Dan Kroffat

Last updated
Dan Kroffat
Birth nameDaniel Kroffat
Born (1945-06-14) June 14, 1945 (age 79)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Dan Kroffat [1]
King Krow [1]
Billed height6 ft 0 in (183 cm) [1]
Billed weight240 lb (109 kg) [1]
Billed fromVancouver, British Columbia [1]
Debut1963 [1]
Retired1985 [2]

Daniel Kroffat (born June 14, 1945) 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. [2]

Contents

Professional wrestling career

Stampede Wrestling

Kroffat was discovered by Earl Maynard, a professional wrestler and former Mr. Universe, while working as a lifeguard in Vancouver, British Columbia. Maynard began training Kroffat before recommending Stu Hart as a trainer. Kroffat and his wife moved to Calgary, Alberta, where Kroffat trained and debuted in Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. [2] Wrestling as "Cowboy" Dan Kroffat, he formed a tag team with Bill Cody and won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship in the summer of 1971. [1] [3] In July 1972, Kroffat won his first Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship by defeating Tor Kamata. [1] [4] Kroffat and Kamata wrestled several times, and Kroffat designed a new match type for one of the encounters. A bag of money was hung from the ceiling and the two competitors fought to retrieve the bag by climbing a stepladder. The idea caught on, and subsequent matches saw Kroffat's title belt replace the money, with the stipulation that the first wrestler to retrieve the belt would be champion. The idea of a ladder match has been used ever since, as Bret Hart helped popularize the stipulation in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). [2]

Over the next two years, he held both championships several times. He won the tag team title twice while teaming with Lennie Hurst and combined with Cody to win the title belts for the fourth and final time. [3] Kroffat also engaged in a feud with Archie Gouldie in Stampede Wrestling. The pair traded the North American Heavyweight Title back and forth in a series of matches. Kroffat defeated Gouldie to win the belt in 1973, but Gouldie later regained the title. Still in that same year, Kroffat won the title back from Gouldie to begin his third reign as champion. [1] [4] He then feuded with Gil Hayes, who beat him to win the title. Kroffat regained the belt from Hayes but was unable to win it back after dropping it to him again. [1] [4]

National Wrestling Alliance

Kroffat also enjoyed success outside Stampede Wrestling. In a match that took place in Vancouver, he won the NWA United National Championship while wrestling as King Krow in 1972. [1] [5] He also won the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship twice in 1974, teaming with Leo Madril and Wayne Bridges. [1] [6]

Later career

Back in Stampede Wrestling, Kroffat defeated his old rival Gouldie to regain the North American Heavyweight Championship. Once again, however, Gouldie won the title back later in the series of matches. He won the belt for the final time by defeating Killer Tim Brooks. After winning the belt, Kroffat retired from professional wrestling and vacated the championship. [1] [4] [7] He continued to wrestle occasionally, however, until retiring for good in 1985. [2]

Retirement

After leaving wrestling in 1985, Kroffat opened Daniel's Auto Wholesale Centre, a used car dealership. [2] After bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, was discovered in an Albertan cow in 2003, the United States stopped importing Canadian cattle. Due to the problems this created in the Albertan cattle industry, Kroffat led a campaign to reopen the border, gathering signatures on a petition and pressuring the Canadian federal government to help with the cause. [8]

After Kroffat's retirement, professional wrestler Philip Lafon, who was a fan of Kroffat's, took on the ring name Dan Kroffat in his honor. [2]

Championships and accomplishments

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Madril</span> American professional wrestler

Alberto "Al" Madril is an American retired professional wrestler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Hart (wrestler)</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Bruce Edward Hart is an American-born Canadian retired professional wrestler, promoter, booker, trainer and school teacher. He is a second-generation wrestler and a member of the Hart wrestling family, being the second child of Stu and Helen Hart. He is best known for his time in Stampede Wrestling and several appearances for WWE, often with his brothers Bret and Owen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stampede Wrestling</span> Canadian professional wrestling company

Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the promotion competed with other promotions such as NWA All-Star Wrestling and Pacific Northwest Wrestling and regularly ran events in Calgary's Victoria Pavilion, Ogden Auditorium and the Stampede Corral between 1948 until 1984 when bought out by promoter Vince McMahon, the company was briefly run by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before being sold back to the Hart family the following year. Run by Bruce Hart until January 1990, he and Ross Hart reopened the promotion in 1999 and began running events in the Alberta area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frenchy Martin</span> Canadian professional wrestler and manager

Jean Gagné was a French–Canadian professional wrestler and manager, best known under the ring name Frenchy Martin. During his World Wrestling Federation heyday in the 1980s as the manager of Canadian wrestler Dino Bravo, he was known for his trademark sign that read "USA is not OK". Gagné, however, began his career in Canada, primarily in Stampede Wrestling, and in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council. In 1990, Gagné left the WWF and retired from professional wrestling.

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">George Gordienko</span> Canadian professional wrestler and artist (1928–2002)

George Gordienko was a Canadian professional wrestler and artist. Born of first generation Ukrainian and Cossack-Canadian parents in North Winnipeg, Manitoba, by age 17 Gordienko had received numerous awards for his physical prowess. He wrestled from 1946 to 1976 and was, according to Lou Thesz and other experts, one of the top legitimate wrestlers in the world. He was rated the best heavyweight wrestler in the UK in 1963, and in 1970, won the annual Royal Albert Hall tournament in London. After his retirement he became a successful artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Édouard Carpentier</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1926–2010)

Édouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz was a French-born Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Édouard Carpentier. Over the course of his career, Carpentier held multiple world heavyweight championships, including the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the WWA World Heavyweight Championship. Nicknamed "The Flying Frenchman", Carpentier was known for his athletic manoeuvres including "back flips, cartwheels and somersaults".

Léonce Cormier is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He was born in Dorchester, New Brunswick. He competed across Canada, in several American promotions, and wrestled internationally for both Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council (WWC) and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in New Zealand. In Canada, where he spent the majority of his career, Cormier used the ring name Leo Burke. In the United States, however, he competed as Tommy Martin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archie Gouldie</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Archibald Edward Gouldie was a Canadian professional wrestler. He wrestled for Stampede Wrestling for decades as Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie, with the nickname coming from the wrestler's reputation of "stomping" on his opponents, when they were down, with his black cowboy boots. He was also known by the ring name The Mongolian Stomper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Leo Jonathan</span> American-Canadian professional wrestler (1931–2018)

Don Heaton, also known as Don Leo Jonathan, was an American-Canadian professional wrestler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvon Cormier</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Yvon Cormier was a Canadian professional wrestler. Competing primarily under the ring name The Beast, he and his three wrestling brothers made up the Cormier wrestling family. He wrestled in many countries but regularly returned to Canada, where he competed for the Eastern Sports Association (ESA) and the ESA-promoted International Wrestling (IW). He also competed in the Calgary, Alberta-based Stampede Wrestling for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Hito</span> Japanese professional wrestler

Katsuji Adachi, better known as Mr. Hito, was a Japanese professional wrestler who competed in North American and Japanese regional promotions from the 1950s until the mid-1980s. Most notably, he was the tag team partner of Mr. Moto while wrestling in National Wrestling Alliance regional territories during the late 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Thornton</span> British professional wrestler (1934–2019)

Les Thornton was a British professional wrestler who competed in Great Britain, Japan, European and North American regional promotions throughout the 1970s and 1980s including Joint Promotions, Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tor Kamata</span> American professional wrestler

McRonald Kamaka was an American-Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several heavyweight and tag team championships, most notably the PWF World Heavyweight Championship in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the AWA World Tag Team Championship in the American Wrestling Association. He was a classic heel, reviled for dirty tricks in the ring, included rubbing salt in his opponent's eyes.

John Cozman was a Canadian professional wrestler and trainer, known by his ring name "Principal" Richard Pound, who competed in North American independent promotions, most notably as a mainstay of Stampede Wrestling during the 1980s and late 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Ruhl</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1920–1988)

Dave Ruhl was a Canadian professional wrestler who during his near 30-year career competed in North American regional promotions in Western Canada and the Canadian Prairies as well as in Japan and other international promotions. A longtime mainstay of Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling during the 1960s and early 70s, he engaged in memorable feuds with Sweet Daddy Siki and The Stomper over the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl Patrick Freeman</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1932 – 1989)

Earl Patrick Freeman was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known by his ring name Paddy Ryan, who competed in North American and international promotions during the 1950s and 60s.

Gilbert Lee Hayes was a Canadian professional wrestler who competed in North American promotions during the 1960s and 1970s including All-Star Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling where he remained a mainstay for the majority of his 17-year career. One of the first Canadian professional wrestlers to compete in Puerto Rico, he also frequently toured Japan with International Wrestling Enterprise during the mid-to-late 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Von Hess</span> Canadian professional wrestler (1942 – 1999)

William Terry was a Canadian professional wrestler, known by his ring name Kurt Von Hess, who competed in North American and international promotions during the 1970s and 1980s, including International Wrestling Enterprise, Maple Leaf Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling. A regular tag team partner of Karl Von Schotz, the two were one of the most hated "heels" in the Detroit-area while competing in the National Wrestling Alliance during the early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jos LeDuc</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Michel Pigeon was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Jos LeDuc.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Wrestler Profiles: Dan Kroffat". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Dan Kroffat". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2009-01-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. 1 2 3 "International Tag Team Title History". Stampede Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "North American Heavyweight Title History". Stampede Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  5. 1 2 "NWA National United Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  6. 1 2 "NWA Canadian Tag Team Title (Vancouver)". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  7. "North American Heavyweight Title (Calgary Stampede)". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  8. Graveland, Bill (2004-08-16). "Dan Kroffat takes up mad cow cause". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on July 21, 2012. Retrieved 2009-01-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. "Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame". Slam! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. April 3, 2016. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018.
  10. Oliver, Greg (April 20, 2011). "Lifetime honoree Foley captivates at CAC Baloney Blowout". Slam Wrestling. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
  11. Whalen, Ed (host) (December 15, 1995). "Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame: 1948-1990". Showdown at the Corral: A Tribute to Stu Hart. Event occurs at 27:55. Shaw Cable. Calgary 7.
  12. "Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (1948-1990)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.