There are several stories of how Spulnik became a wrestler. The most common one is that while attending the
University of Detroit (some sources say Assumption College in Windsor), he heard that there was an opportunity to make good pay by wrestling. He was only being paid $50 a week at the Ford plant and was told he could make more as a wrestler. Since he already had an athletic build, he decided to give wrestling a try and began attending a wrestling school. When he first wrestled professionally, he was known as "Tarzan Kowalski", but was also called Hercules Kowalski, Killer Kowalski (this nickname is used as early as 1950) and even The Polish Apollo, according to newspaper reports from 1950 to 1951. During the Cold War his name was changed to Wladek Kowalski, which was supposed to sound more menacing. Kowalski wrestled from 1947 to 1977 in a number of organizations, including the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and
American Wrestling Association (AWA) as a
heel. Kowalski's rise in the business came quickly. His first recorded match occurred on May 6, 1948, and by November 29 of the same year, Kowalski was facing
NWA champion
Orville Brown in a heavyweight championship match. Kowalski stood out in his era for his larger-than-normal size, and for a faster-paced style in the ring. He wrestled as a demonstrative "heel," or villain, except when facing the even-more-hated
Buddy Rogers. In his matches with Rogers, Kowalski would adopt a more serious "babyface" approach. Outside of the ring, however, Kowalski was considered so friendly and polite that some wrestling promoters complained about the way he would "drop character" in public. In December 1972, Kowalski became the first wrestler to pin
André the Giant in North America, in what was billed as a "Battle of the Giants." Photographs from the
Quebec City match helped to establish André's reputation in American wrestling magazines, since they showed him towering over the better-known Kowalski. Kowalski had done much the same to boost
Giant Baba's fame in Japan, with a televised 1963 match.
Incidents On October 15, 1952, in a match in
Montreal versus
Yukon Eric, Kowalski ripped off a part of Yukon Eric's ear while performing a knee drop. The incident sparked a long-running series of grudge matches between the two wrestlers which took place throughout North America. By the time the feud had run out of steam several years later, Yukon Eric joked to Kowalski about the small size of an audience, "God, that's a lousy house. I might have to sacrifice another ear." Kowalski also gained some notoriety in
Boston for an incident in late June 1958 when he was wrestling
Pat O'Connor. The guest referee was former boxing great
Jack Dempsey, who suffered a kick to the diaphragm and had to be hospitalized. Dempsey did not blame Kowalski, and both said it was an accident, but this further cemented the Killer's reputation as a villain. In 1967, the top-rated Australian television talk show host
Don Lane irritated Kowalski during an apparently friendly interview and was attacked with the Kowalski claw hold. Also in the late 1950s, Kowalski fought what was supposed to be a best two out of three match in
Fall River, Massachusetts against Mr. Moto. Just before the bell starting the first fall, Kowalski had his back turned to Moto while doing some stretches in his corner. Moto raced across the ring and hit Kowalski over the head with one of the clogs with which he had walked into the ring. Of course, the referee did not see this happen. The bell rang and a seemingly dazed Kowalski staggered around the ring and was quickly pinned by Moto. Kowalski was billed as the heavyweight champion at that time (at least in eastern Massachusetts) and, as such, was not supposed to lose the match. Just after the second fall started, Kowalski was hit in the right eye with a pea or bean shot by someone in the audience using a pea shooter. Semi-blinded and genuinely stunned, Kowalski staggered around the ring covering his eye with his right hand. Moto did not know what to do. Finally, he approached Kowalski, bumped into him and fell to the mat. Kowalski reached down, applied the claw hold and Moto was not only counted out, but deemed by the referee too hurt to continue. The two raced out of the ring to a chorus of boos from the audience and dodged various objects being thrown at them. As a side note, the two had arrived 45 minutes late for the match.
The Fall River Herald News reported in its next day morning edition that these two "mortal enemies" were late because the car in which they had ridden together to the match had broken down on the way.
World Wide Wrestling Federation Kowalski became the main antagonist of
Bruno Sammartino in the
World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1960s and 1970s. Kowalski formed a tag team with fellow heel
Gorilla Monsoon and took
Red Berry as his manager; Monsoon and Kowalski held the
WWWF United States Tag Team Championship, winning the belts in two straight falls from
Skull Murphy and
Brute Bernard on
Washington, D.C. television, and later losing to The Tolos Brothers in two straight falls in
Teaneck, New Jersey in December 1963. On May 11, 1976, Kowalski won the
WWF World Tag Team Championship with
Big John Studd.
Retirement and training After his WWWF retirement in 1977, Among the alumni of this school are
Triple H, ==Personal life==