Al Blake, who had a brief national run as “The Russian Assassin” Vladimir Petrov in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling / Jim Crockett Promotions, has died. He was 66.
He had been hired to replace Barry Darsow, who was known as Vladimir Khrushchev, in a team with Ivan Koloff.
Ironically, it was a case of one Minnesotan pretending to be a Russian villain replacing another.
Alan Richard Blake was born on November 12, 1957, to Raymond and Shirley Blake in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended St. Francis High School, graduating in 1976, followed by two years at Anoka Ramsey Community College where he obtained a General Associate of Arts Degree.
Music and exercise were two constants in Blake’s life. According to the obituary announcing his death on July 27, 2024, of an undisclosed cause, his mother taught piano and vocal lessons, and his father was a band director.
In 1987, he started a journey into pro wrestling under famed trainer Eddie Sharkey. At 6-foot-3 and 282 pounds, he was well suited for the times, and for bouncing in bars, which is where Sharkey found him.
Ivan Koloff, Dick Murdoch and Vladimir Petrov.
Like yet another Minnesotan turned Russian, Nikita Koloff, Blake got a break very, very early in his career, and with Darsow moving on to the WWF to join Demolition, a new villain was needed.
Initially, he was under a mask as The Russian Assassin, in Paul Jones‘ stable, but soon was working without it as Vladimir Petrov.
Vladimir Petrov on a card in Norwood, NC, on March 20, 1987.
In his autobiography, “Is That Wrestling Fake?” Ivan Koloff didn’t have a lot to say about Blake:
When Barry left, Al Blake filled the void as Vladimir Petrov. Nikita had turned babyface by that time, so we feuded with him and Dusty Rhodes, as well as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. After leaving to wrestle for Bill Watts‘ Universal Wrestling Federation, Al was busted for selling drugs. He retired from wrestling until 1991, when he worked for the WWF under his own name. One year later, he retired for good.
On November 30, 1988, a jury convicted Alan Richard Blake and Gary Evans Lundgren of multiple offenses relating to a conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs.
The investigation actually went back to late 1983, where Blake and Lundgren were working at a Minneapolis night club, and Blake acted as muscle for the nightclub’s owner, Curtis Anderson, and helped prepare drugs for sale. According to the court case, there was “surveillance of a conversation during which Blake discussed weapons (including hand grenades) and his willingness to harm another member of the drug operation suspected of being a government informant.”
[Further details of the arrest, United States of America, Appellee, v. Alan Richard Blake, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Gary Evans Lundgren, Appellant, 862 F.2d 171 (8th Cir. 1988), can be found here.]
It is unclear how much of his apparent six-year sentence that Blake served.
In a podcast appearance, Nikita Koloff said that he didn’t know a lot about Al. “I know his personality didn’t gel well with a lot of guys,” said Koloff. “He was one guy you were not going to rib. He had a personality, that expression, ‘If looks could kill,’ Vladmir/Al had that type of personality.”
“He just never excelled to the level that they were helping he would,” added Nikita Koloff.
In Watts’ UWF, Petrov had a short feud with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams over the UWF championship, and formed a team with Angel of Death (Dave Sheldon).
As Ivan Koloff noted, Blake’s WWF stint was brief and there was never any significant push.
Post-wrestling, Blake worked in numerous professions, but for the last decade, living in Pine City, Minnesota, he worked at Ruby’s Pantry where he worked as the Director of Food Sourcing.
The Blake family in a 2017 Facebook photo.
Blake is survived by his wife, Karla Nelson, a well-known bodybuilder, who he met in 1990 and married in 1992, and their daughter, Claire, and son, Andrew.
The funeral service will be on Thursday, August 1, 2024, at the First Presbyterian Church of Pine City, at 11 a.m. A visitation and reviewal will be held from 4-7 PM Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at the Swanson Chapel of Pine City, and also one hour prior to the service at the church. The interment will take place in Birchwood Cemetery, Pine City, Minnesota.
