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Gerald Brisco

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Gerald Brisco
Brisco in 2014
Birth nameFloyd Gerald Brisco
Born (1946-09-19) September 19, 1946 (age 78)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.[1]
Spouse(s)Barbara Brisco
Children2, including Wes Brisco
FamilyJack Brisco (brother)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Gerald Brisco
Jerry Brisco
Oklahoma Chickasaw
Billed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Billed weight209 lb (95 kg; 14.9 st)[1]
Billed fromBlackwell, Oklahoma[2]
Trained byJack Brisco
Debut1967[1]
Retired2000[1]

Floyd Gerald "Jerry" Brisco (born September 19, 1946) is an American retired professional wrestler. Brisco is best known for his time in the wrestling promotion WWE, where he was a backstage producer, and, during the 1990s, an on-screen character, working alongside Pat Patterson as the "stooges" for the Mr. McMahon character (portrayed by former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon). He was most recently a WWE talent scout where he focused on exclusively recruiting amateur wrestlers into the company.

Debuting in 1969, Brisco wrestled for multiple National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories throughout the 1970s and early-1980s, in particular Championship Wrestling from Florida and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, winning dozens of championships. Throughout his career, he teamed with his elder brother Jack as The Brisco Brothers. After retiring in 1985, Brisco moved into a backstage role with the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). He had a late career resurgence between 1997 and 2000 alongside fellow veteran wrestler Pat Patterson as the onscreen "stooge" of WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Both Briscos were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.

Amateur wrestling career

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Gerald Brisco grew up with five siblings and an absent father in Oklahoma. He followed his brother, Jack Brisco, into amateur wrestling, and was eventually awarded an athletic scholarship to Oklahoma State after winning two AAU tournaments and only losing two high school matches, placing second in Oklahoma States in his only two years of high school wrestling due to broken leg in football. He was a starter on the OSU freshman team winning several matches and tournaments. During the spring break of 1968, Brisco was in Missouri with Jack, and was asked to substitute for his brother's injured tag team partner despite his lack of professional training. After Brisco contracted hepatitis and injured his knee, he decided to drop out of college and become a full-time professional wrestler.

Professional wrestling career

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The Brisco Brothers (1967–1984)

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Brisco in 1979

Brisco was trained by his brother and debuted in 1967 as his tag team partner, using the name Gerald Brisco. The Brisco Brothers were a highly successful team, amassing over twenty tag team championships over the course of thirteen years. They arrived in Florida in 1970 (with Brisco becoming Jerry Brisco) and dominated the singles and tag divisions for several years thereafter. It was also in the late 1970s that the Brisco's discovered Terry Bollea, the future wrestling legend best known as Hulk Hogan, who they introduced to Hiro Matsuda for training. Jerry Brisco would amass a number of singles championships throughout the 1970s, including becoming the first holder of Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.[3] On June 20, 1981, he defeated Les Thornton for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Gerald (right) and Jack (left) Brisco, circa 1983

In 1983, while teaming in the Mid-Atlantic territory, the brothers turned heel against the team of Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, the NWA World Tag Team Champions.[4] The two teams traded the belts back and forth until the feud culminated at the first Starrcade, with Steamboat and Youngblood regaining the championship. The brothers would hold the title one last time in 1984, ultimately losing to the team of Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood. They would leave the Mid-Atlantic area shortly after.

The Briscos held minority interests in Georgia Championship Wrestling. In 1984, dissatisfied with the direction of the company and smaller than expected dividends, they convinced equally disgruntled majority shareholder Paul Jones to give them proxy voting of his shares.[5] The three men and Jim Barnett sold their shares to Vince McMahon, enabling him to increase his dominance of the professional wrestling world.[6]

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE (1984–2020)

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Brisco in 2012 at WrestleMania Axxess.

The brothers entered the World Wrestling Federation in the fall of 1984, once again assuming their familiar role as fan favorites. The Briscos unsuccessfully challenged the North-South Connection, Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch, for the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Both men would retire from the ring in early 1985. After retiring, Brisco began working backstage as a road agent and talent scout for McMahon.

Following the 1997 Montreal Screwjob, Brisco capitalized on his notoriety by becoming an onscreen "stooge" of Vince McMahon along with Pat Patterson. The duo portrayed a pair of bumbling comic heels and joined The Corporation and the McMahon-Helmsley Faction. They lampooned Hulk Hogan (then working for World Championship Wrestling, the rival of WWF) by mimicking his trademark gestures and using "Real American", his old entrance theme.

Brisco in drag at King of the Ring

On the May 18, 2000 episode of SmackDown! Brisco won his first WWF championship when he pinned a sleeping Crash Holly to win the perpetually contested Hardcore Championship. Crash regained the title on June 12 but Brisco was intent on regaining. He pursued Holly around New York City but ran afoul of John Shaft, who had agreed to protect Holly. Brisco eventually regained the title the following week with the aid of Pat Patterson in the midst of a match between Crash and his cousin, Hardcore Holly.

As Patterson and Brisco celebrated the victory, Patterson poured champagne in Brisco's eyes then broke a second bottle over his head. He then pinned the (kayfabe) unconscious Brisco to win the Hardcore Championship. Patterson hid from Brisco in drag in the women's locker room, and, after Brisco pursued him into the locker room, Vince McMahon booked them in a Hardcore Evening Gown Match at the King of the Ring. In the course of the match, Holly interfered and pinned Patterson, regaining the title once again.

On July 15, 2005, Brisco was inducted into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. He appeared at WrestleMania 23 in a party scene and also on the July 23, 2007 edition of RAW. On March 29, 2008, Brisco and his brother were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando, Florida. In June 2009, Brisco suffered three strokes.[7] Four months later, it was announced that Brisco would not be returning to his position as a road agent in WWE.[8] In March 2010, Jerry Brisco did return to the WWE as a talent scout and recruiter for NXT. According to Jim Ross, on October 19, 2011, Brisco suffered another stroke, a minor one.[9] During the Raw Reunion episode on July 22, 2019, Brisco pinned Pat Patterson off-screen backstage to win the WWE 24/7 Championship. He became the third person to win both the WWE Hardcore Championship and the WWE 24/7 Championship. He would soon after lose the title to Kelly Kelly. He was furloughed, along with many other WWE employees, on April 15, 2020, and was officially released on September 10.[10][11]

Personal life

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Brisco is married, he and his wife Barbara have two sons named Wesley (born 1983) who is also a professional wrestler, known as Wes Brisco, a former FCW Tag Team Champion and Joseph who is a grad student at USF Tampa.[12] Brisco also co-owned a body shop with his brother Bill, and longtime partner Travis Allred, known as the Brisco Brothers Body Shop. Jack Brisco was also a partner in the business before his death in 2010. The Briscos were inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall Of Fame in June 2016. On August 11, 2018, Brisco was inducted into the NWHOF Florida Chapter as “Outstanding American.”

Other media

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Brisco appears as a manager alongside Pat Patterson in WWE2K16.[13]

After leaving WWE, Brisco began hosting a podcast series with John Layfield.[14]

Championships and accomplishments

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Brisco (right) with his brother Jack being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.
Gerald (right) and Jack (left) as NWA World Tag Team Champions, circa 1983
  1. ^ While almost always defended in the Southeastern Championship Wrestling promotion, Brisco won the championship while working on a card hosted by Georgia Championship Wrestling via a working relationship between the two promotions.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Gerald Brisco". Cagematch.net. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Gerald Brisco". WWE. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  3. ^ Dick Bourne. "Jerry Brisco: First Ever Mid-Atlantic Champion". midatlanticgateway.com.
  4. ^ Mike Mooneyham. "Ageless Ricky Steamboat good guy inside and outside the wrestling ring". postandcourier.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  5. ^ "Black Saturday: The unbelievable story of the original invasion". wwe.com.
  6. ^ David Shoemaker (2013). The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-101-60974-3.
  7. ^ J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q. "Jerry Brisco Calls J.R......An Update". jrsbarbq.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  8. ^ "Blogger: Aanmelden". Rasslinriotnews.blogspot.com. November 25, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  9. ^ "Jim Ross on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  10. ^ "Exclusive Details On Packet WWE Sent To Furloughed Employees, Tentative Furlough End Date". Wrestling Inc. April 16, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  11. ^ "Shocking departure from WWE". PW Insider.
  12. ^ "Wes Brisco". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  13. ^ "Gerald Brisco | WWE 2K16 | Roster". The SmackDown Hotel.
  14. ^ "JBL And Gerald Brisco Announce New "Road Stories" Series, Brisco Launches New Mailbag Podcast". Wrestling Inc. October 13, 2020.
  15. ^ Johnson, Steve (April 5, 2015). "Many years of hard work pay off for Dennis Brent with CAC's historian award". Slam Wrestling. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
  16. ^ Hoops, Brian (January 16, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/16): Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton win WCW Tag Team Titles". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
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