Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Growing up as a wrestling fan in the 1980’s, certainly had its challenges. Cable television was still in its infancy and the internet really wasn’t a thing yet. Depending upon where you lived, the nearest wrestling territory is what you were able to see each week.
For me, it was the World Wrestling Federation…and I loved it. As I got older and wiser, I knew there was a whole other world of wrestling out there. The only way I could discover these other wrestling territories was by buying wrestling magazines.
Ah yes, who can forget the great Apter mags of the 80’s such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler and so many others. It was within the pages of those magazines where you could learn about wrestlers, managers, announcers and promotions from all over the country and the world. It is where I read about the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico, was terrified by Abdullah the Butcher, in awe of ‘The Exotic’ Adrian Street and drooled over Missy Hyatt. These magazines gave me and others another side of wrestling that we just didn’t have access to.
It was in those magazines, I got to read about up and coming wrestlers who had a bright future in the business. Pro wrestlers who were can’t miss stars. They were big and looked liked they were chiseled out of granite. Wrestlers who I thought we would see as a future WWF world champion. I remember a few in particular that caught my eye and I knew one day would be huge stars. Now, thirty something years later…I look back and wonder whatever happened to those stars of the future? As you can already tell, many of the men I thought would be break out stars one day….didn’t exactly break out into the big time. This piece takes a look at those wrestlers I was convinced would be the next “Hulk Hogan” and sees what their statuses are today.
Power Team USA
The team consisted of four muscular dudes who looked the part of future stars. They were managed by Rick Bassman and consisted of members named Flash, Justice, Glory and Commando. As we all now know, Flash and Justice became the break out stars of the group and had hall of fame careers. Flash ended up becoming Sting and Justice would later be known as the Ultimate Warrior. Rick Bassman ended up opening a wrestling school and is now an author and a television producer.
So that leaves us with the other two members of Power Team USA…Glory and Commando. Also known by their real names of Garland Donoho and Mark Miller respectively. Their wrestling careers never got off the ground and Garland ‘Glory’ Donoho works for a sheriff’s office in Virginia and resides with his family in North Carolina. Mark ‘Commando’ Miller unfortunately passed away in 2014 of unknown causes.
Steve DiSalvo
Steve ‘The Strangler’ DiSalvo or also known as Steve Strong was a wrestler I was convinced would be huge in the business. Disalvo wrestled all over the world including places like Canada and Puerto Rico. He did have a taste of the “big time” when he wrestled for both WCW and the WWF ever so briefly. In WCW, Disalvo had a ridiculous gimmick called The Minotaur and didn’t make much noise with that company. He also wrestled for the WWF on house shows…but never did much more than that.
By his own admission, DiSalvo just didn’t have the burning passion to be a wrestler after a while and that perhaps cost him some big opportunities. Today, Steve DiSalvo is working for a consulting firm as a recruiter and lives in Minnesota.
Larry Cameron
‘Lethal’ Larry Cameron was another wrestler that looked the part of a big time superstar. He was a former NFL and CFL football player who transitioned into professional wrestling. Cameron trained alongside Brian Pillman in the infamous Stu Hart dungeon. ‘Lethal’ Larry wrestled in places like Calgary Stampede, New Japan, Europe, the AWA, NWA/WCW and even had a tryout match with the WWF.
Unfortunately, Cameron died suddenly of a heart attack while wrestling in Europe in 1993. He was 41 years old at the time of his death.
While in some ways these guys never really “made it” to become huge stars…some did achieve a good amount of success. Just not the type of success I was expecting as a kid. Are there any stars you thought would be huge when you saw them and they never quite panned out?