The History of NWA Heat Wave
January 19th 2005 two of Florida's premier wrestling promoters found
themselves discussing the sad state of "pro-wrestling"
today and decided to do something about it. Sitting in the smoke
filled Karaoke room of Blarney's Irish Pub in Altamonte, Florida
drinking ice cold Bud Lite from bottles, The Eliminator Clyde
Benefield and Rick Love decided that it was time to save real old
fashioned pro-wrestling. I mean, come on, who really likes that
crap that the other shows have been putting on TV these days anyway? But
they had one major problem. How do you find enough wrestlers
who were really trained the right way??? They would dig far
into their past to find the men that they needed to make this
happen. But the first step would be to partner with the world's
oldest pro-wrestling sanctioning body, The National Wrestling
Alliance. So over the next few hours talking between
Karaoke singers and downing cold beer among the smoke and
noise of this crowded Irish Pub, The Eliminator and Rick
Love laid out a plan to give traditional pro-wrestling a
rebirth. With Florida being the hot bed of Pro-Wrestling in
America they started by televising some of the greatest matches
ever put on by NWA Florida in cooperation with promoters Joe
Price and Ron Neimi. To order DVDs of these matches visit www.nwaflorida.com
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The Eliminator Clyde Benefield and his coach,
Milo Steinborn.
The Eliminator was sharing his views on all that
was wrong with the late night semi-pornographic shows that had
become modern pro-wrestling. The Eliminator wanted a real friggin
wrestling show with real friggin wrestlers. A fan and supporter of pro-wrestling for
over 40 years, The Eliminator, who had started his early health
training with the late Milo Steinborn, wanted to see
pro-wrestling make a comeback. He wanted to make it a tribute to
his former coach and friend. Henry "Milo" Steinborn.
Henry "Milo" Steinborn (1893-1989) was
a 5'8" 205 lb German who first started weightlifting as a
military prisoner during World War I. It was during this time
that he also became the first man to ever squat 500 lbs. After
returning to Germany, Steinborn became his country's national
weightlifting champion in 1920 and also set a world record in
the squat of 553 lbs. This poundage would not be officially
exceeded until the early 1950's by Douglas Hepburn. In 1921 he
migrated to the United States and was largely responsible for
popularizing the deep knee bend as a training adjunct to
weightlifting. He taught this at his Orange Avenue Gym starting
in 1952. In addition, Steinborn was celebrated as both a
professional wrestler and strongman until his retirement in
1963. The Eliminator did not want to see the strong history of
weight lifting and pro-wrestling disappear into the garbage that
was now being called pro-wrestling. Having been the senior
official for NWA Championship Wrestling From Florida, The
Eliminator had access to a few very talent wrestlers who were
trained in the old school Southern style of pro-wrestling and
thought that if they could put together a roster of men who were
trained the old school style of pro-wrestling that he and Rick
Love could start a promotion that gave the fans something that
they had not seen in nearly 25 years. Real, old school
pro-wrestling like the original National Wrestling Alliance
promoted in the old days. So The Eliminator and Rick Love joined
forces to put together a roster of real, pro-wrestlers. These
are the guys who train in the dojo and gym to wrestle. They are
NOT sports entertainers, has been football players or other so
called celebrities who want to jump in a ring do a few moves and
call themselves wrestlers.
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Richard "Rick" Love, The all time undefeated,
undisputed, world champion of romance.
The story of Rick Love's meteoric rise and fall in the
exciting world of pro-wrestling takes us back to his early days as a
university exchange student in Urayasu, Japan where he got his
introduction to pro-wrestling from his martial arts teacher, the late
Masututsu Oyama, "Mr. Togo", one half of the Togo
Brothers Tag Team managed by Mr. Fuji.
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In April of 1975, Richard Love began his pro-wrestling training
and the transformation into Asian Wrestling Superstar, "Rick
Love." His training partner for much of his early
pro-wrestling was Kazuhiro Oyama, grandson of Mr. Togo, his
teacher "Sensei". Mr. Togo was considered one of the
world's strongest men in his day and defeated World Heavy
Weight Boxing Champion, Max Baer, in a challenge match in Chicago, USA. |
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After his early days in Japan where he
performed over 200 televised matches, Rick Love moved
to Korea where he continued his training and pro-wrestling
career with "Kintaro Oki", Korea's first world
wrestling champion, Kim Il, master of the head butt knockout,
teacher and mentor of Antonio Inoki. There are few men alive with a martial
arts background and wrestling background that can compare to
Rick Love. He is a seven time inductee into the
International Martial Arts and World Martial Arts
Hall-of-Fame. Rick Love plans to use his energy to
resurrect old school pro-wrestling. A show with no cheap
backyard gimmicks. No
lame boring story lines. Just real good pro-wrestling! |
He began contacting his old
friends in Korea and Japan and put together a worldwide TV deal
for the "Turning Up The Heat!" TV Show. The Korean
Pro-Wrestling Association was now being run by his former
teacher Kim Il, who at 74 years of age was excited to see
traditional pro-wrestling come forward to make a comeback in the
USA. He began promoting in Korea under the "Turning Up The
Heat!" Banner and joined on with NWA Global to become NWA
Korea. Kim Il was the 1958 world heavy weight champion and
the first Korean to hold that title. He later became the
NWA Orient Heavy Weight Champion. Today his top students
perform on NWA Korea shows in Korea. |
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Kim Il "Kintaro Oki" |
Masututsu Oyama "Mr. Togo" |
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Lee Wang Pyo "Super Dragon" |
No Ji Shim "Iron Man" |
This gave "Turning Up The Heat!" TV a few new
international superstars to add to the roster. Men like the
legendary Super Dragon Lee Wang Pyo and the Korean Iron Man Noh
Gi Shim. If you visit our roster you
will find a collection of men who are real pro-wrestlers. If you
would like to become one of them then you should contact Rick
Love at satisfiedbylove@hotmail.com
to get an audition appointment or sign up for the next
pro-wrestling camp. |
To start off the roster they would need a man to
be a trainer and mentor to these up and coming champions. That
man would be today's owner of Milo Steinborn's old gym, Stormy
"Big Guns" Granzig. Stormy Granzig is a professional
strong man, power lifter and body builder who knows the world of pro-wrestling inside
and out. He was trained by Dick "The Bruiser" and
became the World Wrestling Association Heavy Weight Champion in
the early 1980s by beating pro-wrestling legend, Harley Race.
Having forever etched his name in wrestling as a world champion,
Stormy took a break from wrestling to become the owner and full
time operator of Milo Steinborn's old gym in Orlando, Florida
called the Orange Avenue Gym. Although some extraordinary things
can happen in the ring and outside of the ring as a match
progresses, the real battle is usually won before the bell
sounds. A wrestler's success comes from his preparation time in
the gym. A well-schooled, hard-working coach can potentially
make the difference in pulling together a winning career. Stormy
Granzig is the trainer of champions. Future wrestlers can reach Stormy
for an interview at 407-654-7300.
Stormy "Big Guns" Granzig
The next roster member recruited by The
Eliminator and Rick Love
was magazine cover model and pro-wrestling superstar Xavier
Night. Xavier was trained in the old school style of wrestling
and had shown the potential to become a great star. But how do
you test someone's potential in pro-wrestling? Well, The
Eliminator and Rick Love put him up against the world's largest
professional athlete. The 7 foot 2 inch tall, 349 pound monster
called TOWER! But on March 26th 2005, Xavier Night showed the
world that he was up to the challenge and defeated TOWER to
become the "Turning Up The Heat!" TV Heavy Weight
Champion.
Heavy Weight Champion, Xavier Night
The Unholy Alliance with So Cal Val
The first official tag team roster members for NWA Heat
Wave were two men called the Unholy Alliance. The 7 foot 2 inch
tall, 349 pound giant called TOWER: The Human Skyscraper and his
tag team partner the sadistic TALON. TOWER is a true old school
wrestler who got his early training from former NWA World
Champion, Dory Funk, Jr. Making TOWER the only giant who is
actually trained to wrestle. How does the wrestling world deal
with a giant who can really wrestle??? They hide from him. The
truth is that there are few promotions that will book TOWER on a
show because he is just unbeatable. His partner TALON is the
master of the Claw hold and has a mean streak that would make
Abdullah The Butcher flinch. TALON has held several
championships in the past and is now a "Turning Up The
Heat!" TV Tag Team Champion along with his partner TOWER.
TALON was trained by one of the last old school coaches and a
member of the famous Rhodes wrestling family, Kevin Rhodes.
Check out our stars page to see the complete collection of true
wrestling stars on our roster. The Eliminator and Rick Love are
still scouting the world for talented wrestlers. Their latest
discovery is Merciless Don Matthews who will make his debut at
NWA Heat Wave on August 20th. For information on how to become a
pro-wrestler e-mail Rick Love at satisfiedbylove@hotmail.com
or call The Eliminator at 407-761-8604. So thanks to cold Bud
Lite and a mutual distaste for the "modern
pro-wrestling" these two promoters have given traditional
pro-wrestling a new life and given the fans something worth
watching. Real NWA style wrestling!
It has finally happened! The Unholy Alliance was
beaten! The new NWA Heat Wave and Turning Up The Heat! TV Tag
Team Champions are the Dirty South Boyz!
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