Big John Studd
Birth name	John William Minton[1]
Born	(1948-02-19)February 19, 1948[2] Butler, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	March 20, 1995(1995-03-20) (aged 47) Burke, Virginia, United States
Cause of death	Combination of liver cancer and Hodgkin's disease
Spouse(s)	Donna Conklin (m. 1978; his death 1995)
Children	3
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Big John Studd[2][3] Captain USA[2][3] Chuck O'Connor[1] Executioner #2[2][3] The Mighty Minton
Billed height	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)[2][3]
Billed weight	364 lb (165 kg)
Billed from	Los Angeles, California[4][5]
Trained by	Killer Kowalski[2][3]
Debut	1972[6]
Retired	1989

John William Minton (February 19, 1948 – March 20, 1995) was an American professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name, Big John Studd. Studd is best known for his appearances with the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation in the 1970s and 1980s.^[1][2][3]

Studd held a number of championships over his career, including the NWA American Heavyweight Championship, NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship, and WWF World Tag Team Championship, and was the winner of the 1989 Royal Rumble. He was posthumously inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995 and the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004.

Professional wrestling career[edit]

Early career (1972)[edit]

Studd was trained by Killer Kowalski. He debuted in 1972 under the ring name "The Mighty Minton", wrestling on the Los Angeles independent circuit, where he formed a tag team with "Superstar" Billy Graham.^[5][6]

World Wide Wrestling Federation (1972–1973)[edit]

In mid-1972, Studd joined the World Wide Wrestling Federation under the ring name "Chuck O'Connor", facing wrestlers such as Chief Jay Strongbow and Gorilla Monsoon.^[1] On September 12, 1972, Studd unsuccessfully challenged Pedro Morales for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. Later that month at Showdown at Shea, Studd lost to El Olympico by disqualification. He left the WWWF in February 1973.

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (1974–1983)[edit]

In 1974, Studd joined Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, where he wrestled as "Chuck O Connor".

In 1978, Studd teamed up with Ken Patera to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles.^[5]

In early 1982, Studd gained several unsuccessful title shots at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which was held by "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair at the time.

World Wide Wrestling Federation (1976–1977)[edit]

In 1976, Studd returned to the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he donned a mask and performed as "Executioner #2", teaming with Executioner #1 as The Executioners. On May 11, 1976, The Executioners defeated Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. They held the championship until October 26, 1976, when they were stripped of the titles after a third Executioner interfered in a title defence. Studd left the WWWF once more in early 1977.

American Wrestling Association (1980–1981)[edit]

From 1980 to 1981, Studd performed for the American Wrestling Association.

World Wrestling Federation (1982–1986, 1988–1989)[edit]

Feud with André the Giant (1982–1986)[edit]

Studd jumped to the World Wrestling Federation in late 1982, and was paired with manager "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Studd quickly became a monster heel, adopting a gimmick of bringing a stretcher to the ring and beating his opponents so badly they would be taken out on the stretcher.

While Studd became a top challenger for the WWF World Championship, held by Bob Backlund, it was his feud with 7'4" (224 cm), 520 pounds (240 kg) André the Giant over who was professional wrestling's 'true giant' that earned him main event status. Studd and Blassie had issued a "Bodyslam Challenge," offering $10,000 (and later, $15,000) to any wrestler that could slam him before boasting that he (Studd) could not be slammed. After several wrestlers were unsuccessful in answering Studd's challenge, Andre accepted and was about to slam Studd before Blassie attacked Andre from behind (as Studd grabbed the ring ropes to prevent himself from being slammed). The Andre-Studd feud raged throughout 1983 and Andre got the upper hand and slammed Studd several times, once with enough force to collapse the entire ring. Several times, the two met inside a steel cage, where André not only slammed Studd, but used a sitdown splash from the top rope onto his chest to knock him out. Despite this, Studd began declaring himself the "True Giant of Wrestling," all while continuing to insist he could not (and had never been) slammed.^[7] By 1984, with his feud with Andre still raging, Studd was challenging then-new champion Hulk Hogan for the title; Hogan was also successful on several occasions in slamming Studd.^[7]

In late 1984, Studd was also paired with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, who helped take the André-Studd feud to new heights. This happened during a televised tag team match on WWF Championship Wrestling featuring Studd and fellow Heenan Family member Ken Patera against André the Giant and S.D. Jones. The match ended by disqualification after persistent rulebreaking by Studd and Patera, who attacked André afterwards and cut his hair with Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino claiming on commentary that they were raping André of his dignity. André set out for revenge and accepted Studd's challenge to a "$15,000 Bodyslam Challenge" match at the first WrestleMania, whereby if Andre failed to slam Studd before the time limit (or Studd managed to slam Andre), André would be forced to retire from wrestling. André dominated their Wrestlemania match at Madison Square Garden and won by slamming Studd at 5:54.^[4][7]

After WrestleMania, Studd formed an alliance with fellow Heenan Family member, 468 lb (212 kg) King Kong Bundy. The two attacked André at a WWF TV card in Toronto in the summer of 1985, injuring Andre's sternum. The Studd-Bundy alliance and André continued to feud for the rest of that year and into 1986, with Andre often recruiting faces such as Hulk Hogan, Tony Atlas, Junkyard Dog and Hillbilly Jim to team with him. Studd participated in the well-publicized 20 man over-the-top battle royal that took place in the Chicago segment of WrestleMania 2 and featured in a memorable pre-match interview with "Mean" Gene Okerlund and then Atlanta Falcons player Bill Fralic, with Studd telling Fralic he had no business in professional wrestling and Fralic repeatedly calling Studd "Dudd". The invitational battle royale also featured stars from the National Football league. Although André the Giant was also in the match, Studd set his focus on eliminating Fralic and fellow football player William "The Refrigerator" Perry, who was fresh from a Super Bowl victory with the Chicago Bears earlier that year. Studd successfully eliminated Perry during the match, only to have Perry to eliminate Studd while the two were shaking hands. André went on to win the battle royale.

The Andre-Studd feud took on a new dimension in 1986, when—in the wake of Andre's increasing health problems related to gigantism and acromegaly, his role as Fezzik in the movie The Princess Bride, and his planned tour of Japan, a storyline was developed to have André compete in a tag team called The Machines. The "Machines" angle began when André failed to show up for a number of tag team matches against Bundy and Studd. Bobby Heenan successfully campaigned to get André suspended, only for André to reappear shortly thereafter in a mask and billing himself as a Japanese wrestler called the Giant Machine. Studd, along with Bundy and Heenan, insisted that Andre and the Giant Machine were one and the same, and set out to prove their point by vowing to unmask the Giant Machine during a series of tag team matches; the Giant Machine's partners included Blackjack Mulligan (as "Big Machine") and Bill Eadie (as "Super Machine") with Studd and Bundy saying in interviews that they knew who The Machines were and that they had never heard of Japanese wrestlers with a South-Texas accent (Mulligan/Big Machine) or a South-Florida accent (Eadie/Super Machine) while Bobby Heenan repeatedly claimed that no Japanese wrestler or person was 7'4" and over 500 lbs and spoke with a French accent. However, neither Studd, nor Bundy or Heenan, were able to unmask The Machines and their true identities remained a secret.

Studd, who long had a reputation of not selling pain to wrestlers with little or no in-ring skills, wrestled a notable match with the "World's Strongest Man Ted Arcidi during a televised house show at the Boston Garden in mid-1986. During the match Studd was noticeably wrestling stiff and showing contempt for someone he saw as nothing more than a muscled up weightlifter with no wrestling skills who had no business being in a professional wrestling ring.

The Bundy-Studd team also feuded with other established WWF tag teams in 1986, including The Islanders (Haku and Tama), and contended for the WWF Tag Team Championship held by The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid). During a televised match in late 1986, Studd and Bundy began arguing after they lost a match to the Bulldogs, and although that seemed to foreshadow a feud between the two, nothing ever came of it. Studd's last match during his original 1980s WWF run came on the November 15, 1986, episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, where he teamed with Bundy to defeat The Machines (a match that did not involve the Giant Machine). Despite leaving the WWF, Studd's presence was still made known in a WWF Magazine article published shortly before WrestleMania III, where he supported André in his upcoming match against Hogan (contending that Hogan's friendship with André was a ruse, to duck him as a potential challenger to the title).

Feud with The Heenan Family (1988–1989)[edit]

After retiring for two years, Studd announced his return to the WWF on the Brother Love Show in late 1988. An elated Bobby Heenan appeared on the set to welcome Studd back to the Heenan family. However, with Heenan now also managing his old adversary André the Giant, Studd rejected the offer and ran Heenan off the Brother Love set, thus turning face.

Studd went on to feud with several members of the Heenan family, including André who had turned heel during Studd's absence and Haku (one of the few wrestlers who could bodyslam Studd). Studd won the 1989 Royal Rumble in Houston, which many consider to be the crowning achievement in his WWF career. Studd then served as a special guest referee in the match between Jake "The Snake" Roberts and André at WrestleMania V in Atlantic City. Studd and André had several words with each other both before and during the match and eventually disqualified his nemesis after the giant attacked him from behind.^[5] Studd's last match with the WWF was June 4, 1989, with Hillbilly Jim wrestling in Studd's place later that month. Studd quit the WWF over what he felt were poor payoffs.^[8]

Independent circuit (1989)[edit]

Studd wrestled sporadically on the independent circuit until 1989, his last match was against The Honky Tonk Man.^[9]

Death[edit]

In October 1989, Minton became exceptionally tired after replacing Jimmy Snuka on short notice in a match for Killer Kowalski in Boston. While showering afterward, he noticed a lump in his armpit. He went to a doctor, who found the rest of a large tumour in his chest. It remitted after chemotherapy, and he was told he might wrestle again in six months, but it returned in 1994. When no suitable bone marrow donor was found, and he was given around a month to live, Minton underwent an autotransplantation procedure with a 7% success rate. Again, the tumour remitted and he went home.^[10]

Around September 1994, in addition to recurring nausea and fever, Minton's lungs collapsed and he went back to the hospital. During this stint, he ran a temperature of 108.5 °F. He eventually stabilized and went home again.^[10]

In February 1995, Minton returned for another round of chemotherapy. Though he believed it would be a short stay, the tumour had spread widely through his body. He died from liver cancer and Hodgkin's disease on March 20, 1995. He was survived by his son John Minton, Jr., who accepted his plaque upon his posthumous inductions to both the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995 and the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004. Minton, Jr. also participated in the fourth season of WWE Tough Enough.

According to Superstar Billy Graham, a long-time friend who spoke to Minton throughout his failing health, doctors had told him his excessive use of human growth hormone, which had reshaped his skeleton as well as his muscles, may have sparked his tumours.^[10]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

Championships and accomplishments[edit]

• 
  50th State Big Time Wrestling
  
  
  
  • 
    NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (1 time)
  
  
  • 
    NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Buddy Rose
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  Championship Wrestling from Florida
  
  • 
    NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Garvin
    
  
  


• 
  European Wrestling Union
  
  • EWU World Super Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  
  


• 
  Georgia Championship Wrestling
  
  • 
    NWA National Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Super Destroyer
    
  
  


• 
  Maple Leaf Wrestling
  
  • 
    NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Toronto version) (1 time)
  
  


• 
  Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
  
  • 
    NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Ric Flair (1), Ken Patera (1), Masked Superstar #1 (1), and Roddy Piper (1)
  
  


• 
  NWA Big Time Wrestling
  
  
  
  • 
    NWA American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  
  
  • 
    NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bull Ramos
    
  
  
  • 
    NWA Texas Hardcore Championship (1 time)
  
  
  
  


• 
  NWA Southern Championship Wrestling
  
  • 
    NWA Tennessee Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  
  


• 
  Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  
  
  
  • 
    PWI Tag Team of the Year (1976) – with Killer Kowalski
    
  
  
  • PWI ranked him #60 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003^[11]
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  World Championship Wrestling
  
  • 
    WCW Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)
  
  


• 
  World Wrestling Association
  
  • 
    WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ox Baker^[12]
    
  
  


• 
  World (Wide) Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
  
  
  
  • 
    WWWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Executioner #1
    
  
  
  • 
    Royal Rumble (1989)
  
  
  • 
    WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2004)
  
  
  
  


• 
  Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  
  
  
  • 
    Most Overrated (1984)
  
  
  • 
    Worst Feud of the Year (1984) – vs. Andre The Giant
    
  
  
  • 
    Worst Feud of the Year (1986) – with King Kong Bundy vs. The Machines
    
  
  
  
  

See also[edit]

• List of premature professional wrestling deaths

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 
  Big John Studd on WWE.com


• 
  John Minton on IMDb