Junkyard Dog
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- The nicknames "Junkyard Dog" & "JYD" may also refer to former pro-basketball player Jerome Williams, or Australian Football coach Dean Laidley.
| Junkyard Dog | |
|---|---|
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Leroy Rochester Stagger Lee Big Daddy Ritter Junkyard Dog |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Billed weight | 280 lb (130 kg/20 st) |
| Born | December 13, 1952 Wadesboro, North Carolina |
| Died | June 2, 1998 (aged 45) Forest, Mississippi |
| Trained by | Sonny King |
| Debut | 1977 |
Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 2, 1998) was an American professional wrestler and professional football player, best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as The Junkyard Dog (or JYD for short). Entering the ring with his trademark chain attached to a dog collar, to the music of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," JYD was one of the most electrifying and charismatic wrestlers in the country, particularly during his peak in the early 1980s. He was one of the most popular athletes of any kind in Louisiana and other parts of the south during the 1980s, having regularly headlined cards that sold out The Louisiana Superdome and other major venues. JYD was most known for his head butt and incredible upper body strength, the latter of which saw him regularly body slam such behemoths as the One Man Gang, Kamala, and King Kong Bundy. The word "thump," which referred to JYD's power slam, was prominently displayed on his wrestling trunks.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Football
Sylvester Ritter played football at Fayetteville State University, making honorable mention for the All American team twice. He graduated with a political science degree and was selected by the Green Bay Packers organization, but knee and back surgery ended his football career. He was a member of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Inc.
[edit] Professional wrestling
Ritter debuted in the Tennessee territory, working for promoter Jerry Jarrett, before moving to Nick Gulas' company and using the ring name Leroy Rochester. From there he moved to Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling as Big Daddy Ritter, where he captured the North American Heavyweight Championship twice.
In the early 1980s Ritter moved to Mid-South Wrestling, where booker "Cowboy" Bill Watts gave him the name and gimmick Junkyard Dog, as he would wear a long chain, attached to a dog collar, and white boots. He originally came to ring pushing a cart filled with junk called the "junk wagon" and lost most of his early matches before his character caught on and became the top face in the company. While on top he feuded with some of the top heels in the company, including a now infamous angle with the Fabulous Freebirds where they blinded him with hair cream. At the peak of the feud Ritter's wife gave birth to their first child, and since Ritter now couldn't see his new daughter it increased the heat on the Freebirds to the point where they needed police escorts in and out of arenas. The feud ended with (the still blind) Ritter and the Freebird "leader", Michael "P.S." Hayes wrestling in a dog collar match. Other notable feuds involved Ted Dibiase, Kamala, King Kong Bundy and Hacksaw Butch Reed. The feud with Ted Dibiase was particularly notable as Dibiase, once JYD's friend and tag team partner, turned heel and subsequently won a loser leave town match with JYD with the help of the loaded glove, which would be a Dibiase calling card, forcing JYD to leave town for an extended period of time. A masked man physically resembling JYD, known as "Stagger Lee," subsequently appeared in the region and began to destroy the competition, one by one, including Dibiase. Though Dibiase and the other heels strongly suspected that "Stagger Lee" was in fact the JYD, they were unable to unmask him to prove their suspicions. "Stagger Lee" disappeared once the loser leave town clause in the JYD-Dibiase match had expired, and JYD returned and reclaimed the prestigious North American Heavyweight Championship. The feud with Reed was notable in that Reed, a protégé of JYD, turned heel. The two had a series of matches, many of which were bouts for the prized North American Heavyweight Championship. These matches were also notable for their brutality, which included "ghetto street fights," "dog collar matches," two out of three pin fall matches and steel cage matches. JYD was lured to the WWF at the peak of the feud with Reed.
Late in 1984 Ritter left Mid-South for the World Wrestling Federation, where he was still an incredibly over face. While in the WWF, JYD made a habit of interacting with the growing number of young people in attendance, often bringing them into the ring after matches and dancing with them (one such person once included a young Davina McCall). Ritter won The Wrestling Classic tournament, often cited as the first-ever WWF pay-per-view and his most notable feuds in the company came against King Harley Race, the Funk Brothers, Adrian Adonis, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and "Outlaw" Ron Bass before he left the company in 1988.
In 1990 he had a brief run in World Championship Wrestling, while it was still under the National Wrestling Alliance banner, where he feuded with Ric Flair over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and won the Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich.
[edit] Death
Sylvester Ritter died on June 2, 1998, in a single-car accident on Interstate 20 near Forest, Mississippi as he was returning home from his daughter Latoya's high school graduation in Wadesboro, North Carolina. The apparent cause was falling asleep at the wheel. According to an article in a 2006 issue of WWE Magazine featuring the locations of deceased wrestlers' graves such as Eddie Guerrero and Curt Hennig, Ritter's body was laid in an unmarked grave.
Ritter had stayed active in professional wrestling until the time of his death, appearing at Extreme Championship Wrestling's 1998 Wrestlepalooza event, just one month prior. He was the founder of the Dog Pound stable in independent Mid-South promotion, based in southern Louisiana. He also was a member of the tWo (TKE World Order), led by Sean Fluharty and Landon Aydell. Among Ritter's last contributions to professional wrestling was the training of former WWF wrestlers Rodney Mack and Jazz.
In 2004, his daughter, LaToya Ritter, represented her father as he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at a ceremony held on March 13, 2004, the day before WrestleMania XX.
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
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- Thump (Scoop / Front powerslam)
- DogButt (JYD crawls on all fours, repeatedly headbutts his opponent and would then lift up his leg and pretend to urinate on his opponent)
- Dog-like antics, including biting the air and barking at the opponent
- Headbutts to a cornered or standing opponent
- Shoulderbreaker
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- J.R. Foley
- Music was a very important part of Junkyard Dogs character.
- In mid-South his first theme song was Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce, then it was changed to Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, before he used Atomic Dog by George Clinton.
- In the WWF he used Another One Bites the Dust again, before he and Vicki Sue Robinson recorded a song specifically for him, Grab Them Cakes which was released in 1985 on "The Wrestling Album". Robinson and JYD once performed this song together at the 1986 Slammy Awards as well.
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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- Mid-South Louisiana Championship (3 times)
- Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
- Mid-South Tag Tean Championship (8 times) - with Buck Robley (1), Terry Orndorff (1), Killer Karl Kox (1), Dick Murdoch (3), Mike George (1), and Jerry Stubbs (1)
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- PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (1980)
- PWI ranked him # 51 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.
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- Feud of the Year award (1982) vs. Ted DiBiase
1The Bunkhouse Stampede was originally held in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. However, in November of 1988, Ted Turner purchased the promotion from Jim Crockett, Jr. and renamed it World Championship Wrestling. The Junkyard Dog's win came a little over one month after the promotion's purchase and renaming.
