Blackjack Lanza passed away on December 8. These are the 5 intriguing facts you should know about him.
Blackjack Lanza was one of the greats in the history of pro-wrestling. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 86. However, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006. Let us know some interesting facts about Jack Lanza.
These are the 5 intriguing facts you didn’t know about Blackjack Lanza
- The beginning of Lanza
Jack began his wrestling career in 1961 and was trained by legendary promoter Verne Gagne. Lanza began appearing for Gagne’s AWA promotion in mid-1962. Blackjack teamed up with Blackack Mulligan during the 1970s, managed by Heenan. He performed for several promotions like American Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Association and WWE. Lanza won several championship titles alongside Mulligan.
He was first Bobby Heenan, who later managed him said some great words about him in his first book.
“I hit it off with Blackjack Lanza the first day I met him. It was just one of those things. We made each other laugh and became the best of friends” (h/t slam wrestling).
2. Legendary Blackjacks tag team with Mulligan
Mulligan and Lanza were initially paired in 1972 in Indianapolis under the guidance of Bobby Heenan. The pair won tag team gold throughout the decade, including the WWWF Tag Team titles in 1975 and WWA, AWA World Tag Team Championship. In The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, Mulligan even said that The Tag Teams were two main eventers and were too good to last.
“Most tag teams are one weak guy and one strong guy, not two main eventers. Lanza and I were two main eventers, which was hard to keep as a team,” explained Mulligan. “Usually a team is formed by a weakness of one who’s an undercard guy, who’s a great talent that’s never going to make it big, and this other great talent that pulls the team along. But they complement each other together … We were main eventers, so we didn’t really hold the longevity that we should have because we split.”
3. Lanza had a unique gimmick
Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza had a unique gimmick. Blackjacks used to wear their big 10 Gallon hats, black vests, black boots and black coats. They dominated territories like Montreal, Dallas, Chicago and Indianapolis. The stable had their most extensive run winning the tag team titles from Dominic Denucci and Pat Barrett in August 1975 at WWWF.
4. Blackjack worked as an agent for WWE
When WWF was expanding in the 1980s, Lanza started working as a road agent behind the scenes and producer. Unfortunately, as an agent in the 1980s and 1990s, he used too many roles, from arranging match results and helping wrestling plan to fix any travel woes and even dealing with the venue.
Vince Russo wrote in his book Forgiven about working with Lanza.
“I grew very close to Lanza. I was a sponge around him — I wanted to learn everything from Jack. The guy had been a legend in his day, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work under him,”
“As time went on, I’d tell him how I had so much more to offer than Vince [McMahon] could ever realize. Jack used to tell me every week, ‘Be patient, and just keep doing what you’re doing.’ Man, I loved the guy; we grew extremely close.”
5. Blackjack Lanza was Hall of Famer
In 2004 Lanza did the donor of inducting Bobby Heenan into the WWE Hall of Fame, and two years later, in 2006, The Blackjacks were placed into the same by Heenan.
In 2016 Blackjacks were inducted into The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in its first ceremony held in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Lanza had been in poor health for a long time and was survived by his wife, Barbara Jean Kalil, whom he married on September 28, 1957, in Douglas, Minnesota.
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