When Jerry Brisco called Tony Garea to let him know that he had been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Jack Brisco Spotlight Award at the upcoming George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction weekend, Garea couldn’t help but reminisce.
“I was really overwhelmed just with him asking me,” Garea told SlamWrestling.net in May 2024, at the SICW Fan Fest 2 in St. Louis.
“I consider Jack as my mentor. When I first came [to the United States] in 1972, Jack and I started up a friendship,” recalled Garea.
A native of New Zealand, the 6-foot-2, 245 pound Garea got into pro wrestling in the late 1960s, training under “Wild Don” Scott, along with his younger brother, Johnny Garea (who wrestled as Johnny Garcia for a short while). After working in Australia for promoter Jim Barnett, Tony was invited to the US by Barnett, but started in Florida, not in Georgia where Barnett had set up shop after years Down Under.
Tony Garea takes a seat. Photo courtesy Chris Swisher
Solidly built, muscular and handsome, with a darling accent, Garea made the ladies swoon.
Jack Brisco, who would become NWA World champion in 1973, helped out Garea a lot.
“We used to ride to Jacksonville, Florida, every Thursday from Tampa. He told me so much about the business, like how to protect myself, how to tell a story, don’t be selfish in the ring, make your opponent look good. Just so many things,” said Garea.
Jack Brisco and Tony Garea on the same card in Miami, Florida, on August 30, 1972.
One time, Garea had been to the hospital — he can’t remember why — and missed his ride to the next town. Not knowing what to do, he found a way to call Brisco. His advice? “Tony, make the flight. Take a plane if you have to.”
Garea shakes his head in disbelief at the memory. “I wasn’t making any money; I took a plane from Tampa to Miami and then I got a ride back with a couple of the boys — I forget who — but then I had to pay them trans plus my airline ticket. I’d be lucky if I made $5 that night. But I made the shot. That’s what he said to me, ‘It’s most important that you make the shot; you’ve been booked, make it,'” he said. Lesson learned.
But that was really the last time that he and Brisco spent much time together in a territory, though Garea can remember watching Jack and Jerry wrestle Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch in the WWF, when the Briscos were briefly in the expanding territory after helping broker a deal where WWF got the Georgia Championship Wrestling time slot on WTBS, known as Black Saturday.
The memories and the friendships are a big part of why you will find Garea at reunions like the one in St. Louis, the Cauliflower Alley Club, or the Tragos/Thesz event, which will be held at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum, in Waterloo, Iowa, July 18-20, 2024.
“We’re like family, we’re with each other every day, seven days a week and then we’re gone and we don’t see each other forever,” mused Garea.
Bob Orton Sr. and his son, Bob Jr., and Tony Garea on the same card in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 28, 1972.
He mentioned Bob Orton, Jr., who was inducted into the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame. “We started together in Tampa in 1972, and then he came up to the WWE, WWF at that time, and I was there and I worked with him many times, we had just fantastic matches, because we enjoyed ourselves,” said Garea.
Working as an agent for WWE, Garea got to see Orton Jr. come in for angles involving his son, Randy Orton.
“They brought Bob in when Randy was there, as a little bit of a rub for Randy,” said Garea, marveling. “Bob, he ran down to the ring a couple of times, and his timing was so perfect. It just couldn’t have been any more perfect. But that’s experience which other guys didn’t come. ‘Oh, will you run down to the ring.’ And they just get to the ring at whatever time they feel like, but Bob got there at exactly the right time. It’s all in the timing and a lot of these young fellows they don’t understand that.”
It’s hard to pinpoint Garea’s final, final bout, because he kept looking around the room in St. Louis and recalling times he donned the boots when still an agent.
Like One Man Gang (George Gray). “I still remember the match because I thought it was great. We worked in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was filling in for a Junkyard Dog. Junkyard’s plane, he missed the connection or the plane was canceled or something and as an agent, I brought my gear because back then I would fill in,” said Garea, who recalled thinking, Who knows me? I’m at the end of my career. “But we had a heck of a match.”
Tony Garea and Merci DeRusha at the SICW Fan Fest II at the Aviator Hotel in St. Louis, on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Photo by Wayne Palmer
There was a bout against Cowboy Bob Orton in Detroit (taking Tony Atlas’ place, he believed). And a three-show run teaming with Jim Brunzell, taking Brian Blair’s place, “in the Midwest somewhere” against Demolition. “It was great. I said to them, ‘Geez, I could work another 40 years with you guys.'”
TOP PHOTO: Tony Garea in his prime, left, and Tony Garea at the 80s Wrestling Con on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown, New Jersey. Photo by George Tahinos, georgetahinos.smugmug.com
2024 TRAGOS/THESZ HOF HONOREES
- Greg Gagne – Inductee
- Arn Anderson – Frank Gotch Award
- Tito Santana – Lou Thesz Award
- Tony Garea – Jack Brisco Spotlight Award
- Tony Schiavone – Gordon Solie Award
- Don Frye – George Tragos Award
- Tom Prichard – Verne Gagne Trainer Award
- Al Getz – Jim Melby Award
- Tim Dalton – Impact Award
RELATED LINKS
- SlamWrestling.net’s George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame story archive
- Tragos/Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame website