Edward Wiskoski
Encyclopedia
Edward Wiskoski is a former American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional wrestler best known as Colonel DeBeers in the AWA (American Wrestling Association
American Wrestling Association
The American Wrestling Association was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...

). He also wrestled as Derek "The Mongoose" Draper (Florida) and Mega Maharishi (Portland). His nicknames included Easy Ed and The Polish Prince.

Before wrestling

In an interview, Wiskoski said that he was the first in his Polish family to attend and graduate from college (Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University is a state university in Maryville, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, it offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. The campus, based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, is the official Missouri State Arboretum....

). He also played briefly for the Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...

 in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 before training to become a wrestler, but added that his time in the league lasted about as long as "a fart
Fart
Fart is an English language vulgarism most commonly used in reference to flatulence. The word "fart" is generally considered unsuitable in a formal environment by modern English speakers, and it may be considered vulgar or offensive in some situations. Fart can be used as a noun or a verb...

 in a hurricane." He says that he chose not to mention his NFL experience when wrestling, because of the negative connotations that go with being an "ex-" anything.

Career

After being trained by Harley Race
Harley Race
Harley Leland Race is a retired American professional wrestler and current promoter and trainer. During his career as a wrestler, he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 7 times...

 and Lord Littlebrook, Wiskoski debuted in 1973. Wiskoski primarily wrestled in the Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 area during his career. His team with "Playboy" Buddy Rose
Buddy Rose
Paul Perschmann was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Playboy" Buddy Rose.-Career:Paul Perschmann was trained by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson in the early 1970s...

 was famous across the West Coast, holding the Pacific Northwest Tag Team titles
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship
The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling, which promoted shows in the U.S...

 on multiple occasions, and the NWA World Tag Team titles (San Francisco version)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version)
The San Francisco, California version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship existed from 1950 until 1961, and then from 1968 until 1979.-Title history:...

. Wiskoski was also the United States Heavyweight champion and Pacific Northwest Heavyweight champion.

He held the Central States Heavyweight title
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship
The NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship a professional wrestling championship that currently serves as the main title for the National Wrestling Alliance promotion, NWA Midwest. For most of its existence, however, the title was defended in the NWA affiliate Central States Wrestling from...

 in 1975 and wrestled throughout Europe in the 1980s. He worked as a heel for Leroy McGuirk
Leroy McGuirk
Leroy Michael McGuirk was an American wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. He was involved in professional wrestling for more than fifty years. As one of the longest surviving members of the National Wrestling Alliance , he was affiliated with the promotion from 1949 to 1982.-Early...

 in the Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

 area in the early 1980s. He was known as "Easy" Ed Wiskoski and was managed by Skandor Akbar. They feuded with Tommy Gilbert and his son, Eddie Gilbert. He also wrestled a few matches in the WWF as the Polish Prince in 1983, managed by Fred Blassie
Fred Blassie
Frederick Kenneth Blassman , better known as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, was an American professional wrestling villain and manager born in St. Louis, Missouri. Renowned as "The Fashion Plate of Professional Wrestling" , Blassie was a master at antagonizing the crowd, and inspired legendary animosity...

.

During one of his many tours of the Pacific Northwest territory (where he eventually retired), Wiskoski took up the gimmick of Mega Maharishi Imed (the last name being pronounced 'Ahmed', the joke being that it is 'I'm Ed'). This character played upon potentially the hottest topic in the state of Oregon in the early to mid-80s, that of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his group of followers essentially raising their own city in Eastern Oregon, outside the town of Antelope, and ending with a bioterrorist attack on the small Oregon town of The Dalles, causing the sickening of about 750 people from salmonella poisoning, though no deaths. Wiskoski played the role to the hilt, growing out his facial hair, donning red robes and a stocking cap, much like the Bhagwan himself. During this time he managed Kendo Nagasaki
Kendo Nagasaki
Kendo Nagasaki is a professional wrestling stage name, used as a gimmick of that of a Japanese Samurai warrior with a mysterious past and even supernatural powers of hypnosis...

.

He was best known as Col. DeBeers in the American Wrestling Association
American Wrestling Association
The American Wrestling Association was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...

 (AWA) from 1985 until the organization stopped promoting in late 1990. His interviews and persona were based on a pro-Apartheid mentality and he played on the fragile race relations and political climate of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 at the time. He was billed as being from Cape Town, South Africa, though he bore no accent whatsoever. It was never directly mentioned, but his name was meant to link his status and wealth to the South Africa-based diamond mining and trading corporation, the DeBeers Group. DeBeers also wrestled in Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation
Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)
The Universal Wrestling Federation was an American wrestling promotion based out of Marina del Rey, California.-History:Herb Abrams founded the UWF in 1990 with hopes of returning professional wrestling back to its roots...

 and various promotions across the West Coast.

During his stint in the AWA he feuded with "Big" Scott Hall
Scott Hall
Scott Hall is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation in the early and mid 1990s under the ring name Razor Ramon, as well as for his period in the mid 1990s and early 2000s with World Championship Wrestling under his real name...

 and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka
Jimmy Snuka
James William "Jimmy" Reiher is a semi-retired Fijian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Originally from the Fiji Islands, Snuka wrestled for several promotions in the 1970s and 1980s. Snuka is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having been a...

 in 1986, Sgt. Slaughter
Sgt. Slaughter
Robert Remus , better known by his ring name Sgt. Slaughter, is an American former WWE personality and semi-retired professional wrestler. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Slaughter had success in the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling...

 in 1988, briefly with Derrick Dukes
Derrick Dukes
Derrick Dukes is an American professional wrestler best known for his stint in the American Wrestling Association in the late 1980s as one half of the tag team The Top Guns with Ricky Rice. The team was originally made up off Rice and Jon Paul DeMans...

 in 1989, and jobber Jake Milliman
Jake Milliman
Jake Milliman is a semi-retired American professional wrestler who competed in North American regional promotions during the 1980s including stints in the National Wrestling Alliance, the World Wrestling Federation and, most notably, as a longtime mainstay of the American Wrestling...

 throughout 1990. DeBeers feud with Snuka was notorious in that, even in an industry known for characters based on racial stereotypes, DeBeers overt racism was still shocking. DeBeers essentially refused to wrestle Snuka because he was not white. After a series of standoffs between the two, the feud was magnified after an injury angle where DeBeers interfered in a match with Snuka, throwing him off the top rope to the floor and delivering several piledrivers on the floor, resulting in a bloody and battered Snuka being wheeled off on a stretcher. This led to a series of high-profile matches with Snuka.

DeBeers showed he wasn't exactly fond of certain white guys either. On an episode of All-Star Wrestling, later seen on ESPN, DeBeers called out "Big" Scott Hall over "his use of anabolic steroids". Hall, who indeed was much bigger then than his later incarnation of "Razor Ramon", soon went back to Florida.

DeBeers and Milliman competed in, quite possibly, one of the most infamous matches in the history of wrestling while in the AWA. In the company's dying months, the AWA created the Team Challenge Series (TCS) to try and attract more viewers. One of the matches in the TCS pitted DeBeers and Milliman in the Great American Turkey Hunt, a match where the object was to be the first to pull an uncooked turkey off of a pole tied to one corner of the ring. DeBeers was the first to grab the turkey, although the referee had been knocked out. Milliman pulled a fast one and stole the turkey from DeBeers just before the referee got back up, and was awarded the victory. Also in the AWA in 1988, DeBeers was briefly managed by Diamond Dallas Page
Diamond Dallas Page
Dallas Page , better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page , is an American retired professional wrestler, fitness instructor and actor...

, the leader of the Diamond Exchange
Diamond Exchange
The Diamond Exchange was a professional wrestling stable led by Diamond Dallas Page in American Wrestling Association, as well as in World Championship Wrestling where it was called the Diamond Mine.-AWA:...

 stable, and his Diamond Dolls. During that short time, he would try to force his opponent to leave on a stretcher.

While in the Herb Abrams' UWF, DeBeers became involved in another feud based on race. After a match with Louie Spicolli
Louie Spicolli
Louis Mucciolo, Jr. was an American professional wrestler. He performed in Mexico under the ring name Madonna's Boyfriend, for the World Wrestling Federation as Rad Radford, and in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling in the 1990s as Louie Spicolli...

, DeBeers attempted to attack the referee who was an African-American. Iceman Parsons came to the save and became involved in a short feud with Col. DeBeers.

Retirement

Wiskoski and Rose ran a wrestling school in Portland, Oregon from 2001 until 2006. One of their students received a tryout from WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 in May 2006, Caden Mathews, who wrestled Dave Finlay
Dave Finlay
David John "Fit" Finlay Jr. is a Northern Irish professional wrestler and road agent. He is perhaps best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling and WWE as an active wrestler and later as a road agent...

 on an edition of SmackDown! that took place in Portland in May 2006.
As of February 2009, Wiskoski was happily living in retirement in Sun City, Arizona
Sun City, Arizona
Sun City is a census-designated place and unincorporated town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 38,309 at the 2000 census...

.

In wrestling

  • Finishing moves
    • Double underhook facebuster
    • Pancake piledriver (Belly to back inverted mat slam) - innovated

  • Signature moves
    • Backbreaker
    • Corner slingshot splash
    • DDT
      DDT (professional wrestling)
      In professional wrestling a DDT is any move in which the wrestler has the opponent in a front facelock, and falls down or backwards to drive the opponent's head into the mat...

    • Diving crossbody
    • Diving knee drop bulldog
    • Dropkick
      Dropkick
      A dropkick is an attacking maneuver in professional wrestling. It is defined as an attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of both feet; this sees the wrestler twist as he or she jumps so that when the feet connect with the opponent one foot is raised higher than...

    • Drop toe-hold
    • Elbow drop
    • Eye rake
    • Hair pull
    • Headbutt drop
    • Knee strike to the opponent's midsection
    • Leg–feed enzuigiri
    • Punches
    • Reverse chinlock
    • Roll-up
    • Running bulldog into the corner
    • Scoop slam
    • Shoulder block
    • Short-arm clothesline
    • Snapmare, sometimes while rolling
    • Snap suplex
    • Stepping on the opponent's chest with one foot in a pinning attempt
    • Stomp on the opponent's head

  • Managers
    Manager (professional wrestling)
    In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...

    • Diamond Dallas Page
      Diamond Dallas Page
      Dallas Page , better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page , is an American retired professional wrestler, fitness instructor and actor...

    • Dr. Ken Ramey
    • Freddie Blassie
    • Paul E. Dangerously
      Paul Heyman
      Paul Heyman is an American entertainment producer, best known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, commentator and journalist. He is also an occasional actor in film....

    • Skandor Akbar

  • Nickname
    Nickname
    A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

    s
    • "Easy" Ed Wiskoski
    • Derek "The Mongoose" Draper
    • Wolf Wiskoski
    • "The Mercenary" – bestowed upon him by DDP
      Diamond Dallas Page
      Dallas Page , better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page , is an American retired professional wrestler, fitness instructor and actor...


Championships and accomplishments

  • Cauliflower Alley Club
    Cauliflower Alley Club
    The Cauliflower Alley Club is a non-profit fraternal organization, which includes a newsletter and website, comprising both retired and active professional wrestlers and boxers in North America....

  • Men's Honoree (2004) – with Buddy Rose

  • Central States Wrestling
    Heart of America Sports Attractions
    Heart of America Sports Attractions, also known as the Midwest Wrestling Association, Central States Wrestling and the World Wrestling Alliance, was an American professional wrestling promotion that ran shows mainly in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa...

  • NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship
    NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship
    The NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship a professional wrestling championship that currently serves as the main title for the National Wrestling Alliance promotion, NWA Midwest. For most of its existence, however, the title was defended in the NWA affiliate Central States Wrestling from...

     (1 time)

  • Championship Wrestling from Florida
  • NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time)

  • NWA San Francisco
    National Wrestling Alliance
    The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...

  • NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time)
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version)
    NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version)
    The San Francisco, California version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship existed from 1950 until 1961, and then from 1968 until 1979.-Title history:...

     (3 times) – with Buddy Rose
    Buddy Rose
    Paul Perschmann was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Playboy" Buddy Rose.-Career:Paul Perschmann was trained by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson in the early 1970s...

     (2) and Roddy Piper
    Roddy Piper
    Roderick George Toombs , better known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler and film actor who is currently signed to WWE. In professional wrestling, he is best known for his work with WWE...

     (1)

  • NWA Tri-State
    National Wrestling Alliance
    The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...

  • NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship
    NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version)
    The NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship was a tag team title created in 1962, and contested in the National Wrestling Alliance's Tri-State territory, which was promoted by Leroy McGuirk and Jack Curtis and Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith...

     (1 time) – with Mike George

  • Pacific Northwest Wrestling / Championship Wrestling USA'
  • CWUSA Television Championship
    Championship Wrestling USA Television Championship
    The Championship Wrestling USA Television Championship was a professional wrestling championship defended in Championship Wrestling USA , owned by Sandy Barr. It was CWUSA's longest running title, lasting from 1992 through 1997.-Title history:Silver areas in the history indicate periods of unknown...

     (5 times)
  • NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship
    NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship
    The NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling, which promoted shows in the U.S...

     (2 times)
  • NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship
    NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship
    The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling, which promoted shows in the U.S...

     (5 times) – with Buddy Rose (3), Kendo Nagasaki
    Kazuo Sakurada
    , better known as Mr. Sakurada and as the Japanese version of , is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. He is best known, under various monikers, for his work in Stampede Wrestling, National Wrestling Alliance, and World Championship Wrestling. Sakurada is also highly regarded by Bret Hart as...

     (1) and John Rambo (1)
  • NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship
    NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship
    The NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling. It served as PNW's second-tier title, lasting from 1987 through 1990.-Title history:...

     (1 time)

  • Southern Championship Wrestling
  • SCW Brass Knuckles Championship (2 times)
  • SCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • SCW North Carolina Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

  • World Championship Wrestling (Australia)
    National Wrestling Alliance
    The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...

    1
  • NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship
    NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship
    The NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship was the top tag team professional wrestling title in the Australian World Championship Wrestling promotion from 1972 through the promotion's 1978 closure....

     (1 time) – with Larry O'Dea
    Larry O'Dea
    Larry Davies was a professional wrestler best known as Larry O'Dea. He was one half of the tag team known as "The Australians"....


1This is an Australian based promtoion that was in operation from October 1964 to December 1993. It has no connection to World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...

, the promotion once owned by Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...

 and sold to World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 in 2001.

External links

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