Chris Curtis’s new book, “Job Man: My 25 Years in Pro Wrestling,” offers an inside look into the popular sport by someone who was there. Curtis was a ‘job man,’ a specially trained worker hired to put a main event wrestler like Jake “The Snake” Roberts or Jerry “The King” Lawler “over.” His ring persona was a “heel,” (the bad guy) who bent the rules, cheated and did everything he could to defeat his “baby face” (the good guy) opponent.
Before he turned pro, Curtis wrestled Victor, a 600-lb black bear, in front of 6,000 people at the Milwaukee Sentinel Sports Show in 1978. He learned how to be a job man at the old Federation Hall on Milwaukee’s south side. He began taping matches for the “All-Star Wrestling” television show less than a year later.
Curtis began wrestling for Minneapolis-based promoter Verne Gagne in 1979. He also worked for “Cowboy” Bill Watts in the Mississippi and Louisiana territories, and for Vince McMahon Jr.’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) out of New York City.
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In a career that spanned 25 years and more than 700 matches, Curtis wrestled Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Andre the Giant, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell, Chief Wahoo McDaniel and many other stars of the ring. He’s suffered broken hands, cracked ribs, bruised kidneys, dislocated knees and several concussions in his chosen profession, all without regret. “I’d do it all over again if I had the chance,” Curtis says. “Not many people can look back and honestly say they loved what they did for a living.”
“Job Man: My 25 Years in Pro Wrestling” is filled with stories and anecdotes collected over a long and fascinating career. The book features 38 pages of photographs and a Foreword by Baron von Raschke. Published by Alamo Press, $19.95. On sale at Little Read Books, 7603 W. State Street.
