STRENGTH FIGHTER™: "MegaMan" Tom Magee

lundi 12 novembre 2012

"MegaMan" Tom Magee

"MEGA MAN" TOM MAGEE

"He was the greatest combination of strength and agility the business had ever seen".

Tom Magee was the real total package. He got everything in excess. He got the look, the physique, the strength, the size, the athleticism, the background. He was immediately billed as "MegaMan" and the next Hulk Hogan by an overenthusiastic Vince McMahon. His first match was on February 22, 1986 in the main event of a major All Japan show, where he took on Riki Choshu. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter said of his first match: "He was the greatest combination of strength and agility the business had ever seen". BUT... his ring work sucked at best. He looked effeminate, too soft on his opponents, too careful to not hurt his opponent, no crowd work, and probably no mic skills.

I remembers when I was a child watching Saturday and Sunday Morning Wrestling, the tv commentator called Magee "le gentil géant" (Gentle Giant) when Magee carefully deposed his opponent back on his feet after submitting to his back breaker. Despite all the abilities in the world, gentle giants aren't the best suited for the violent world of pro wrestling.

TOM MAGEE

Aliases: Mega Man, MegaMan, Mega Man Magee, Man of Steel

Birthdate: July 1, 1958

Birthplace: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Height: 6'4.5" (194 cm)

Weight: 275 lbs (125 kg)

Chest: 48" (121 cm)

Biceps: 20" (51 cm)

Waist: 34" (86 cm)

Thigh: 28" (71 cm)

ATHLETIC BACKGROUND: Tom Magee started working out at age 5 and never stopped. In his early years, Tom Magee was involved in martial arts. And in high school, he was successful at wrestling and track and field events and a phenom at gymnastics. Then at 19, he took up lifting seriously and went to compete in powerlifting and bodybuilding. He spended long hours in the weight room and has been on a strict diet since an early age. Magee has also a strong background in boxing, done some judo and kickboxing, and played football for the BC Lions in the 1980s. Holy fuck! This guy can do it all!!

MARTIAL ARTS:
Black Belt in Karate

POWERLIFTING:
- 2 time Canadian National Powerlifting Champion 1981-1982
- 1 time IPF World Powerlifting Champion (+125 kg) 1982 in Munich
and placed 2nd in 1981 in Calcutta.

Best Powerlifting Competition Official Lifts:
Squat: 860 lbs (390 kg) in an 80s squat suit
Bench Press: 573 lbs (260 kg) raw
Deadlift: 820 lbs (372 kg) raw
Best Total: 2,230 lbs (1,011 kg)

Was the first Canadian to total more than 2,000 lbs for the three powerlifts.
Has set 23 British Columbian records.

OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING:
Set the British Columbian record for the Clean and Jerk

STRONGMAN:
1980 North American Tug-of-War Championship (placed 2nd)

- 3 times Canada's Strongest Man champion 1982, 1983, 1988
- 3 times Le Defi Mark Ten Challenge winner 1984-1986
and placed 3th in 1988

1982 World's Strongest Man (placed 2nd)
1983 World's Strongest Man (placed 4th)
1985 World's Strongest Man (placed 5th)

World's Strongest Man Records:
Cement Block Lift (Smith Machine Squat): 955 lbs (433 kg) 1982
WSM Cheese Deadlift (partial deadlift with wrist straps from 18" off the floor with high bending bar): 1,180 lbs (535 kg) winning lift 1983

BODYBUILDING:
- 1984 Mr. British Columbia winner

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING:
Learned wrestling at the legendary Stu Hart Dungeon. (Weird for such a mediocre wrestler!?!)
Pro Debut: February 22, 1986 vs. Riki Choshu in the main event of a major All Japan show.
WWF Debut: October 2, 1986
Ended his wrestling career in 1989.

"The Worst Match of the Year" back in 1988
Tom Magee vs. 40 years old 54th Yokozuna ex-sumo wrestler Hiroshi Wajima
All Japan - 4-21-1988
Some people named this shitty horrible match "The Worst Match of All Time" and Magee "the worst wrestler ever".

Tom Magee was named runner-up for Pro-Wrestling Illustrated 1986 Rookie of the Year.

Tom Magee never made it in the World Wrestling Federation. However, at one time, Vince McMahon loved Magee’s physique and believed he’d found his next Hulk Hogan.
That must have been true when this June 1987 WWF Magazine story was published: “If young Tom Magee ever makes it to the top, it will be his second time holding a world championship. The handsome Canadian boasts some pretty impressive credentials. In 1982, the 6-foot-5-inch, 245-pound Vancouver native traveled to Munich, Germany to capture the World Superheavyweight Powerlifting Championship.”
Magee never made it, although he did do some impressive flips before and during his matches (see a couple of awful ones after the jump).
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Magee’s finisher was a weak backbreaker, and it’s funny to hear “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart say Magee “would never do that to the Hitman, he would never do that to the Anvil, baby.” In fact, Magee’s WWF tryout match was with Bret “Hitman” Hart in Rochester, New York, and Hart put Magee over.
Hart was upset that McMahon wanted him to lose to an unproven rookie in 1986. But the Hitman was game after McMahon buttered him up: “You’re the only one I can trust to get him over and show me if this guy can draw me money.”
Hart wrote about the post-match scene in his 2009 autobiography Hitman: “When I came back through the curtain, Vince and Pat [Patterson] had swarmed all over McGhee (sic). Afterwards it was Tom [Dynamite Kid] who told me that Vince nearly wet his pants while watching the TV monitor, as he exclaimed loud enough for all to hear, ‘That’s my next champion!’”
Colt Cabana has said on his Art of Wrestling podcast that when he was in WWE developmental, he requested video of the Hart-Magee match, and it’s the only match WWE would not let him see.
Magee went on to face enhancement wrestler Terry Gibbs, and Hart wrote that those matches “stunk the building out,” no matter how hard Gibbs and Magee tried.
In the video of Magee against Tim Horner, the fans appear to be turning on “Mega Man Magee,” as Tony Schiavone and Lord Alfred Hayes call him. I believe I hear chants of “boring” and “mega roids.”
The WWF pulled the plug on Magee around 1989, and he went on to have horrible matches in Japan.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION:

Starred in a 1982 documentary film "Man of Steel" about himself, the Canada's greatest strongman, and his Preparation for the 1982 Powerlifting Championship Munich Germany.

Played a pitfighter/biker fighting Brian Bosworth in "Stone Cold" in 1991.
And several other minor roles in movies and tv shows.

Today, Tom Magee is working as a trainer in the Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, California. Certainly the most over-qualified trainer in California.