Flashback Friday: Ivan Putski

Anyone who was watching pro wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s is surely familiar with strongman Ivan Putski. Putski was born in Krakow, Poland in 1941 and migrated to the USA with his family at an early age. He began his wrestling career in Texas in 1968 and gained popularity during his stint with the National Wrestling Association in the early 1970s and with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) starting in 1974. Back then, he was thick and beefy and weighed around 250 pounds. His size and strength earned him the nickname "The Polish Hammer." Before leaving AWA, Putski got into bodybuilding and dropped some weight. Putski debuted with World (Wide) Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1974 and took on a new persona. Nicknamed "Polish Power", Putski no longer played the happy-go-lucky buffoon who would "miraculously" pin his opponent; he was now a strongman who, with Tito Santana, held the WWF Tag Team Championship title in 1979. Putski retired from wrestling in 1987, but made a comeback in the independent circuit from 1991 to 1999. Read more about him here. You can watch several of Putski's televised matches on YouTube.  few notable ones include:  Putski vs Superstar Graham, Putski vs Stan Hansen and Putski vs Jesse Ventura. Below are two sets of images of Putski; the first set is of the bodybuilder/"Polish Power" while the second set is of "The Polish Hammer" at the early stages of his wrestling career. I still remember when the "old" Putski transformed into the "new" Putski; I could hardly believe it was the same guy!

Putski with Tony Atlas