"Cowboy" Dan Kroffat
| Born |
June 14, 1945 Vancouver, British Columbia |
|---|---|
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Dan Kroffat King Crow |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Billed weight | 240 lb (110 kg) |
| Billed from | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Debut | 1963 |
| Retired | 1985 |
Dan Kroffat (born June 14, 1945) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler who was active as a wrestler and booker in the National Wrestling Alliance and Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s and 1970s.
While acting as a booker in Stampede Wrestling, Kroffat invented the ladder match.
Kroffat was discovered by Earl Maynard, a professional wrestler and former Mr. Universe, while working as a lifeguard in Vancouver, British Columbia. Maynard began training Kroffat before recommending Stu Hart as a trainer. Kroffat and his wife moved to Calgary, Alberta, where Kroffat trained and debuted in Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. Wrestling as "Cowboy" Dan Kroffat, he formed a tag team with Bill Cody and won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship in the summer of 1971. In July 1972, Kroffat won his first Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship by defeating Tor Kamata. Kroffat and Kamata wrestled several times, and Kroffat designed a new match type for one of the encounters. A bag of money was hung from the ceiling and the two competitors fought to retrieve the bag by climbing a stepladder. The idea caught on, and subsequent matches saw Kroffat's title belt replace the money, with the stipulation that the first wrestler to retrieve the belt would be champion. The idea of a ladder match has been used ever since, as Bret Hart helped popularize the stipulation in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment).
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