IWA HONOREE PAT BARRETT:

International  Wrestling Honoree, Pat Barrett
Hard-Earned Respect Spoken in Many Languages
by Jeff Sharkey
Photos Courtesy of Wrestling Revue Archives, www.wrestleprints.com
Chris Swisher, Brian Bukantis, Libnan Ayoub, Bob Leonard
 

The conversation with Pat Barrett starts with a question from Barrett himself, rather than the interviewer.   It’s an honest enough query; Barrett would like to know a bit more about the International Wrestling Award he will be receiving this April from the Cauliflower Alley Club.   It is one of the newer awards presented at CAC reunions, and the criteria for a wrestler to merit consideration may still be finding its guidelines.  With Pat Barrett’s portfolio, it should now include international traveling as a qualification, if it has not yet already been established.

In documenting the litany of nations he has reached by plane, train and automobile throughout his career, Pat Barrett creates an impressive imagery.  Using his native Ireland as a starting point, one can visualize the World map as a series of arrows point toward each of them.  “England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Spain, Austria, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore…” Barrett says, with this reporter’s pen a few steps behind as he finishes.  “The Middle East, including Jordan, where I made my last tour in 1993.”

North American wrestling fans had plenty of opportunity to witness Barrett in action in the three decades prior to that farewell tour.  Again, the list of territories is quite extensive.  “Tennessee, Arizona, the WWWF, California, Florida, Washington, Oregon, Vancouver, Georgia, Georgia, Oklahoma and right through the southern belt,”  Barrett said.  “I never went to Minnesota or the Carolinas, but just about every other one.”

It’s the nomadic lifestyle that often attracts a young man or woman into the wrestling world…at least at first.  But the road has often been the opponent that wrestlers fall victim to.  It makes some of them stir crazy, and turns others into homesteaders, never again venturing far from their home base.  But Pat Barrett embraced the vagabond’s credo, moving from one territory to another.  “I’m very proud of all my travels abroad,”  Barrett said.  “Looking back, I wouldn’t change any of the things that have happened to me; I made my own deals, and not too many have done it on their own.  I do think it’s great that wrestlers are taken care of today, but I did it all.”

As his illustrious career neared its end, Barrett decided to chronicle a series of chapters that readers could sample just a taste of what he experienced in his travels.  One of the earlier examples of books on professional wrestling, EVERYBODY DOWN HERE HATES ME, was released by Fleur Press of Gulf Breeze, Florida in 1990, authored by Pat Barrett.  It came at a time that Barrett was taking stock of what he had accumulated over the course of his ring time.  “I’d just about wrapped up my career; I had bad knees and elbows… and so many great stories to tell,”  Barrett said.  “I realized that I couldn’t tell everything, and of those stories that I did tell, a lot of people just didn’t believe.  They can’t grasp some of the incredible things that went on.”

One conscious choice Barrett made toward that end, was that in telling some of these unrestrained tales, the names, in many cases, were changed to protect the innocent… and the guilty.  “A lot of the guys in the stories were still working, or still alive.  I thought there was no point in stirring up trouble for them,”  Barrett said.   Today, this bit of creative license can reveal itself to a reader picking up the 20-year old book.  In many cases, one can determine the actual subject of the story due to the wave of wrestling books that have since been released, and the glut of information that has surfaced.  The Barrett book entertains based on the context of the story, with less of a focus on the characters.  “I could tell these stories without hurting anyone,” Barrett said.

And what an array of stories Barrett DOES tell.  There appears to be a common thread, or moral to many of them; the one unifying theme of ‘appearances can be deceiving’ crops up in several chapters.  Meeting an aged-yet-still -formidable Bert Assirati in a chapter that opens the book, for example.  Other stories, like one featuring an unassuming Arthur Beaumont in Barrett’s early training with Dale Martin Promotions wrestlers, bring this element up as well. 

When pressed, Barrett does reveal that one of his close allies in wrestling, Dr. Timothy Geohagen, is featured prominently by another name in the book.  “He was a good friend, very underrated in the ring, and he’s gone now,” Barrett says.  Geohagen, a holder of a Doctorate in Philosophy from Dublin University, had switched from his Gaelic name Seamus Caital McGuaighan prior to entering the ring, according to CAC board member Bob Leonard, one of the club’s resident researchers.   A large part of Barrett’s tales of his friend come as the result of Geohagen’s mastery of the sleeperhold… and its occasionally ill-timed usage.

EVERYBODY DOWN HERE HATES ME takes the reader to destinations far and wide, everywhere from the Isle of Fiji for an encounter with a shark (in human form), to Omaha, Nebraska, where a car trip with CAC members Red Bastien and Mad Dog Vachon brings high speeds down to a slow crawl.  You’re seemingly right alongside Barrett in Las Vegas for his tenure as a stage performer at the now-imploded Dunes Hotel… then whisked away to New York, where Barrett’s stream of semi-consciousness catches the notice of the United Nations.

In short order, Pat Barrett demonstrates his ability to improvise when placed in a situation of uncertainty.  None the worse for wear, he can proudly display his battle scars with a laugh today.  “That’s what being an international wrestler means; there’s a thrill that comes from working for promoters who don’t, or won’t, speak the same language as you,” Barrett said.  “Negotiations with someone totally different from you is a real challenge.  You leave yourself wide open to be screwed… but there was that excitement for you to try to get out of the country with your life, AND your money.”

Working for so many different promoters in so many different countries, Barrett seemingly courted that excitement.  He recalls events that even the toughest competitors would rather avoid.  “Once I refused to wrestle until I got my pay,” Barrett said.  That promoter came into the dressing room with bodyguards toting machine guns.  But Barrett held firm, and stared down the heavy artillery until the delayed payoff finally arrived.  “The co-promoter was something like the Minister of the Interior!  It was a hairy moment.”

The shabby treatment sometimes led to better things, however.  “Once I was traveling with my mother out of London to a tour of some African country, and I was flying on a Jewish airline. Suddenly we were surrounded by six men asking questions about our trip, where we were from… and they asked to search our bags.  Then they even frisked my mother!   But when they were satisfied with our answers, they put us in first class, and treated us like royalty,”  Barrett said.

Great Britain holds more reverence in Barrett’s heart for its commitment to wrestling over the years.  He points to a recent edition of CAC’s newsletter THE EAR which focused on the carnivals and how pro wrestling evolved from those early days.  “What I wish they would have included is how the style went from America to England,”  Barrett said.  “What they didn’t tell was that after it died in American carnivals, Billy Riley took that style to Wigan, England and started the Snake Pit, teaching the art of submission wrestling.  Eventually it came back to the States through Karl Gotch, who trained the next generation in the art of submissions.  Karl, of course is gone now… but today, I have to say the only one I know who is still teaching that style is Billy Wicks.   I like to say he is “spreading the gospel”, as he runs a terrific school to this day.  I admire him for it.   He deserves so much credit, carrying the torch for this art.   Billy Wicks was one of the original hookers in American wrestling, and I would like people who are learning their history to know the sequence of events.    I did enjoy THE EAR articles, though…  it was great to read about how it all started back in the carnivals with guys like Red Bastien and Billy Wicks.”

It soon becomes apparent that Barrett’s love for the wrestling game is something that he feels should be shared globally.  “I wrestled Hungarians, Poles, Mexicans, Indians, Samoans, Germans, Canadians…and won more titles in different parts of the world than I can remember.  I was rewarded with both the Junior World Heavyweight title, and the World Tag Team Championship,”  Barrett recalls.  “Wrestling is THE UNIVERSAL SPORT.   You can go back thousands of years, to the Venetians, The Assyrians… it has such a tremendous history.  Wrestling exists in every country on Earth, in one form or another; no other sport can boast this!  People need to know about it, look it up in history books and see why it is by far the oldest sport.   Well, maybe the SECOND oldest,” he chuckles.

Barrett’s subsequent history lesson spans almost as many locales as he himself has appeared.  One such destination is Rome.   “The Roman gladiators used to fight ‘to the death’ only they would stick their swords where they wouldn’t kill the opponent.  The body would be dragged off, and then that Gladiator would be sent elsewhere to compete,”  Barrett said.  “They had a choice: slavery, or be paid to become a Gladiator who trained with specialized weapons.  They would be matched with someone with mastery of a different skill and weapon.  They were expensive commodities to train and maintain.  But just like today, the crowds demanded more.  That’s when they started matching them against animals!   Both sides were terrified, and all it did was bore the crowds, who got pissed.   That’s why the Gladiators revolted!”

Barrett has long removed himself from the ring, and today is a trainer of rugby players.  He trains for power, endurance, and self-esteem.  “You have to be confident in your abilities.  It goes for wrestlers of today as well.  If you do not believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to?”  Barrett asks.   He uses his own success as an example, concluding with “I did it my way… like that song, you know?”  When told that “My Way” has become a staple at CAC reunions to close out banquet night, Barrett seems pleased.  For several minutes, the songwriter’s name escapes both Barrett and the reporter, until Paul Anka’s name emerges from the fog.

It has been a few years since Barrett has attended a CAC reunion, though he does mention his trips to the Gulf Coast Wrestlers Reunion in Mobile as a frequent stop during the days he lived in Pensacola Beach, Florida.  “Last time at CAC; they gave me a Golden Potato Award,” Barrett remembers. “And here I thought it was just because I’m Irish!”

That Irish heritage comprises only one element of Barrett’s qualifications to be the deserving honoree of the CAC International Wrestling Award.  While it showcases that there is a worldwide membership of CAC bretheren, Barrett is a prime example of the world traveler one can wax nostalgic for; a real-life representation of the film noir stars of the movie screens.  Steamer trunks and exotic ports-of-call may have been glamourized on celluloid; Pat Barrett can strip away all pretense of the romanticized qualities and give you the blood and guts of this wonderful world, and its often-outrageous characters, at every turn.