Dick The Bruiser

Born: June 27, 1929, Lafayette, IN
Died: Nov. 10, 1991, Tampa, FL.

Inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame on May 22, 1994

Notable Title Wins:

NWA US Heavyweight Title (5), NWA (Chicago) World Tag Team Titles with Gene Kiniski, AWA World Tag Team Titles with The Crusher (5), AWA World Heavyweight Title, WWA World Heavyweight Title (9), WWA World Tag Team Titles with Crusher (6), WWA World Tag Team Titles with Bruno Sammartino

Gave Bobby "The Brain" Heenan the nickname "The Weasel"

Inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005 with his tag team partner, The Crusher (Reginald Lisowski).

Played himself in the movies "The Wrestler"-1974, "The Escapist"-1983, and "I like to Hurt People"-1985.

Dick the Bruiser, born "William Afflis", was born in Lafayette, IN to wealthy parents. He moved to Indianapolis as a boy and attended Shortridge High School. While growing up in Indianapolis, his father died and his mother remarried and moved away from Indy, letting Dick have his own apartment at the age of...16! When he graduated high school-as a top rated lineman-he enrolled in Purdue, where he was suspended for beaning the assistant coach-who had demeaned Dick on the field in front of the other players-on the head with his football helmet. After several schools and a name change-from William to Richard-hence the name "Dick"-he finally ended up at the University of Nevada, where he graduated with a degree in engineering. From 1951 to 1955 he was an offensive lineman for the pre-Lombardi Greenbay Packers, finally quitting for the better paying pro wrestling career. There was also a rumor that he was suspended for deliberately breaking the leg of an opposing team's lineman. The Packers were, at the time, the worst team in pro football, and spent more time partying than training for their games. Afflis started wrestling for Tony Stetcher in Minneapolis in 1955, and a few months afterward, wrestled Lou Thesz for the NWA Title. By 1956, Dick was perfecting his style, and was one of the first wrestlers to actually boast and brag about himself in interviews. His matches became riotous, and he was actually "hardcore" before hardcore wrestling was even around-using chairs, tables, or anything else he could get his hands on. This was pretty groundbreaking at the time. Bruiser went on to form the WWA with his business partner, Wilbur Snyder, and since wrestlers couldn't wrestle and promote at the same time back then, the two had the promoting licenses in their wives' names! Bruiser was the WWA's first Champion, and he went on to hold the title several more times. He actually had wrestled for another territory in California called "WWA", and won their championship. When he came back to Indianapolis, he used tapes from that territory to build up the beginning of Indianapolis' WWA. He was a mainstay not only in Indiana, but the midwest as a whole, and was actually pretty popular in the NWA hotbed of that time-St. Louis-as well. Though the WWA was never really recognized as a "big dog" compared to the other territories, it definitely had it's own legacy, and would build up some great stars such as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Andre The Giant and countless others. Bruiser was the "Stone Cold Steve Austin" of his time-the original badass of pro wrestling, and his legacy still lives on today!

credit: imdb.com, Mike Dupree of kayfabememories.com