08/04/2019
Three decades of wrestling knowledge, hundreds of matches, thousands of fans and a million untold stories.
Description
Halle Wilson: Professional Wrestler 1982 - 2002
Ring Names:
The Mongol 1982-84
Kid Dynamite 1984-94
Chic Little -summer of 1994
Papa Smurf 1994-95
1995 rehab neck injury
Sheikh Abdul bin Ali (manager) 1995
American Bulldog 1996-2002
The Wrestling Doctor (radio host) 1997
Hal Lee 1998-2015
Career:
While attending the University of Tampa in the early 1970s, he was introduced to professional wrestling by fellow UT athletes Mike Graham and Steve Kerin. There to play football, he was approached and recruited to become a professional wrestler. The quote was, “You’re the biggest, little guy we’ve seen.” He turned it down.
In 1981 while attending a Jacksonville Firebird football game, he again was spotted by a group of wrestlers (Louis Tillet, Frenchy Martin, Johnny Montana) and asked to train to become a wrestler. Initially, he turned them down also, but soon he began to think better of it. He had been an avid wrestling fan in his younger years, even enjoying going to the matches to root for the good guys. So he called the number on the card he had been given.
He attended the wrestling school in Jacksonville for Sunbelt Championship Wrestling run by Louis Tillet. He was trained by Johnny Montana, Snake Watson, and Mike Prather.
In 1983 during a match with The Super Destroyer for East Coast Championship Wrestling, he suffered a broken ankle which required a six-month recovery before he could return to the ring. He returned to wrestle for the American Wrestling Association in Florida in late 1983 as Kid Dynamite. Always the underdog against bigger opponents, he quickly caught on as a fan favorite with his quickness and skill in the ring.
Also in 1983, a deal was made with, Florida Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, and Mid South Wrestling to furnish jobbers for their TV tapings. He worked as an enhancement worker for Florida Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, Mid South Championship Wrestling, and Georgia Championship Wrestling as The Mongol.
In 1984, he began wrestling for Grady Odom’s All-Star Championship Wrestling out of Valdosta, Georgia as Kid Dynamite. At the TV tapings, he began to catch on with the fans due to his finishers, a headbutt or splash from the top rope. Paired up with Cory Stevens in a TV tag team match against The Masked Medic’s, when Ed Sleagle (Medic #1) said “we’re Tag Team Champions, we don’t have to wrestle smurf’s”, the team of The Smurf’s was born. Culminating the angle with the Medic’s, the Smurf’s won the All-Star Tag Team Titles in Columbus, Georgia in a packed coliseum of over five thousand people. Dubbed the “The World Famous Tag Team, The Smurf’s” by Ray Classens the host of All-Star Wrestling on Channel 44 in Valdosta, Georgia, the Smurf’s began to receive offers from promoters all over the south. The Smurf’s were one of the top tag team draws in the late ’80s in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, holding Tag Team Titles in all five states. In 1986 All-Star Wrestling held a tournament for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, which Kid Dynamite won defeating his partner Cory Stevens for the title. It was his first singles title.
In South Carolina Championship Wrestling 1989, he met veteran wrestler and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion Nelson Royal, who gave him some critique on his ringwork and advice on professional wrestling. He never forgot the kindness shown him and Mr. Royal’s love for the business. Most of all he never forgot the words of wisdom he received, “Kid, you bumped good out there. The better you make your opponent look, the better you look when you beat him.” That night Kid Dynamite had beaten Sergeant G. I. Joe for the South Carolina Junior Heavyweight Championship in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Halle said, “Having Nelson Royal watch my match and say good things about my work was the highlight of the night, even more, important than winning the title.”
He defended the title all over the state, losing it in Bluffton, South Carolina to a heel Cory Stevens (his old partner) managed by Steve Stone. In Port Royal, South Carolina, Kid Dynamite regained the Junior Heavyweight Title, and during an attack after the match by Steve Stone’s Army, (Corporal Austin and Tank Morgan) Cory Stevens turned on his manager and made the save for Kid Dynamite. The Smurf’s were reunited as a tag team.
In 1992 during a tag match in Daytona Beach, Florida against the Samoan Swat Team, Cory Stevens was injured (broken left orbital eye socket and concussion). The Smurf’s wrestled together in 1993 in the Southeast Championship Wrestling promotion in a wild feud against The Twisted Sisters, highlighted by their famous dog food matches in Waycross, Georgia and Palm Coast, Florida. At the end of 1993, Cory Stevens retired from wrestling due to injuries.
On his own in single competition, Halle invented the masked character Chic Little, in a yellow singlet, yellow mask with red rooster comb on top. Unfortunately, it was as successful as Terry Taylor’s 1980’s Red Rooster gimmick and soon faded from the wrestling scene.
In the fall of 1994, he returned to the smurf gimmick as Papa Smurf, he was booked in Florida and Georgia to defend the United States Junior Heavyweight title against the likes of Luscious Larry Land, Kid Lightning, Damien, Matt Madison, Scotty Armstrong and the three hundred fifty pound Twisted Sister.
In 1995, Rick Knoph (Twisted Sister) began a campaign to vie for the United States Junior Heavyweight Title by claiming he weighed a “sweet” two hundred and seventeen pounds. He showed up at all of Papa Smurf’s matches and demanded to challenge for the title. When told he must weight in under the Junior Heavyweight limit, he produced scales that promptly showed he weighted exactly two hundred and seventeen pounds. The disbelieving Papa Smurf asked a ten-year-old boy to come out of the audience and step on the scales, which read two hundred and seventeen pounds proving the scale was rigged. An enraged Twisted Sister attacked Papa Smurf with the scales busting him open and causing Papa Smurf to be stretchered out. In a series of unsanctioned matches, the belt was swapped by both men until the summer of 1995 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida where Papa Smurf won back the United States Junior Heavyweight Title but suffered a severe Cervical (neck) injury that required rehabilitation.
For a brief time in 1995, he appeared as Sheikh Abdul bin Ali (heel manager) for the Renegade Championship Wrestling promotion in Florida.
In late 1996, Halle returned to the ring reincarnated as The American Bulldog appearing with Continental Championship Wrestling and quickly rising through the ranks to become a top-five contender for the heavyweight title. Unfortunately, the Cervical (neck) injury returned in 1997 and he was once again sidelined. Facing surgery, it seemed his in-ring wrestling career was over.
He was invited by the Chokehold Wrestling Radio host Tom Motley to co-host on the highly-rated weekly radio show at Talk Radio 970 WVOJ and began a radio career as The Wrestling Doctor. He cited the year working with The Chokester as one of the most enjoyable times in my life, “Tom was as nice a person that I ever had the pleasure to work with. We had some great shows and perhaps the single most humbling experience in my career, to interview Gordon Solie in his last interview before he passed away. We also interviewed Don Curtis and Lou Thesz at length about their careers and views on today’s wrestling as entertainment. But the lure of the squared circle called him back and in 1998 he returned to the business.
The wildly popular Insane Wrestling Alliance in Jacksonville, Florida contacted Halle and he signed a contract to become the Commissioner of IWA and sit on the board of directors of the promotion. The IWA was known for extreme matches and a near-obsessive following by its fans. Halle (who used the moniker Hal Lee) became the by the book, no-nonsense commissioner, who kept order and furthered the storylines to the approval of the fans.
It was at this time Halle came under the care of Dr. Robert Flynn, a noted sports physician, who advised him to control his diet and begin a weight training regiment to strengthen his back and neck muscles. Once again he stepped away from the wrestling business in order to make a final attempt at re-entering the ring. He was forty-seven at the time.
Eight months later, he returned to Insane Wrestling Alliance as Hal Lee in the best shape of his life. First co-hosting matches with veteran announcer Phil Green and then he moved on to once again entering the ring.
Halle as Hal Lee began his comeback in a tournament held on June 13, 1999, to crown a new Heavyweight Champion in the IWA. He defeated Top Gun Austin Rich in his first match back but he lost to Jerry Blanchard in a controversial finish involving Scotty Bickley (the manager of The Family) and a female valet.
Hal Lee challenged for the Tag Team Titles in IWA with Big George but the loss to Dixie Boys, due to outside interference. The Tag Titles were held up and in an IWA tournament to crown new Tag Team Champions, Hal Lee and Jerry Blanchard faced The Dixie Boys for the titles but in an unprovoked attack by Sinn on Hal Lee caused a no-contest finish.
A contract was signed for a Sinn City Street Fight between Sinn and Hal Lee, where the fight spilled out into a busy highway stopping traffic and causing police to threaten to stop the show. The match ended with another run in by the Dixie Boys and Sinn pulling the Devils Tooth Spike from his boot and busting open Hal Lee. This, in turn, resulted in a Four Corners Hangman’s Noose Match between Sinn and Hal Lee to settle it once and for all. Once again outside interference by the Dixie Boys set up Sinn, who attempted to finish Hal Lee with a flaming Kendo stick but was broken up by Scotty Bickley (turning babyface) making the save.
The blow-off came at the end of the year Insane Wrestling Alliance’s Christmas Chaos/Y2K End of the World Show 1999. A no DQ, no time limit, barbed wire barricade, fans bring weapons, 6 Man Texas Death Match, between Sinn and the Dixie Boys versus Hal Lee, Jerry Blanchard, and Scotty Bickley. It was a brutal, bloody match that included a flaming table covered in thumbtacks, garbage cans, chairs, signs, barbed wire, and even a DVD player brought in by a fan. In the end, Sinn and the Dixie Boys were defeated by Scotty Bickley’s valet distracting Sinn, who was pinned to end the match and the year.
Halle didn’t know it but this would be his last match, in 2002 the Insane Wrestling Alliance went out of business. He spent the next decade writing about and keeping up with professional wrestling. Diagnosed with arthritis of the spine in 2004 and he finally underwent another surgery on his lower back in 2010.
In 2012 at a United States Championship Wrestling show, Hollywood Jamie Love approached Hal Lee and asked if he would co-host on the Pro Wrestling Extra TV taping that night. Jumping back in the saddle, he accepted and joined the local wrestling shows cast and began a series of interviews with independent wrestlers in a new format called Outside the Ropes. It was something he felt the fans would enjoy, seeing their favorite wrestlers talk about the sport they love candidly. He began a blog with his new character name “The Wrestling Doctor-Hal Lee” on the Pro Wrestling Extra’s website.
He started this website to pay back the business he loved by helping the younger talent and promoters who have forgotten the things that made wrestling what it was.
Promotions and Titles:
Florida Championship Wrestling
Continental Championship Wrestling
Mid South Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling
Sunbelt Championship Wrestling
1983 American Wrestling Association
1983 East Coast Championship Wrestling
1983 American Wrestling Federation
1984-86 All-Star Championship Wrestling-Tag Team Champions, Junior Heavyweight Champion
1987-88 Southern All-Star Wrestling-United States Tag Team Champions
1988 Star Cavalcade Championship Wrestling-Tag Team Champions
1989 South Carolina Championship Wrestling-United States Junior Heavyweight Champion
1990 International Wrestling Federation-Tag Team Champions
1990-91 United States Wrestling Alliance-United States Junior Heavyweight Champion, Tag Team Champions
1992-93 Southeastern Championship Wrestling-Tag Team Champions
1994 Florida Wrestling Alliance-World Junior Heavyweight Champion
1994-95 Southern Wrestling Alliance-United States Junior Heavyweight Champion
1995 Renegade Championship Wrestling-Manager
1996 Continental Championship Wrestling-
1998-2002 Insane Wrestling Alliance-Commissioner, Television co-host, Wrestler of the Year and Heavyweight Champion 1999
Hal Lee (Career 1981-2015)
Spanning four decades in the ring Hal Lee has traveled the wrestling world in 18 different wrestling promotions and held 11 titles, including 4 times United States Junior Heavyweight Champion and the World Junior Heavyweight Championship in 1994. He was a co-host for the popular wrestling talk show “The Chokehold” in 1997. He wrestled and co-hosted the DVD tapings for the Insane Championship Wrestling promotion in 1999-2002. And now in 2012, he is a co-host, blog reporter and interviewer for Outside the Ropes at ProWrestling Extra.com.
Breaking into the business in 1981 with the now-defunct Sunbelt Championship Wrestling promotion in Florida, he began his career as “The Mongol”. Soon he was booked to make appearances in Florida Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, and Mid South Championship Wrestling. In 1984 for Grady Odom’s All-Star Championship Wrestling, he became one half of the “World Famous Tag Team, The Smurf’s” as veteran announcer Buddy Graham introduced them on television tapings Saturday mornings in Georgia. The Smurf’s went on to win tag team titles 6 times in many different promotions in the United States. Moving into singles competition, he captured the United States Junior Heavyweight Title in the South Carolina Championship Wrestling promotion on Sept 18, 1989, in a match against Sergeant G. I. Joe in Hilton Head, SC. He would hold that title 4 times. And on July 2, 1994, in the Florida Wrestling Alliance, he won the World Junior Heavyweight Title in Tallassee, Florida against “Hot Stuff” Terry Windham. In 1996 he was forced into retirement due to Cervical (neck) injuries.
But in 1998, he was contacted by the Board of Directors for the Insane Wrestling Alliance to become the Commissioner of the IWA. He jumped at the chance to get back in the sport he loved. But the lure of the ring was too strong for him to resist. And after 10 months of strenuous conditioning in the gym, Hal Lee returned to the squared circle once again in 1999. The IWA was one of the most extreme and wild promotions in Florida at the time. In a brutal feud with Sinn and The Dixie Boys, Hal Lee participated in a Sinn City Street Fight, a Four Corners Hangman’s Noose Match and a 6 Man Texas Death Match. The old cervical injuries flared up again and by 2002 he was once again retired and co-hosting the DVD tapings for IWA.
He has known Hollywood Jamie Love for 15 years, so when Jamie asked him to guest co-host on one of his television tapings he felt it was an honor to assist one of the top voices in professional wrestling today.
Hal Lee on Pro Wrestling Extra, "I believe the Independent Wrestling promotions of today are the training grounds for the stars of tomorrow. What better way to profile these young men than to feature their matches and allow them to express their strong desire for success in the wrestling business. My willingness to help strengthen the business of professional wrestling along with Pro Wrestling Extra, it will be the benchmark for Independent Professional Wrestling web-shows, websites, and webcasts."
Hal Lee has proven himself once again by becoming one of the top interviewers in the wrestling business today. The trust and friendship shown by him to the wrestlers have enhanced his ability to have them open up to him and give insightful and informative interviews not seen anywhere else but in Pro Wrestling Extra.
He has added to his many duties a vlog that is shown at PWE to inform and instruct on what is expected in the wrestling business today.
With this website, Hal Lee is venturing out to give back to the wrestling business by bringing his vast knowledge and experience to fans, wrestlers and promoters.
In 2013 he began working for United States Wrestling Alliance and the United Pro Entertainment as Director of Wrestling Operations. After suffering open heart surgery in Sept of 2014, he has bounced back to daily gym workouts and full-time wrestling operations. This year 2015, he is booking and creative team leader for the top organization in North Florida.
