Kola Kwariani
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| Birth name | Kola Kwariani |
|---|---|
| Born | January 16, 1903 Kutaisi, Georgia |
| Died | February 1980 (aged 77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Nick the Wrestler Nicholas Kwariani |
| Billed weight | 280 lb (130 kg) |
Kola Kwariani (Georgian: კოლა (კოლია) ქვარიანი) (January 16, 1903 – February 1980), known by the ring name Nicholas Kwariani or Nick the Wrestler, was a Georgian professional wrestler and chess player.
Kwariani was born in Kutaisi, the son of Nestor and Caserines (née Kesaria) Kwariani.
Kwariani had been a Greco-Roman champion in Europe before the war and a professional wrestler in the United States afterward. He participated in many wrestling matches, but the most famous was with "Mr. America" Gene Stanlee, which was featured as one of the top 10 matches of the wrestling Golden Era in America. From 1959 to 1960, he coached Antonino Rocca. From 1959 to 1962, he closely worked with Bruno Sammartino.
Kwariani was the only chess-playing professional wrestler in the United States according to Chess Review magazine. In the 1950s, he was an active member of the Chess and Checker Club in New York City, also known as "The Flea House".
Kwariani had a role in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film The Killing, in the role of a chess-playing wrestler named Maurice Oboukhoff, who is hired to start a fight and so create a diversion during a heist. A picture of Kwariani, Kubrick, and Sterling Hayden appeared on the cover of Chess Review magazine in March 1956.
In February 1980, while entering the Chess and Checker Club, Kwariani was seriously injured after being assaulted by a group of teenagers. The incident was later described by Samuel Sloan: "Nick came in the downstairs entrance one evening when about five black youths were leaving. They bumped into each other. Words were exchanged. Nick never took any gruff from anybody and soon he was engaged in a fight with all five black kids at once. Nick probably could still have handled any one or two of them, but five were too many. Nick was beaten." He was then taken to a hospital, where he died at age 77.
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