Wrestler's Profile

KCW KCW Roster Rankings T-Bolts Profile Featured Wrestler KCW Hall of Fame Photo 2 Our Favorite Links Catalog Guest Book

Wrestler's Statistics

Wrestler: Thunderbolt Patterson
Real Name: Claud Patterson
Birthday:
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Marital Status:
Height & Weight:
Trained by:
Debut: 1967
Previous Gimmicks: Thunderbolt Peters
Sweet Daddy Brown
T-Bolt
Finishing Move:
Favorite Moves:
Notable Feuds:
Bobo Brazil
Pepper Gomez
Cyclone Negro
Rock Hunter
Ole Anderson
IV Horsemen


Wrestler:	Thunderbolt Patterson
Real Name:	Claud Patterson
Birthday:
Hometown:	Atlanta, Georgia
Marital Status:
Height & Weight:
Trained by:
Debut:	1967
Previous Gimmicks:	Thunderbolt Peters Sweet Daddy Brown T-Bolt
Finishing Move:
Favorite Moves:
Notable Feuds:	Bobo Brazil Pepper Gomez Cyclone Negro Rock Hunter Ole Anderson IV Horsemen

Title History

· WWA (Los Angeles) World Tag Team titles

· (Amarillo) Brass Knucks/Southwest title (3)

· NWA (Dallas) American Tag Team titles (3)

· (Florida) Brass Knucks title

· NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles

· NWA Florida Heavyweight title (March 1976)

· ASWA (Atlanta) United States Heavyweight title

· NWA Georgia Tag Team titles (3)

· NWA (Georgia) Television title

· NWA (Georgia) Television title (1979)

· CWA Memphis World Heavyweight title · NWA National Tag Team titles w/Ole Anderson (1985)

Wrestler Career Highights

Claude Patterson had grown up in Iowa and worked for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa when he broke into pro wrestling in the Kansas City area. Fellow wrestler Ox Baker was from the same area and they wrestled in Kansas City at around the same time. Since John Deere would not grant Patterson a leave of absence, he quit Deere and started wrestling full time. It was difficult for him until Dory Funk Sr., the promoter in Amarillo and father of Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk took a chance on him. He did well enough there to get work in Houston for Paul Boesch but didn't hit the big time until he wrestled in Los Angeles and was WWA Tag Team Champion with Alberto Torres.Thunderbolt Patterson was a big star in southern wrestling promotions in the 1960s, 70s and 80s in the NWA and Georgia..

Thunderbolt won multiple tag titles with partners such as Tony Atlas, Jerry Brisco, and Tommy Rich..

1985: Thunderbolt & Ole Anderson were the NWA National tag team champs when Ole turned on him to join the IV Horsemen..

~~~Thunderbolt was the first wrestler ever double-crossed by the IV Horsemen..

One of the more difficult things Patterson had to deal with was of course racism. This was been dealing with racism from promoters for many years (he would later recall that only Dory Funk Sr. had bacprominent among the fans, his fellow wrestlers and many promoters. In an interview, Patterson would recall how he had often been cheated out of a fair payout, even when he had drawn well, because the promoter felt he could get by with it. He would also recall how when Florida promoter Clarence "Cowboy" Lutrall was dying, and Patterson made an offer for a share of the promotion, Lutrall's response was to laugh in his face.

Patterson was blacklisted from wrestling in 1972 when he agreed to work for an outlaw promotion (that is, one outside of the NWA) run by Ann Gunkel, the widow of his old friend and Georgia promoter Ray Gunkel. Thunderbolt wouldn't give into the system. He would never forget his friend Ray Gunkel or his widow tring to make a living after the wrestlers' untimely death. He also tried to start a werstler's union, also a dream of Jim Wilson a former NFL player and wrestler, himself blacklisted. It would be years, with Patterson working at the Los Angeles Times in the interim, before he would get another shot, when Dusty Rhodes took ill in Florida.