Top 10 Wrestlers who were in the Olympics

The Winter Olympics ended earlier this week, which features some of the greatest athletes from around the world showcasing their exceptional talent. Being an Olympian is an accolade that cannot be taken lightly, nor is it something that can be scratched off your resume.

In fact, there have been multiple Olympians that decided to ply their trade in professional wrestling - and WWE in particular. The company has always looked for athletes that are a class apart, and as we see every week, they aren’t cut from the same cloth as the rest of the world.

As we celebrate the 2018 Winter Olympics, we also take a look at the top ten former Olympians, which decided to become professional wrestlers.

#10 Jumbo Tsuruta

If we rewind all the classic Japanese matches over the past three decades, we would see one name in particular having five - star matches on a consistent basis. Jumbo Tsuruta was one of the greatest Japanese professional wrestlers to grace the wrestling ring, and reached legendary status within the country.

While Jumbo did wrestle in the United States, he gained fame for his outstanding matches in Japan. However, before becoming a professional wrestler, Tsuruta won accolades as an amateur wrestler, and competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. The legendary grappler did not have much success, however, and was unable to notch up a victory in the Greco - Roman tournament.

Tsuruta sadly passed away in 2000 due to complications stemming from his kidney transplant, but is still remembered to this day by the Japanese faithful.

#9 Bad News Brown

Bad News Brown getting ready for his opponent

If there ever was a Superstar who was ahead of his time, it was Bad News Brown. His wrestling monicker wasn’t misconceived either; Brown was one of the toughest wrestlers in his time, and reportedly confronted the legendary Andre ‘The Giant’. It isn’t often that Andre backs down from a challenge, but against Brown, even the mammoth Superstar had to swallow his pride, and take a step back!

Brown was an accomplished judoka before he stepped into the professional wrestling world. Bad News Brown took up judo at the age of 22, and in just a couple of years, had already become a black belt. While he initially targeted the 1972 Olympics, he was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury he suffered during the trials.

Not one to give up on his dreams, Brown shifted his focus to the 1976 Summer Olympics, and represented the United States in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he won the bronze medal! In doing so, Brown also became the first ever African American athlete to win a solo medal at the Olympics, in a sport other than track and field or boxing.

Bad News Brown competed in the WWE from 1988 to 1990, before leaving the promotion, alleging that Vince McMahon had promised to make him the first ever African American champion - a promise he failed to keep.

#8 Karl Gotch

Karl Gotch, Andre the Giant, and Billy Robinson take a picture in the ring

There are very few wrestlers that leave a mark on the industry, and are remembered long after they’re gone. Karl Gotch was one such performer, who not only made a massive impact, but also revolutionised the wrestling business in Japan. He was one of the greatest professional wrestlers to have competed in Japan, and was apotheosised in the country - quite literally. The Japanese wrestling fans referred to him as ‘Kamisama’, which literally translates to ‘God (of wrestling)’.

But before he stepped inside the squared circle, Karl Gotch represented Belgium at the 1948 Summer Olympics, competing in both freestyle and Greco - Roman tournaments. Gotch’s wrestling style inspired the likes of Antonio Inoki, and the German suplex, which he used as his finisher, was named after him.

Karl also competed in the WWE for a very brief period, from 1971 to 1972, where he won the tag team titles. He had also trained some of the biggest names in Japanese wrestling, including the likes of Minoru Suzuki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. WWE also paid homage to Karl Gotch by giving his last name to Simon Grimme, who competed in WWE as Simon Gotch - one half of The Vaudevillains.

#7 Ken Patera

Ken Patera was an integral member of the infamous Heenan Family, and feuded with the top stars in the 80’s, such as Hulk Hogan and Andre ‘The Giant’. Patera also challenged for the WWE Championship back in the 70’s, when he faced Bruno Sammartino, and later, Bob Backlund. Patera won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 1980, and was one of the most hated heels in the wrestling industry.

Before he turned to professional wrestling, Ken was an accomplished shot - putter, and when he failed to make the cut for the 1968 Olympic Games, he took up weightlifting. Patera turned quite a few heads with his strength, and won the gold in the Pan Ams in 1971, secured a silver in the World Weightlifting Championships in the same year, and represented the United States in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

While many expected Patera to be placed in the top 3, it was a disappointing outing for Ken, who finished in the 18th position at the Olympic Games in Munich. He soon retired from weightlifting, and became a professional wrestler.

#6‘The Monster’ Matanza Cueto

Fans of Lucha Underground would be familiar with ‘The Monster’ Matanza Cueto. Matanza made a massive impact on his debut, winning the Lucha Underground Championship in his very first match for the promotion. He has since competed in other promotions, including Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he teams up with Matthew Riddle - the duo known as ‘The Chosen Bros’, who are the current PWG Tag Team Champions. Matanza has also competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling, during the World Tag League last year.

Matanza, whose real name is Cobb, is also an accomplished amateur wrestler, and represented Guam in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He received two straight losses at the Olympics, losing his first match to the current UFC middleweight contender, Yoel Romero! Cobb finished 21st overall out of 22 athletes at the Games, and began his professional wrestling journey in 2009.

#5 Giant Silva

Giant Silva makes his opposition look small

The old - school wrestling fans would remember The Oddities as being one of the greatest stables to ever grace a WWE ring - or not. The stable consisted of human anomalies and was Vince McMahon’s deranged way of poking fun at people that did not meet his expectations.

One of the members of the faction was the incredibly tall, and incredibly ungraceful Giant Silva. Silva was one of the tallest professional wrestlers to ever compete in the WWE, and just like some of them, he was unconventionally bad in the ring. However, to be fair, professional wrestling wasn’t Silva’s first choice as a profession.

Giant Silva, whose real name is Paulo Cesar de Silva, played basketball professionally and even made it to the Brazilian national team during the 1988 Summer Olympics. Paulo played as the reserve center, and took up professional wrestling in 1997. Silva also competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and later turned to mixed martial arts, putting together an unflattering 2 - 6 professional record in MMA, proving without a shadow of a doubt that he was just as bad in fighting, as he was in wrestling.

#4 The Iron Sheik

The Iron Shiek is a wrestling legend and a Twitter legend...

Before going off on tangents, abusing people, and threatening to make them humble - you know, being entertaining, The Iron Sheik was a gifted amateur wrestler, who competed to be on Iran’s Greco - Roman wrestling team for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. After moving to the United States, he also became the assistant coach to the United States team, accompanying them to the Summer Olympics in 1972.

In the same year, Verne Gagne invited Sheik to try his hand in professional wrestling, and a decade later, The Iron Sheik became one of the biggest - and most hated villains in professional wrestling history! Sheik also won the prestigious WWE Championship, before dropping the title to Hulk Hogan, and was embroiled in a long feud with The Hulkster, resulting in Hogan becoming the biggest babyface of the 80’s, and one of the biggest baby faces in wrestling history.

Now, of course, Sheik is a loving, affable character, who extends his invitation to teach today’s wrestlers some humility.

#3 Mark Henry

For the past two decades, Mark Henry was billed as the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ in the WWE. That wasn’t an exaggeration either, as Henry competed in - and won many strongman competitions, including the prestigious Arnold Classic in 2002. In fact, no one in history has been able to match Henry feats in the five competitive lifts - the clean and jerk and snatch in weightlifting, the bench press, squat and deadlift in powerlifting, leading many to believe that Mark was the strongest man that ever lived, and according one lifting statistician, ‘history’s greatest lifter’!

Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta - not the first athlete to have competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics and later become a world champion in WWE. However, before the event, Mark Henry severely injured his back, and while a lot was expected from Henry, he finished in the 14th position, and he subsequently retired from weightlifting.

With the amount of media attention Henry received before the Olympics, Vince McMahon offered Henry a 10 - year contract, and twenty years later, he is still with the company, having won the World Heavyweight Championship in the promotion.

#2 Chad Gable

Gable and Jordan were expected to spearhead the tag team division for the next few years in the WWE. However, those behind the scenes came up with the idea to split the team, and send Jason Jordan to RAW. The results have proved the decision to be a colossal mistake, with Jordan expected to sit out for a year, while Gable is stuck in a rut, competing in pointless tag team matches with Benjamin.

However, five years ago, Gable had the world at his feet. Chad competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where he won the qualifiers, but wasn’t able to progress much further. A year later, he signed with WWE, and was primed to emulate Kurt Angle’s accomplishments in the company.

It would be an understatement to say things haven’t panned out how Gable would’ve expected, but Gable is still young, and can thrive as a singles competitor in the future.

#1 Kurt Angle

The most famous Olympian to have transitioned to professional wrestling, Kurt Angle would tell you - repeatedly, about his accomplishments at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Angle won the gold medal, and to this day, is the only Olympic gold medalist to have competed in WWE.

To make the feat even more impressive, Angle did it with a broken neck. Throughout his professional wrestling career, Angle has had to deal with neck issues, but he will go down as one of the best technical wrestlers of this generation. Kurt won the WWE Championship on multiple occasions, and is currently serving as the General Manager of Monday Night RAW.

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Edited by Pratyay Ghosh