Pezavan Whatley

Birthday: January 10, 1951

Death: January 18, 2005

Pezavan Whatley was a professional wrestler in the 1980s up until the mid-1990s. Whatley played football and wrestled for Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). He was UTC's first African-American wrestler. Whatley was also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Whatley started wrestling in 1973 after a brief career as a power lifter. He wrestled with The Sheik's 'Big Time Wrestling', after which he wrestled primarily in Alabama and Tennessee before going to Florida Championship Wrestling in 1984. He won the Southern Title twice while there. He was one-third of the "Convertible Blondes" with Rip Rogers and Gary Royal in the Angelo Poffo-promoted ICW, even though he didn't dye his hair blonde. One of Whatley's best-known moments in ICW was the "Mop Head" angle where Whatley had to wear a mop wig after losing a match to Ron Garvin. The match stipulation also required him to keep wearing it until he won another match. This led to not only a lengthy feud with Garvin but also to a long losing streak for Whatley. Most of Whatley's losses were by disqualification due to outside interference when Garvin would attack Whatley's opponent. The angle lasted for several months until Whatley finally won a match. He went to the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985 and often teamed with "The Boogie-Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant against members of Paul Jones' Army. In 1986, after Valiant called Whatley "the best black athlete in professional wrestling", Whatley turned on Valiant and cut some of Valiant's hair, thinking Valiant's comment was racist. Whatley then became a "Heel", joined Jones' Army and renamed himself "Shaska Whatley". He frequently teamed with The Barbarian and Baron von Raschke in their war against Valiant, and would frequently spit on his opponents during matches. He eventually lost a hair vs. hair match to Valiant and was shaved bald. In 1986, during a short stint when Dusty Rhodes was NWA Champion, Whatley appeared to freelance during a TV interview and made the announcers visibly uncomfortable when he said that he wanted to become the first black NWA World Heavyweight Champion. In late 1987, Whatley had left Jones and started teaming with Tiger Conway Jr. as "The Jive Tones". They did not have much success, and Whatley left for Florida in 1988. He was part of Kevin Sullivan's goon squad in Florida and departed for Alabama shortly after his arrival. In Alabama's Southeast Championship Wrestling, Whatley became "Willie B. Hert" and was one of the top faces for the company. In the early 1990s Pez Whatley had a short stint in Japan's UWFi. He also worked for the World Wrestling Federation as an enhancement talent on their weekly television programs from January 1990 until April 1991, putting over many of the WWF's top stars. He also picked up a few victories on house shows, most notably over Paul Diamond and The Genius. Whatley then made sporadic appearances in World Championship Wrestling throughout the 90's as an enhancement talent as well as appearances at the 1995 and 1996 World War 3 Battle Royale events until his in-ring retirement in 1998, becoming a backstage worker for WCW and an assistant trainer at the WCW Power Plant.