Stan Stasiak

George Emile Stipich (April 13, 1937 – June 19, 1997) was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Stan "the Man" Stasiak. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the 1970s, where he won the WWWF Heavyweight Championship in 1973. He was inducted into the Legacy wing of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.

George Stipich was born in the village of Arvida, Quebec. He became a fan of wrestling as a youth, attending shows in Chicoutimi. Stipich and his friends became known for throwing sucker punches at wrestlers; on one occasion, wrestler Don Leo Jonathan blocked Stipich's punch and knocked him unconscious. As a young man, Stipich worked in an aluminium mill while playing ice hockey in the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association but became known for his lack of discipline, with his final coach encouraging him to switch to professional wrestling.

Stipich trained in Montreal, making his debut in 1958. He initially wrestled as "Emile Koverly" for the Calgary, Alberta–based Big Time Wrestling promotion. He also wrestled at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto which included a match with Gino Morella, who was later known as Gorilla Monsoon. in October 1960, he wrestled in the United States for the St. Louis Wrestling Club, where he adopted the ring name "Stan Stasiak", taking it from another wrestler named Stanley Stasiak (real name Ignacy Josef Stasiak) who had died in 1931 from sepsis.

By 1961, Stasiak was dividing his time between Canada and the St. Louis Wrestling Club. In June 1961, he won his first championship in the Maple Leaf Wrestling promotion, teaming with Man Mountain Campbell to win the NWA International Tag Team Championship. They held the titles until September 1961. Stasiak continued to wrestle in Canada and the United States throughout the early 1960s, including making a handful of appearances with the Minneapolis, Minnesota–based American Wrestling Association in May 1962. In late 1963, he had a stint with the Amarillo, Texas–based Western States Sports promotion, where he challenged NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz.

From 1964 to 1968, Stasiak appeared regularly with the Calgary, Alberta, Canada–based Stampede Wrestling promotion. He held the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship on four occasions between 1965 and 1967 and the Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Championship on three occasions in 1968.

In 1965, Stasiak began appearing regularly with Pacific Northwest Wrestling, where he adopted the fictional "Buzzard Creek, Oregon" as his hometown. He won the promotion's flagship title, the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship, five times in 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1971. He also won the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship four times between 1965 and 1969, teaming with Haru Sasaki, the Mad Russian, Mighty Ursus, and Tony Marino.

In April and May 1969, Stasiak toured Japan with the International Wrestling Enterprise promotion as part of its "World Selection Series". During the tour, he regularly teamed with Dory Dixon and Tank Morgan in tag team matches and six-man tag team matches. On April 12, 1969, a two-out-of-three-falls match pitting Stasiak and Morgan against Thunder Sugiyama and Toyonobori for the Trans-World Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship ended in a controversial manner, resulting in the titles being vacated; on April 20, Sugiyama and Rusher Kimura defeated Morgan and Stasiak to win the vacant titles. On April 22, Stasiak unsuccessfully challenged Billy Robinson for the IWA World Heavyweight Championship. Stasiak wrestled his final match with IWE on May 5, 1969, teaming with Dixon and Morgan in a loss to Sugiyama, Toyonobori, and the Great Kusatsu.

In November 1969, Stasiak began wrestling for the San Francisco, California, United States–based Big Time Wrestling promotion. He quickly formed a tag team with The Gladiator and began feuding with Peter Maivia and Ray Stevens, repeatedly unsuccessfully challenging them for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. In August 1970, he formed a short-lived tag team with Pat Patterson. Stasiak left San Francisco in September 1970.