Terry Garvin School of Self Defense
Paul J. Capista
harassment charges involving himself with other wrestlers, but
what I am curious about is his background in the sport. Was
Terry a former wrestler from the old WWWF. I religiously watched
the WWWF from the early 70s on and don't recall a Terry Garvin
ever wrestling. Did he wrestle under another name? I do recall
the obscure references to the Terry Garvin School of Self Defense
which were usually made by Gorilla during an MSG telecast,
and as we have found out from Charlie this was an inside joke
on Terry's sexual preference. Can anybody name all the graduates
of his school? Steve Lombardi comes to mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Capista
UUCP: bellcore!pyuxf!pjc
INTERNET: pjc%py...@bellcore.com
Dave Fields
mid-1960s (? - at least). He was a bleached blonde villain. He is the
older brother of Ronnie Garvin.
I have an old wrestling magazine from about 1964-65 that documents all
this. This was before Ronnie became a wrestler. The photos in the story
show Terry and Ronnie training together in a weight room. It says that
Ronnie wants to become a wrestler some day and hopes to break into the
business real soon.
Dave Fields | tdat!d...@uunet.uu.net
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Gary Will
>Terry Garvin wrestled under that name from the mid-1950s through the
>mid-1960s (? - at least). He was a bleached blonde villain. He is the
>older brother of Ronnie Garvin.
Terry wrestled through the 70s as well. He held the tag titles in
Georgia, Memphis, and Louisiana in the first half of the 70s and was
still wrestling in the later 70s.
He isn't really Ron Garvin's brother, but they did wrestle as a team
off and on for at least 10 years. Terry's real name is Terry Joyal;
Ron Garvin is Roger Barnes. (In fact, none of the wrestling Garvins
are real Garvins).
--Gary Will
Sean P. Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan
>We have all heard of Terry Garvin by now and the alleged sexual
>harassment charges involving himself with other wrestlers, but
>what I am curious about is his background in the sport. Was
>Terry a former wrestler from the old WWWF. I religiously watched
>the WWWF from the early 70s on and don't recall a Terry Garvin
>ever wrestling.
To the best of my knowledge, Terry Garvin never wrestled in the WW(W)F.
He mostly wrestled in the South and Midwest. He came to the WWF in 1984
as a behind the scenes guy after working in much the same capacity for
Bob Geigel in Kansas City.
>Did he wrestle under another name?
Not that I'm aware of. I believe his real name is Terry Royal, which he
may have wrestled under at one time.
>I do recall the obscure references to the Terry Garvin School of Self
>Defense which were usually made by Gorilla during an MSG telecast,
>and as we have found out from Charlie this was an inside joke
>on Terry's sexual preference. Can anybody name all the graduates
>of his school? Steve Lombardi comes to mind.
Depending upon when he said it, he also talked about it being a
wrestling school, and also mentioned Patterson's name in there. Even
though it may be new news for many in here, the subject of Patterson and
Garvin and their sexual preferences has been discussed rather
exhaustively in the shets for years now. The Terry Garvin that wrestles
in the GWF started out in 1987 or 1988 with an Adrian Street-like gay
gimmick. It was pretty much decided upon that they gave him the name
Terry Garvin as an inside jab towards the Terry Garvin of the WWF (not
to mention the fact that the GWF Terry Garvin looks a hell of a lot like
Jimmy Garvin).
************************************************************************
Sean Patrick Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan*****Internet: fs...@acad3.alaska.edu
WWIVnet: 220@9704*CFN: au414*IRC: RadioKAOS, Aoxomoxoa*Ph: (907)488-8365
BITnet: FSSPR@ALASKA****Snail: P.O. Box 83381, Fairbanks, AK 99708-3381
*Call me Pastor - Pastor - Pastor of Muppets I'm pulling your string...*
I'll do a disclaimer when they pry my cold dead hands from the keyboard.
Dave Fields
{stuff deleted}
>
> He isn't really Ron Garvin's brother, but they did wrestle as a team
> off and on for at least 10 years. Terry's real name is Terry Joyal;
> Ron Garvin is Roger Barnes. (In fact, none of the wrestling Garvins
> are real Garvins).
I'm moderately surprised to discover this. It's not that I generally
believe what I read in the mark magazines; it's the way the story was
presented. Generally a magazine won't promote somebody who's yet to
debut unless they have some kind of family relationship to an
already-established individual. The PWI treatment of Chris Von Erich
comes to mind.
Live and learn, I guess :-)
In any case, I think the piece was in Wrestling Revue, a Stanley Weston
magazine that's sort of a grandfather to PWI. I'll go through the
archives and try to find it.
>
> --Gary Will
Joe Petrow
>
> Gary Will writes:
>
> {stuff deleted}
>
> >
> > He isn't really Ron Garvin's brother, but they did wrestle as a team
> > off and on for at least 10 years. Terry's real name is Terry Joyal;
> > Ron Garvin is Roger Barnes. (In fact, none of the wrestling Garvins
> > are real Garvins).
At this point in time, I am to depressed to even think about what the Miss
Atlanta Lively gimic was all about. And didn't he seem like the most unlikely
guy in the world to win the NWA World Title?
<<Joe Petrow>>
Dave Fields
>
> Gary Will writes:
>
> {stuff deleted}
>
> >
> > He isn't really Ron Garvin's brother, but they did wrestle as a
team
> > off and on for at least 10 years. Terry's real name is Terry
Joyal;
> > Ron Garvin is Roger Barnes. (In fact, none of the wrestling
Garvins
> > are real Garvins).
>
> I'm moderately surprised to discover this. It's not that I generally
> believe what I read in the mark magazines; it's the way the story was
> presented. Generally a magazine won't promote somebody who's yet to
> debut unless they have some kind of family relationship to an
> already-established individual. The PWI treatment of Chris Von Erich
> comes to mind.
>
> Live and learn, I guess :-)
>
> In any case, I think the piece was in Wrestling Revue, a Stanley
Weston
> magazine that's sort of a grandfather to PWI. I'll go through the
> archives and try to find it.
>
> >
> > --Gary Will
> >
OK. I found the article. Funny how your memory can play tricks on you -
the picture of Ronnie and Terry Garvin together shows them playing
around with a rifle - they aren't lifting weights. Ronnie looks *real*
young (they say he's 20 in the article).
Anyway, it's in the October 1964 issue of Wrestling Revue. The cover
photo is a big closeup of Freddie Blassie (wearing lipstick! I'm not
kidding!). Coincidentally, there's a photo feature of a match between
Pat Patterson and Bennie Matta in the same issue.
Ratings for that month, just for perspective, were:
1 - Lou Thesz
2 - Bruno Sammartino
3 - Fred Blassie
4 - Ray Stevens
5 - Verne Gagne
6 - Edouard Carpentier
7 - Eddie Graham
8 - Dick the Bruiser
9 - Gene Kiniski
10 - Fritz Von Erich
Tag Teams
1 - Pepper Gomez and Jose Lothario
2 - The Kangaroos
3 - Skull Murphy and Brute Bernard
4 - George and Sandy Scott
5 - Hans and Max Mortier
6 - The Daltons
7 - Jerry and Bobby Christy
8 - Dr. Jerry and Crazy Luke Graham
9 - The Hillbillies
10 - Vittorio Apollo and Pedro Morales