19 Facts About Don Jardine

1.

Donald Delbert Jardine was a Canadian professional wrestler best known for his masked gimmick as The Spoiler.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,500
2.

Don Jardine worked in the World Wrestling Federation, first in 1974 and again from 1984 to 1986.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,501
3.

Don Jardine began wrestling in the mid-1950s, making his debut in 1955 at the age of 15.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,502
4.

Don Jardine made his Maple Leaf Gardens debut in 1959 as "Babyface" Don Jardine, a protege of Whipper Billy Watson and wrestled primarily in Toronto until 1961 and returned briefly in 1964.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,503
5.

In 1964, Don Jardine wrestled NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz on TV in St Louis, but did not win the title.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,504
6.

Don Jardine challenged Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1966.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,505
7.

Don Jardine became one of the top masked wrestlers in the Southern United States, particularly in Texas, where The Spoiler was created by Fritz Von Erich in 1967.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,506
8.

Don Jardine famously walked the top rope, a move he would teach to Mark Calaway in the mid-1980s while competing in World Class Championship Wrestling.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,507
9.

Don Jardine was unmasked in Texas in 1972 by Billy Red Lyons and Red Bastein and identified as Don Jardine, still, he continued to wrestle under the mask as "The Spoiler" in Texas and Oklahoma.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,508
10.

Don Jardine became the Super Destroyer and was brought into the Carolinas by George Scott in 1973 and used the "Super Destroyer" name during his stint in the AWA.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,509
11.

Don Jardine was one of the key workers, along with Johnny Valentine, who turned the Mid-Atlantic territory around and established hot singles wrestling programs in what had traditionally been a tag team territory.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,510
12.

Don Jardine challenged Jack Brisco for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as both the Super Destroyer and The Spoiler, and wrestled Harley Race for the NWA Heavyweight title in a main event in Houston, Texas in 1979.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,511
13.

Don Jardine held the Georgia-based NWA National Heavyweight Championship and was briefly billed as NWA National Heavyweight Champion by the World Wrestling Federation after it bought out Georgia Championship Wrestling in July 1984.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,512
14.

Don Jardine returned to the and had his first match back for a TV-Taping in Poughkeepsie, New York on July 30,1984 defeating Jeff Lang and wrestled for a few years until his last match in the on January 21,1986 in Los Angeles, California defeating Billy Anderson.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,513
15.

Don Jardine spent the later years of his life in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada with his wife and son, where he was the manager of a car wash business.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,514
16.

Don Jardine was known to make clay sculptures and carved faces in the bark of cotton wood trees.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,515
17.

Don Jardine volunteered for the Literacy Program, teaching young children to read.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,516
18.

On December 16,2006, Don Jardine died due to complications from a heart attack and leukemia in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and was writing a novel based on his professional wrestling career at the time of his death.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,517
19.

Don Jardine had been battling pneumonia, and went into cardiac arrest followed by a coma he would never recover from.

FactSnippet No. 2,068,518