Tanks for the Memories Crusher

[Gil Dobie]

One of my favorite all-time wrestlers died at 79,

MILWAUKEE — An icon in professional wrestling circles who was considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots, Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski has died, losing his final bout to a non-cancerous brain tumor, his son said.

Lisowski, 79, died Saturday night, having never fully recovered from surgeries to remove the tumor at the base of his brain stem, David Lisowski said Sunday. The two surgeries affected The Crusher's ability to swallow and left him partially paralyzed. The brawny brawler had to be fed through a feeding tube for several months. But the operations never crushed Lisowski's spirit, David Lisowski said.

Through it all, the Crusher kept working out.

"He worked out on his last day. That's how he wanted to go," David Lisowski said. "He did concentration curls and triceps work. He just had to work out every day. … In his mind, he never thought he was old."

"The Crusher was a mainstay in professional wrestling for so long," promoter Frank DeFalco said of Lisowski's more than 30-year career, which spanned from the 1950s to the 1970s. "He sold out the Milwaukee Auditorium and Arena on a number of occasions."

A promoter along the way once said of Lisowski that the wrestler "just crushes everybody," David Lisowski noted, and that's how the name "The Crusher" began.

The Crusher teamed up with William "Dick The Bruiser" Afflis and won a number of tag-team titles

[Gil Dobie]

Some quotes:

"The Dolly Sisters aren’t even good amateurs. Larry Hennig can’t drink beer worth anything, and Harley Race goes to a hairdresser. What kind of men would do that?" --- The Crusher, 1967

Trained by throwing bums out of bars, drinking beer and eating mashed potatos.

"the wrestler who made Milwaukee famous"

The following is a conversation with a concerned mother during a call-in TV show.
Mother: You always mention beer, is there a way you can not talk about beer in front of kids.
Crusher: When I was young, ya know doz bottles with nipples, I drank beer out of them.
Mother (laughing): I know it's funny, but can you not talk about beer around the kids.
Crusher: Lady, I will come to your house and talk all you want and not mention beer, just make sure you have a case of beer in the fridge when I come over.

[Bub]

The Crusher was a classic, along with Handsome Harley Race, Verne Gagne and the Vashon Brothers. All-Star wrestling, definitely better then WWF or whatever they call it now days.