Terrible Ted

Terrible Ted

Terrible Ted with his trainer and manager Dave McKigney. Autographed by "Gene DuBois", a ring name of McKigney's.
Born	1949 or 1950 Gaspé Peninsula
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	The Wrestling Bear
Billed height	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Billed weight	600 lb (270 kg)
Trained by	Dave McKigney
Debut	1950
Retired	1974

Terrible Ted (born 1949 or 1950) was a Canadian American black bear, known as a professional wrestler. He wrestled for various North American promotions from the 1950s into the 1970s.

Ted debuted on April 1, 1950 as "Ted the Wrestling Bear", defeating Tony Galento in Asbury Park, New Jersey. A rematch on May 3, for Clarence Luttral's Florida territory (which later became Championship Wrestling from Florida) in Coral Gables, ended without a winner. A third and final match happened on June 11, in Marion, Ohio; the result is unknown. There is a strong possibility that these matches involved a different, similarly named bear: McKigney has said Ted was 19 on August 20, 1969, which would make him six months old, at most, in the first Galeno match, and less than 100 pounds.

Ted then took a long hiatus from wrestling. During this time, he met Dave McKigney (also known as Gene/Jean DeBois/DuBois, The Beast and The Canadian Wildman), who adopted and trained him. On Boxing Day in 1958, before 8,250 fans, "Terrible" Ted, as he was now known, defeated his mentor at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. He wrestled three more matches for Maple Leaf Wrestling to start 1959, then headed to Stampede Wrestling, working across Alberta and Saskatchewan. He also had a couple of matches for Tri-State Sports in Idaho.

In 1959, The Leader-Post reported Ted had won all of over 500 matches in his five-year career to that point.

In 1960–61, Ted wrestled primarily in the southern United States, losing only twice in 24 matches, to Gypsy Joe and Man Mountain Managoff. On May 6, 1960, he won an 8-on-1 handicap match over a team including NWA Hall of Famer Angelo Savoldi and Don Kent.