Hailing from the streets of Buffalo, world-renowned wrestler Dick Beyer has left a legacy that will not soon be forgotten. Known as The Destroyer and Doctor X, Beyer never expected to take the path that has made an impact on the lives of people all across the globe.
Since the day he was born, Beyer had athleticism in his blood. He grew a love for football and received a scholarship to play at Syracuse University in 1949.
"I played pretty good high school football, so I went to Syracuse," Beyer said. "The reason why I didn't go to Penn State was because my father had an old '34 Ford and it couldn't make it to Penn State."
Once Beyer arrived at Syracuse, he joined a fraternity to meet new people. His fraternity father was the captain of the wrestling team, and six of his fraternity bothers were members of the squad. One day while playing a game of pinnacle with his brothers, his life would change forever.
"One day after wrestling in February, my (fraternity) father comes home," Beyer said. "He said, 'Hey Dick, guess who our new heavyweight is?' and I said, 'Bill Skye?' And he goes, 'No, Bill was our heavyweight but he just blew his knee out this afternoon. I asked him, 'Who you got now?' He said, 'You!' I never knew a thing about wrestling before that."
Beyer's fraternity brothers taught him the basics right there in the living room. That moment was the turning point in Beyer's life.
"They moved the furniture back, they got me down in the referee's position, and they rubbed my nose around the mat," Beyer said. "The next day, I went and got my equipment from the equipment manager. I was a wrestler."
As he assisted his brothers and his teammates on the mats, his newly acquired skills assisted him on the field as well.
"Wrestling made me a better football player," Beyer said. "I wasn't shy anymore. I was confident. I could block anybody. I didn't care."
Newfound confidence helped his football talent explode. In his senior year, Beyer, a right-guard, was named captain of the team as he took the Orangemen to the Orange Bowl in 1953. After he graduated, Beyer initially focused on academics.
"I never had an idea while I was wrestling that I would go into pro wrestling," Beyer said. "I graduated and got my degree in education, and I went back and got my Master's in education and administration. I wanted to be a teacher and a football coach."
During his years in graduate school, Beyer continued to wrestle as an amateur. Beyer began to get noticed by many across the Buffalo-Niagara Region after winning a match at the University at Buffalo against Don Curtis.
Buffalo promoter Ed Don George offered Beyer his services as a recruiter. At the same time, Beyer was offered a job as the athletic director and head football coach at Dansville High School. The job paid $4,500 a year.
"It doesn't sound like very much, but back then it was big money," Beyer said. "Look at it this way. Jim Ringo, an All-Pro center in the NFL Hall of Fame, played 10 years with Green Bay. In 1954, he signed a deal for $4,500."
At the end of the day, Beyer chose wrestling. In 1962, Beyer was sent to Hawaii to further his career. Beyer gained recognition, winning a title match against Freddie Blassie. He would hold the title for nearly 10 months.
In the wrestling community, a good guy, or a hero, was known as a "babyface." Those wrestlers who were evil, on the other hand, were considered "heels."
"Before the match, I was a babyface," Beyer said. "After Blassie, I became a heel."
After the match, recruiter Jules Strongbow noticed the talent Beyer had, and made a phone call that would transform Beyer into The Destroyer.
"Strongbow told me I had to wrestle with a mask," Beyer said. "He said 'try it for four weeks, and if you don't like it, take it off.'"
Beyer loved the mask, and it would become a staple to his character in The Destroyer. The Japanese called him the "white devil," adding to the image of him as a heel.
In May of 1963, Beyer went to wrestle Rikidozan, Japan's pro-wrestling champion. Nearly 70 million people watched the event, making it the second highest-rated television show in Japanese history, according to Beyer.
The event led to instant stardom for Beyer in the Japanese markets. After the match, many called for a second installment in the Destroyer-Rikidozan rivalry. The rematch took place on December 2, 1963.
Rikidozan was stabbed in a nightclub in Japan after a fight, and died a week later from complications. After Rizidozan's murder, Beyer's career took off in the United States. In June of 1964, Beyer returned to Los Angeles and defeated Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis for the WWA Championship Title. After a few more title bouts, he would lose it for the last time on March 12, 1965.
Beyer became Doctor X in the ring in 1967. After three years as Doctor X, Beyer missed his Destroyer character and traveled the world, fighting with his family until 1972.
"Doctor X was getting a little stale," Beyer said. "I asked for a year off, and I wrestled around the world."
Beyer went to places such as Mexico City, New Zealand, Hawaii, Japan and Samoa. In Samoa, wrestler Peter Maivia challenged Dick Beyer to a sold-out match. Maivia was the grandfather of former professional wrestler and movie superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
In Japan, Beyer trained Japanese wrestler Giant Baba. Giant Baba eventually established All Japan Pro-Wrestling while Beyer established himself as a television personality. He was a star on Japan's number one musical-comedy series, Uwasa No Channel.
"My son says Uwasa No Channel is like Saturday Night Live, but in Japan," Beyer said.
Beyer went into semi-retirement in 1984, becoming an elementary physical education teacher at Akron Central School. He coached football, wrestling and swimming. Beyer eventually retired from wrestling in July 1993 after an astounding 8,500 matches. He fought his last match in Tokyo with his son, Kurt, wrestling by his side.
After such a legacy, Beyer has no regrets.
"I had a great career, and if I had a chance, I'd do it all over again," Beyer said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
