Del Wilkes

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Anthony Wilkes
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Dream Weaver The Trooper The Patriot
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Billed weight	287 lb (125 kg)
Born	December 21, 1961 (1961-12-21) (age 46) Columbia, South Carolina
Trained by	Brad Rheingans The Fabulous Moolah
Debut	1988

Del Wilkes (born December 21, 1961 in Columbia, South Carolina) was a masked professional wrestler best known as The Patriot.

[edit] Career

Del Wilkes began his athletic career as an offensive guard for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks football team. He started wrestling in 1988 in the American Wrestling Association as The Trooper, where he wrote out tickets for his opponents after defeating them. He formed a tag team with D.J. Peterson and they won the World Tag Team Titles in a feud with Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom. Wilkes went to the Global Wrestling Federation as The Patriot after the AWA folded in 1991 and quickly became the top face there by winning both the North American Title and the Television Title. He feuded with Al Perez, Eddie Gilbert and The Dark Patriot while there. In early 1993, Wilkes went to wrestle in All Japan Pro Wrestling after the GWF folded and he had success with Jackie Fulton who wrestled as "The Eagle" to Wilkes' Patriot gimmick.

In 1994, Wilkes signed with World Championship Wrestling to form a team with Marcus Bagwell called Stars N Stripes. They feuded with Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma and won the World Tag Team Titles twice. In 1997, Wilkes wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation and feuded with Bret Hart. The premise of this feud was that Hart had just started his anti-American Hart Foundation, and the Patriot was, as the name implied, a man who stood up for America. He defeated Hart on television in a match on July 28, 1997 after interference from Shawn Michaels, but never won the WWF title from Hart when it was on the line (at IYH: Ground Zero).

After leaving the WWF, Wilkes wrestled in the independent circuit before retiring in 2002. Since leaving the business, Wilkes admitted that he had used steroids and cocaine during his career, starting with his college football days. He spent 9 months in prison in 2002 for forging a prescription due to his addiction to painkillers. As of July 2007, Wilkes has since quit drugs and is a car salesman in Columbia, South Carolina. He was sued by Ric Flair for using his saying "To be the man, you gotta beat the man" in a Suzuki dealership commercial without permission, but Flair later dropped the charges.

In a July 25, 2007 interview with WACH reporter Justin Kier, Wilkes talked about his career, steroid use, the Chris Benoit tragedy and various other topics. Kier's last two questions involved saying goodbye to the fans and giving advice to youngsters in the wrestling business. Wilkes urged young wrestlers to "learn from our mistakes." He says that 50 people who he once worked with in the wrestling business were dead. To the fans, Wilkes thanked them for their longtime support, and admitted without the fans he wouldn't have been able to live his dream.