Bruiser Costa

Last updated

Bruiser Costa
Birth nameJeffery Costa
Born (1962-06-26) June 26, 1962 (age 62) [1]
Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S.
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Bruiser Costa
Lobsterman
Jeff Costa
Tony Costa
Tony DeCosta
Jeff McHale
Billed weight250 lb (110 kg)
Trained by Killer Kowalski, Dean Ho
DebutAugust 30, 1980 [2]
Retired2019

Jeff Costa (born June 26, 1962), better known by his ring name Bruiser Costa, is a retired American wrestler who worked for NWA All-Star Wrestling in Vancouver during the promotions later days in the 1980s. In the 1990s he worked in the independent promotions in New England as The Lobsterman.

Contents

Professional wrestling career

Costa was trained by Killer Kowalski in Salem, Massachusetts. He would make his debut on August 30, 1980 at 18 defeating John Callahan by disqualification at Kowalski's International Wrestling Federation in Sailsbury Beach, Massachusetts. [3] Later that year he went to Montreal working for Lutte International. [4]

In 1981, he worked for the World Wrestling Federation. [5]

Then in 1982, he worked in Vancouver for NWA All-Star Wrestling where he feuded with his trainer Dean Ho. He won the NWA International Tag Team Championship with Terry Adonis. Costa stayed in Vancouver until 1988 a year before All-Star Wrestling folded.

Costa returned to New England working as The Lobsterman in the early 1990s and wearing lobster claws to the ring. During that time he ran a promotion, All-Star Wrestling in New Hampshire from 1992 to 2006 and trained wrestlers such as Bob Evans, Gino Martino, Johnny Vegas and other wrestlers. Also in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, he continued to work in New England until his last match in 2019.

Championships and accomplishments

Discography

Lobsterman and the Crustaceans

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Tomko</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Al Tomko was a Canadian professional wrestler and wrestling promoter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick the Bruiser</span> American football player and professional wrestler (1929–1991)

William Fritz Afflis Jr. was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and National Football League player, better known by his ring name, Dick the Bruiser. During his NFL days he played four seasons with the Green Bay Packers. He was also a very successful professional wrestler: sixteen-time world champion, AWA World Heavyweight Champion once, WWA World Heavyweight Champion thirteen times, World Heavyweight Champion once, and WWA World Heavyweight Champion once. He also excelled at tag-team wrestling, with 20 tag team championships in his career. Eleven of these championships were won alongside his long-time tag-team partner Crusher Lisowski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Kiniski</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Eugene Nicholas Kiniski was a Canadian athlete who played football for the Edmonton Eskimos and then became a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion. "Canada's Greatest Athlete", as he billed himself for promotional purposes, was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Like Bronko Nagurski before him, Kiniski was one of the first world champions in professional wrestling to have a previous background in football. He is the father of professional wrestler Kelly Kiniski and international amateur and professional wrestler Nick Kiniski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Lewin</span> American professional wrestler

Mark Lewin is an American retired professional wrestler.

Gadowar Singh Sahota ; born December 8, 1954) is an Indo-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler known as Gama Singh and Great Gama Sahota was a villainous mainstay and top attraction in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Sahota also wrestled internationally in Japan, South Africa, Germany, Kuwait, Dubai, Oman, Australia, the United States and the Caribbean. He also worked sporadically, mostly on overseas tours, for Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1980 to 1986. His nephew is former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. Singh made a brief comeback of sorts in 2018, when he signed with Impact Wrestling as the manager for a stable of Indian wrestlers known as the Desi Hit Squad, but quietly left in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Brown (wrestler)</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1938 – 1997)

Robert Harold Brown was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name "Bulldog" Bob Brown.

Daniel Kroffat is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s and 1970s, where he invented the ladder match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Jaggers</span> American professional wrestler

Robert Francis Jeaudoin was an American professional wrestler and civil engineer, also known by the ring name of "Hangman" Bobby Jaggers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Wells (wrestler)</span> American retired wrestler and Canadian Football League player

George Wells is a retired American professional wrestler and Canadian Football League player who competed in North American regional promotions during the early 1970s and 1980s including the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW), Stampede Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation, most notably as the opponent of Jake "The Snake" Roberts at WrestleMania 2. It was during this live PPV match that Roberts, after having defeated Wells, had placed his pet snake "Damien" on Wells causing him to foam at the mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Ho (wrestler)</span> American professional wrestler (1940–2021)

Dean Kiyoshi Higuchi was an American bodybuilder and professional wrestler, known by his ring name, Dean Ho. He competed in North American promotions including Pacific Northwest Wrestling, the World Wide Wrestling Federation and Big Time Wrestling during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. A longtime veteran of the Vancouver's NWA All-Star Wrestling, he feuded with Terry Adonis, The Brute and former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buzz Tyler</span> American professional wrestler (1948–2021)

Buzz Tyler was an American professional wrestler who competed in North American regional promotions during the 1970s and 1980s including the National Wrestling Alliance, most notably teaming with J. J. Dillon and "Bulldog" Bob Brown in NWA Central States during the early-1980s.

John Anson is a Canadian retired professional wrestler, known by his ring name "Handsome" John Anson, who competed in North American and Japanese promotions from the mid-1960s until the early-1980s, including International Wrestling, Maple Leaf Wrestling, NWA All-Star Wrestling, Pacific Northwest Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bearcat Wright</span> American professional wrestler (1932–1982)

Edward M. Wright better known by his ring name "Bearcat" Wright was an American professional wrestler who became popular in the late 1950s and 1960s. Despite racial tension in the United States, he became wildly popular as a babyface. Wrestling in either singles competition or in tag team competition, thousands of fans would pack arenas to see him. He was the son of boxer Ed "Bearcat" Wright, and had an 8–0 record as a professional boxer himself in the early 1950s, boxing as "Bearcat Wright Jr."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killer Kowalski</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1926–2008)

Wladek Kowalski was a Canadian professional wrestler, known by his ring name Killer Kowalski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinji Shibuya</span> American professional wrestler (1921–2010)

Robert "Kinji" Shibuya was an American professional wrestler and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic DeNucci</span> American professional wrestler and trainer (1932–2021)

Domenico A. Nucciarone was an Italian-American professional wrestler and trainer better known by the ring name Dominic DeNucci. He held over a dozen championships around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. His wrestling students included Mick Foley, Shane Douglas, Brian Hildebrand, and Cody Michaels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Foti</span>

John Fotie was a Canadian professional wrestler and a painter, better known by his ring name, John Foti. He was best known in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary from 1955 to 1969. He also wrestled in the American Wrestling Association and National Wrestling Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moose Morowski</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Stanley Mykietovitch was a Canadian professional wrestler who spent his career in Western Canada, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Australia and Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erich Froelich</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Udo Froelich was a German-Canadian professional wrestler who spent most his career in Vancouver, Canada for NWA All-Star Wrestling and Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, Oregon.

Edward David Giovannetti, better known by his ring name Ed Moretti or Moondog Moretti, is an American retired professional wrestler, who competed in Pacific Coast between the late 1970s and 1990s for Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, Oregon, All Pro Wrestling in San Francisco, and NWA All-Star Wrestling in Vancouver.

References

General

Specific

  1. "Profile". Wrestlingdata. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  2. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Jeff Costa « Wrestlers Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database".
  3. Creahin, David (August 23, 2019). "Bruiser Costa Career Record". SLAM! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer . Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  4. Rodgers, Mike (March 11, 2008). "An Interview with 'Bruiser' Jeff Costa". SLAM! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer . Retrieved March 11, 2008.
  5. "1981". Thehistoryofwwe.com. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  6. "NWA Canadian Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  7. "NWA Canadian Tag Team Title". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  8. "N.W.A. International Tag Team Title (Vancouver)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. Retrieved October 9, 2007.