Dave Ruhl
| Dave Ruhl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 12, 1920 Watts, Alberta, Canada |
| Died | December 21, 1988 (aged 68) Medicine Hat, Alberta |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Dave Ruhl The Hooded Wasp |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Billed weight | 275 lb (125 kg) |
| Debut | 1946 |
| Retired | 1974 |
Dave Ruhl (August 12, 1920–December 21, 1988) was a Canadian professional wrestler who during his near 30-year career competed in North American regional promotions in Western Canada and the Canadian Prairies as well as in Japan and other international promotions. A longtime mainstay of Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling during the 1960s and early 70s, he engaged in memorable feuds with Sweet Daddy Siki and The Stomper over the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship.
He was also a close associate of promoter Stu Hart and remained his top booker for much of his time in Stampede Wrestling.
Born in Watts, Alberta, Ruhl was living in nearby Hanna as a cattle grain farmer when he was encouraged by his uncle Ray Steele to pursue a career in professional wrestling during the mid-1940s. Making his debut in 1946, he appeared with many later Stampede Wrestling veterans while in Stu Hart's Klondike Wrestling during the late 1940s.
By 1951, he began wrestling full-time and eventually defeated Al "Mr. Murder" Mills for the vacant NWA Canadian Championship in Calgary, Alberta on November 13, 1959 (although other sources claim Ruhl won the title in 1955). Continuing to tour North America with the National Wrestling Alliance during the next ten years, including the Arizona and Texas territories as the masked wrestler The Hooded Wasp, he would later win the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship a record six times defeating Sweet Daddy Siki, The Beast, Stan Stasiak, Danny Lynch and Abdullah the Butcher respectively. He would be the last NWA Canadian Heavyweight Champion, holding the title until being forced to surrender the championship due to injury in 1972.
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