Oreal Perras

Oreal Perras (born August 25, 1942 in Chrysler , Ontario , Canada ; † February 18, 2017 ) was a Canadian wrestler who became known in his role as "The Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff . During his active time he worked for the three largest wrestling organizations in North America and was regularly seen in their TV formats.

Perras last lived in Greenville, North Carolina with his wife, Renae, and has 4 children and grandchildren. He got involved in various charities and joined the Church of the "Born Again Christians" in 1996, where he also held weddings.

Ivan Koloff
Data
Ring name	Ivan Koloff Jim Perris Red McNulty The Russian Bear
height	177 cm
Fighting weight	102-131 kg
birth	August 25, 1942 Chrysler ; Ontario ; Canada
death	18th February 2017
Announced from	Moscow ; Soviet Union (or from 1991 Russia ) Ukraine Lithuania
Trained by	Jack Wentworth , Don Koloff
debut	February 1965

Career

Beginnings

Growing up on a farm in Chrysler, Ontario, Canada, the desire to become a professional wrestler grew early on in Perras. At the age of 17 he dropped out of school and went to the Jack Wentworth Wrestling School in Hamilton ; Ontario . There he began to train with weights and learned the necessary techniques. After a year he was awarded the ring role Red McNulty , which was a Dublin- born Irish bat with an eye patch.

Breakthrough as "The Russian Bear"

Finally, in 1967, his role was changed. Perras was now to portray a Soviet athlete. Due to his weight of just over 130 kg, with a relatively small body height of 1.77 m for a wrestler, Perras looked very strong and stocky. This constitution, reminiscent of a little bear, eventually earned him the nickname "The Russian Bear".

He made his debut as such against Bruno Sammartino in a television recording in Pittsburgh . Perras wrestled another three years in the Toronto area and the Northwest US to gain experience. He received the Canadian Heavyweight Championship in 1967 . After that, he went to Japan for the first time in his career.

On January 18, 1971, the greatest success of his career followed. He should clearly and legally defeat the record champion Bruno Sammartino , who had previously held the title for almost 8 years, in Madison Square Garden . The audience reacted downright shocked, after all, in the middle of the Cold War , a "Russian" had beaten the local champion. For fear of riots, the title change was not even announced that evening. But Perras did n't last long in the WWWF Heavyweight Championship . On February 8 of the same year he had to hand it over to Pedro Morales .

In the following period Perras toured through the various organizations and also appeared in Europe, Japan, Australia, Puerto Rico.

In the 1980s, Perras worked primarily for the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions . In the NWA he became World Tag Team Champion with Ray Stevens and also Six-Men Tag Team Champion with Nikita Koloff and Don Kernodle or Krusher Kruschev , who replaced the latter.

During this time he was also allowed to present the young wrestler Nelson Scott Simpson as his nephew Nikita Koloff and to form the tag team The Russians with him . Together they contested feud programs with the Road Warriors , the Rock'n Roll Express , as well as with Magnum TA and Champion Ric Flair .

In 1986, the team separated, Nikita turned against Perras and allied with Dusty Rhodes . Perras, on the other hand, looked for new partners in Dick Murdoch and Vladimir Petrov in order to feud against them.

In 1988, after he was briefly a member of the wrestling group Paul Jones' Army and the "Powers of Pain" (a 1: 1 copy of the Road Warriors), there was a reunion of the team with Nikita. They feuded with Paul Jones' Army before leaving the Jim Crockett Promotions for good in January 1989.

Then Perras was active in the Independent Promotions and competed in legendary matches against wrestlers like Chief Wahoo McDaniel or Jimmy Valiant .

Perras died of liver cancer on February 18, 2017.

successes

• Championship Wrestling From Florida

1 × * NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Champion

• 5 × NWA Florida Tag Team Champion (1 × with Pat Patterson , 3 × with Masa Saito and 1 × with Nikolai Volkoff )

• Georgia Championship Wrestling

7 × * NWA Georgia Tag Team Champion (5 × with Ole Anderson and 2 × with Alexis Smirnoff )

• Maple Leaf Wrestling

• 1 × NWA Canadian Heavyweight Champion (Toronto version)

• Jim Crockett Promotions

• 4 × NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion (with Don Kernodle )
• 2 × NWA World Television Champion
• 3 × NWA World Television Champion
• 2 × NWA United States Tag Team Champion (1 × with Krusher Khruschev and 1 × Dick Murdoch )
• 2 × NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Champion (1 × with Nikita Koloff & Krusher Khruschev and 1 × with The Barbarian & The Warlord )
• 4 × NWA World Tag Team Champion (Mid Atlantic version) (1 × with Nikita Koloff , 1 × with Nikita Koloff and Krusher Khruschev , 1 × with Ray Stevens and 1 × with Don Kernodle )

• World Wide Wrestling Federation

• 1 × WWWF World Heavyweight Champion

• World Wrestling Association (Indianapolis)

• 1 × WWA World Heavyweight Champion

• World Wrestling Council

1 × * WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Champion

• Other titles

• 1 × ACW Tag Team Champion (with Vladimir Koloff )
• 1 × CREW Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × Great Lakes Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × IWA Tag Team Champion (with "Mad Dog" Maurice Vachon )
• 1 × IWA (Montreal) International Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × VWA Heavyweight Champion

literature

• Is that wrestling fake? - The Bear Facts. Crowbar Press, Hendersonville 2006, ISBN 0-9745545-4-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ivankoloff.com
2. ^ Wrestling Villain Ivan Koloff Dead at 74. In: tmz.com