Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
There are few jobbers quite as iconic as Pete ‘The Duck of Dorchester’ Doherty who boasted a win/loss ration like no other – heavily skewered, however, in the favour of loses… Today we look at his legendary streak at the time that Curt Hawkins is on one similar.
There have been quite a number of infamous streaks in professional wrestling. Whether we are talking about the undefeated streaks of Goldberg in WCW or the unbeaten streak of Asuka on both NXT and Raw. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania as well. As of this writing, there is another streak currently active that has been flying pretty low under the radar.
WWE wrestler Curt Hawkins recently tweeted that he suffered yet another loss on the WWE’s C show “Main Event.” That means Hawkins has lost yet another match yet again. He has his own “streak” going which currently stands at 0 victories and 132 losses. In reality, it seems to be a little gimmick that Curt Hawkins is embracing as his own. While losing that many matches in a row, Hawkins still has some catching up to do if he wants to make some history.
There once was a wrestler who claimed to have a streak going of 0 wins and 300 losses. That distinction goes to a man who called himself “The Duke of Dorchester” Pete Doherty. While some of the younger generation of fans may not be familiar with Doherty’s name, there are plenty of WWF fans from the 1970’s and 1980’s who remember him quite fondly.
The Duke of Dorchester was somewhat of a local icon and hero in the New England area during that period of time. Whenever there was a big WWF show at the old Boston Gardens, you could almost always guarantee that Pete Doherty would be somewhere on the card. While beloved by the local fans who attended these Boston Garden shows, Doherty usually played the heel or villain to the more “popular” stars of that generation. The two constants were that Pete Doherty would compete there and that he would always lose.
So many of the enhancement talent or jobbers, as they were referred to during the 80’s, were seemingly faceless and interchangeable. Pete Doherty on the other hand, was unmistakably recognizable. He had the long flowing blonde locks and a bit of an evil toothless smile. You would think that Doherty lost his teeth getting beat up by someone like Andre the Giant in the ring or in some drunken bar fight after the matches. In reality, Doherty lost them in a car accident while in the United States Army back in the early 1960’s, years before he ever set foot inside the squared circle.
He learned the art of pro wrestling the hard way, by just getting beat up in the ring night in and night out. Even though he was a jobber most of his career, Doherty did have a little bit of a “run” under a mask called ‘The Golden Terror’ and was managed by Captain Lou Albano in 1977. It wasn’t until he took off the mask and became the Duke of Dorchester that he secured fame. He was making at least $600 a night losing to the top WWF talent in some of the biggest venues like the Boston Gardens and Madison Square Garden.
His nickname didn’t come from Vince McMahon, a creative team, a booker or even by Pete Doherty himself. The Duke of Dorchester name came from Doherty being notoriously late for shows. One night, Doherty showed up late to a WWF show in Albany, New York. He was met by a veteran wrestler/road agent named ‘Chief’ Jay Strongbow who sarcastically said, ‘Well, look who decided to stroll on in here. If it isn’t the Duke of Dorchester.’ Strongbow was referring to Doherty’s hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts. The name stuck in the locker room and soon he used it as his calling card for his gimmick. The Duke of Dorchester, although extremely competitive, would lose match after match to the likes of Stan ‘The Man’ Stasiak, King Kong Bundy, Haku, Andre the Giant, Akeen ‘The African Dream’ and countless others.
So many losses on his record in fact, Gorilla Monsoon would announce that he lost over 300 matches in a row. The streak was most likely a great exaggeration of his true win/loss record but Doherty embraced it much like Curt Hawkins is today. All good (or in this case bad) things must come to an end and in 1987 at the Boston Gardens, Pete Doherty pinned ‘Leapin’ Lanny Poffo to end his streak and garner a victory. Before ending his streak, Doherty would always joke in his promos that if he ever won a match he would retire from professional wrestling. Sure enough, after his win against Poffo, Doherty grabbed a microphone and exclaimed that he was officially retiring!
Naturally, that did not happen and he would continue wrestling and losing matches for a few years after that. Doherty had a brawling style and could sell other wrestlers moves with the best of them. He was also a talent on the microphone with a pure natural charisma. He would brag to Vince McMahon on an episode of Tuesday Night Titans (TNT) that he was a huge star on the island of Fulaka. Doherty had such a knack for ad-libbing. That quick wit of his was eventually used as a color commentator alongside Gorilla Monsoon for televised Boston Garden house shows.
Doherty would retire from pro wrestling and has since lived a happy, quiet life in Massachusetts with his wife Joan and his two daughters Lisa and Linda. Pete Doherty is a wrestler who made it and retired on his own terms. So while Curt Hawkins brags about his long losing streak just remember, 0 wins and 300 losses is the record to beat.
