Burrhead Jones
| Birth name | Melvin Nelson |
|---|---|
| Born | South Carolina, United States |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Burrhead Jones Jimmy Jones |
Melvin Nelson is a retired American professional wrestler. He competed in the United States under the ring names Jimmy Jones and Burrhead Jones. As an African American wrestler, he was not permitted to wrestle against caucasians in some territories, thus he also worked as a referee.
Nelson was born and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. His father left before he was born, and his mother moved away to find work when Nelson was two years old. He grew up with his grandparents and five siblings. He worked in the family's cotton fields for several years before moving to New York City at age 17. He found employment at a vegetable packing plant and later worked as an elevator operator at a store.
Nelson began training with professional wrestlers at a gym near the store where he worked. After gaining muscle and learning how to wrestle, he was given the ring name Jimmy Jones by Vincent J. McMahon upon being hired to compete in the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He competed in occasional matches for the WWWF from 1968 to 1971. His WWWF stint included a match against Ivan Koloff, who went on to win the WWWF Championship two months later.
Nelson also competed in several other promotions, as many wrestling organizations in the United States were racially segregated and there were not enough African Americans in any single promotion to provide sufficient competition. As a result, Nelson also worked as a referee when no African American opponent was available.
In the early 1970s, Nelson wrestled in the Continental Wrestling Association based in Tennessee. He teamed with Bearcat Brown and Charlie Cook and had a series of matches against Jerry Lawler, Jim White, and Sam Bass. In the middle of the decade, he competed in the Tennessee-based Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling. Nelson also wrestled for Championship Wrestling from Florida.
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