.png) Irwin,c. 1978 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Scott Keegan Irwin (1952-05-14)May 14, 1952[1] Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.[1] |
| Died | September 5, 1987(1987-09-05) (aged 35)[1] |
| Cause of death | Brain tumor |
| Family | Bill Irwin (brother) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Scott Irwin[1] The Super Destroyer[1] Super Destroyer #2[2] Thor the Viking[1] Lumberjack Eric |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) |
| Billed weight | 295 lb (134 kg) |
| Trained by | Verne Gagne[1] |
| Debut | March 13, 1976[2] |
| Retired | 1986 |
Scott Keegan Irwin (May 14, 1952 – September 5, 1987) was an Americanprofessional wrestler. He was best known for histag team with his brotherBarney "Bill" Irwin.[1]
After training underVerne Gagne in 1975, Irwin debuted for the AWA on March 13, 1976 inDavenport, Iowa, going to a time limit draw with another rookie,Dick Blood. He mainly wrestled preliminary matches until June 1976 when he left for Georgia Championship Wrestling where he stayed until the spring of 1977. From there he went on toJim Crockett'sMid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. He wrestled in Mid-Atlantic until early 1978.
Irwin debuted in theWorld Wide Wrestling Federation on March 14, 1978 as one half of theYukon Lumberjacks, where he was given thering name "Lumberjack Eric" and his tag team partner,Zarinoff Lebeouf, was given the ring name "Lumberjack Pierre". Soon after debuting, The Lumberjacks wrestled againstDino Bravo andDominic DeNucci for theWWF Tag Team Championship on June 2, but the match ended in a double disqualification.[3] The Lumberjacks continued theirfeud with Bravo and DeNucci, and after several unsuccessful title rematches, the Lumberjacks finally defeated them for the title on June 26.[1][3] The Lumberjacks continued their success by retaining their title in several matches over the next several months against the likes of Bravo and DeNucci,Gorilla Monsoon andS.D. Jones andHaystacks Calhoun andTony Garea.[4] On November 21, The Lumberjacks lost their title to Garea andLarry Zbyszko.[4] After the title loss, Pierre retired from wrestling and Eric left the WWWF.
After leaving the WWWF, Irwin debuted inChampionship Wrestling from Florida in December 1978 as "Thor the Viking", withOliver Humperdink as his manager. While in FCW, Irwin found championship success and wrestled his final match as Thor on October 14, 1979, with a victory overSteve Keirn.[5] The following month, Irwin returned to the CWF as the masked "Super Destroyer", and went on to win a tag team match withStan Lane against Keirn andMike Graham.[5]
Irwin continued to use the Super Destroyercharacter in the CWF throughout the rest of 1979 before debuting inMid-South Wrestling on November 27, 1980, in a losing effort toTed DiBiase.[5] Irwin, as the Super Destroyer, returned to Mid-South on April 18, 1981, and won thetag team championship withthe Grappler after defeatingDick Murdoch and theJunkyard Dog in the finals of a tournament to claim the vacant title.[5] However, the Destroyer and the Grappler lost the tag team title days later to Murdoch and JYD, on April 27.[6] Soon after the title loss, Destroyer rebounded by winning theLouisiana Heavyweight Championship on May 1.[7] He held the title for over two months before losing it toBob Roop on July 22.[7] Irwin continued to perform as the Super Destroyer upon joining theContinental Wrestling Association, and soon formed a successful tag team with theMasked Superstar.
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The team soon jumped ship toGeorgia Championship Wrestling, and continued their success by winning theNWA National Tag Team Championship on January 22, 1982 from the Armstrongs (Bob andBrad).[5] Beginning in March, the Superstar gave his half of the title toBig John Studd.[8] On July 2, Super Destroyer and Studd lost the title toThe Fabulous Freebirds.[8] After the title loss, Super Destroyer returned to singles competition before he formed The Super Destroyers tag team with hisreal-life brother Bill Irwin.[1] Bill became Super Destroyer No. 1 while Scott became Super Destroyer No. 2, and the brothers won their firstNWA American Tag Team Championship from Bulldog Brower andRoddy Piper in October 1983.[9] Soon after debuting, they acquiredSkandor Akbar as a manager.[1] The Destroyers lost the title toBrian Adias andIceman King Parsons on December 25 before regaining it on January 30, 1984.[9] The Destroyers held the title for four months before losing it to Rock 'n' Soul (Parsons and Buck Zomhofe).[9] The Destroyers quickly rebounded and won the title back thirteen days later, but after the match, Rock 'n' Soul unmasked them.[9]
After being unmasked, the brothers dropped the Destroyers aspect of their team and instead began wrestling under their real names while their tag team was renamed to the "Long Riders". The Riders continued their feud with Rock 'n' Soul and lost the title to them again, on August 4, after Parsons defeated Bill in a singles match.[9] The Riders won the American Tag Team Title for the fourth and final time on September 28 after defeating Rock 'n' Soul.[9] The brothers soon lost the title to the Fantastics (Tommy Rogers andBobby Fulton) on October 22.[9]
On November 18, Irwin returned toGeorgia Championship Wrestling and, with his brother, defeated Brad Armstrong andJacques Rougeau in the finals of a one-night tournament to win the NWA National Tag Team Championship.[10] The next night, the Long Riders retained their newly won title against Armstrong and Tommy Rich.[10] On January 11, 1985, the Riders lost the title toOle Anderson andThunderbolt Patterson.[10] After the Riders lost a rematch for the title the following night, Scott faced Anderson and Patterson in two subsequent rematches withKareem Muhammad and thenDoug Somers as his partners, due to Bill leaving GCW, but was unable to win either rematch.[10] Irwin wrestled a few more matches in GCW before leaving the promotion.
The Long Riders soon sprang up in theAmerican Wrestling Association later in mid-1985, where they lost their debut match to theRoad Warriors for the Warriors'AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 14. On September 28, the Riders andHarley Race lost toGenichiro Tenryu,Giant Baba andJumbo Tsuruta in asix-man tag team match atSuperClash.[10] The Riders continued in the AWA until April 20, 1986, where they lost a tag team title match toCurt Hennig andScott Hall at WrestleRock. The Long Riders also worked in Montreal for Gino Brito's International Wrestling between treatment for cancer and Scott had lost his hair.
On September 5, 1987, Irwin died from abrain tumor.[11][2] He was 35 years old.
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