World ChampionsLou Thesz outdoors in Hamilton ballpark and St Louis Kiel Auditorium andGene Kiniski inToronto ballpark and theHamilton Forum. Powers dominated Cleveland Ohio with great battles againstJohnny Valentine,The Sheik,Ernie Ladd andAbdullah the Butcher. In 1973, Powers wrestled Ladd in a match, during which wrestlerOx Baker turned on Ladd to side with Powers.[2] As a result, angry fans stormed the ring—an incident known as "The Cleveland Riot" and one of the most dangerous riots in professional wrestling history.[2]
Powers was tutored as awrestling promoter andtelevision producer by international old school wrestler, booker and classic promoter Pedro Martínez. Martinez coached and mentored Powers for 20 years from the age of 22 in the art of creative event marketing of pro wrestling. Martínez and Powers founded National Sports TV on an existing "Wrestling fromBuffalo Auditorium" library of black and white films. Thislibrary had been funded by one of pro wrestling first big money sponsors, Dow beer.
Powers co-founded theNational Wrestling Federation and sold it three years later in 1973 toNew Japan Pro-Wrestling. He was theNWF World Heavyweight Champion and was the star of "Championship Wrestling with Johnny Powers". He was NWF North American Champion seven times and NWF world champion three times (same title).
Powers sold television wrestling shows and films to Japan, Mexico, the Armed Forces Network and eventually to 27 countries creating the first and largest international professional wrestling television distribution network. Martinez and Powers owned the largest professional wrestling library in the world at that time with acquisition of most of the other key US wrestling territories television libraries. Powers also, as executive producer and on-air commentator, promoted and produced over 300 new hours of televised wrestling.
Powers held the first barbed wire top rope wrapped match and paid a record athletic commission fine. After watching a Barnum and Bailey circus, he produced and promoted the only three rings at a time Cleveland Stadium Super Card with 50 global stars. Powers was defeated byAntonio Inoki for the NWF World Heavyweight Championship December 10, 1973, inTokyo. Powers, a seven time North American Open champion, defended his title in the New Japan promotion.
Powers andPat Patterson fought asNWF North American Tag Team Champions in California and Japan. In the Los Angeles title match, Joe Louis was referee.
Powers withPedro Martínez acquired control of theInternational Wrestling Association (IWA) in 1975 and Powers later bought out the Martinez interest for 100% ownership in 1976.
Powers retired from wrestling in 1982. He was honored in Yokohama, Japan, before a sellout crowd on September 30, 1991, that was televised nationally, as one of 18 greatest fighters to have appeared in Japanese rings, along withKarl Gotch andMuhammad Ali. He was inducted into theCanadian Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.
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As a sports merchandiser, Powers was physical fitness adviser on a National Sports Advisory Council in Canada, withBobby Hull and Otto and Maria Jelinek. At the age of 22, as a principal in Pro Management Inc, a sports celebrity management firm, he developed and took sports fitness equipment nationally on a major retail store promotion campaign all the while actively competing internationally as Canadian Heavyweight Champion.
Powers was CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Vision Resource Group, Inc., a pay-per-view company.
Powers helped to sponsor the Canadian pankration team and was strength coach to the World PankrationChampionships inLamia, Greece where they won eight gold metals and the overall World title.
Powers also had a film project, in development, entitledThe Man They Could Not Kill.
Powers, underwent knee and hip replacement surgery in May 2009.[citation needed]
Powers died at his home inSmithville, Ontario on December 30, 2022, at the age of 79.[3]