Welcome to the Internet home of Percival A. Friend, the
EPITOME of Wrestling Managers. If you enjoy reading about "old school"
professional wrestling, you will love going through Percival's vivid memories of
his days as a manager, wrestler, referee, and announcer in the "King Of Sports."
"In 1963, I began my career as a guest ring announcer in
Flint, Michigan and then was asked a while later to be a guest referee. I
started wrestling as a favor to a promoter that booked a lot of the midwest
towns back then. I went in under a mask and had my first match against the late
Dr. Jerry Graham in Toledo, Ohio. I won the match by disqualification but had
both ankles sprained in the process.
"I went to a lot of different
territories, some under a mask as The Green Hornet, and saw a lot of the world.
I began managing around 1970 and had such great names under my control as Black
Angus Campbell ... Harley Race ... Roger "Nature Boy" Kirby ... The Great Togo
and Tokyo Joe ... Bobby Hart (The Patriot) ... Hank James ... J.B. Psycho ...
and Tank Patton ... just to name a few.
"In October of 1975, my daughter was born. This changed my
entire life, and I wanted to be home with my new family. I hung on until the
spring of 1976, decided that my place was with them, and retired. I went to work
for Standard Oil of Ohio and was there until it was sold to B.P. I currently am
with a large manufacturer as a design engineer in their after market process of
self-sealing products."
