Frank Thomas

Ventura Notable Sports Figures
Chronology
1951 Born in Minneapolis, MN
1969 Graduates from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis
1969 Joins U.S. Navy as a SEAL
1973 Leaves the Navy after tours in Southeast Asia
1975 Becomes a pro wrestler
1975 Marries Terry Masters
1984 Retires as a wrestler, becomes wrestling commentator
1987 Appears with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator
1987 Appears in the major motion picture Running Man
1991 Becomes mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
1995 Finishes term as mayor of Brooklyn Park
1997 Appears in the major motion picture Batman and Robin
1999 Becomes governor of Minnesota
1999 Publishes autobiography I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed
2003 Finishes term of office as Minnesota governor
2003 Becomes a talk show host on the MSNBC television network
in downtown Minneapolis, where he met the man who
became his mentor—famous wrestling villain Super
Star Billy Graham. Ventura studied Graham carefully,
learning his banter and watching all of his matches.
Ventura made his pro debut in the minor leagues in
Kansas City, where he substituted for a wrestler who
didn’t show up. As the bad guy in the scripted match,
Ventura got himself disqualified by throwing his opponent
out of the ring.
At the beginning of his wrestling career, Ventura
worked on a match-to-match basis, typically earning
$35 to $65 a performance, traveling around the Midwest.
Commentators would bill him as coming from
Hollywood, and began introducing him as Jesse “The
Body” Ventura.
Ventura married Teresa Masters when she was 19
years old, he 24. By then, Ventura’s hard work at the
gym, and, he later admitted, steroids, which were legal
at the time, had made him an imposing figure. A diet
that included 12 raw eggs a day and 30 different vitamins
also helped him to add muscle mass.
End and a Beginning
The newlyweds went to Portland, Oregon, where
Ventura found more and better wrestling opportunities.
His popularity among fans grew, and he made his best
earnings to date there—$100 for a single match. More
traveling followed, as he drove from match to match,
once performing 63 consecutive nights.
By the early 1980s, Ventura had graduated to the
major leagues, working in the American Wrestling Federation,
which he left for the World Wresting Federation
following a disagreement over payment and working
conditions. In a prelude to his political career, Ventura
tried unsuccessfully to organize his fellow WWF performers
into a union.
1684
Predator
Jesse Ventura’s role alongside action star Arnold Schwarzenegger in
the 1987 science-fiction blockbuster, Predator, cemented Ventura’s career
as a Hollywood film actor. The film features Ventura as Blain, a member of
Schwarzenegger’s commando unit sent to a Central American jungle to take
out a gun-running gang. When the commandos are picked off one by one
by the extraterrestrial predator of the film’s title, Blain and his remaining
comrades are drawn into the fight of their lives, their original mission forgotten.
Roger Ebert, writing on the Chicago Sun-Times Web site, called the
film “a slick, high-energy action picture.”
In 1984, now the most popular villain in pro wrestling,
Ventura was preparing to perform in a match with Hulk
Hogan, the wrestling world’s most popular good guy,
when he was stricken with a pulmonary embolism, a dangerous
condition caused by blood clots in the lungs. The
condition ended his wrestling career while he was at the
top of his game. “I mean,” he later told the Star Tribune,
“one minute I’m preparing to meet [Hogan] in the Los
Angeles Coliseum, and the next minute I’m lying flat on
my back fighting for my very existence.”
After recovering, Ventura parlayed his fame into a
successful career as a wrestling announcer. Fast talking,
rather than athleticism, was more his attribute as a
wrestler. Announcing seemed a better fit, and he quickly
won favor with fans.
In 1990, Ventura and WWF owner Vince McMahon
differed over the use of Ventura as a video-game character.
Ventura had been offered $40,000 for this use of his
image, but the WWF felt this would create competition
for its own products. Ventura not only left the WWF
over the dispute, but also sued it, seeking royalties for
the use of his wrestling commentaries on videotapes. To
the astonishment of the WWF and outside observers,
Ventura won the suit, winning more than $750,000 in a
judgment, despite Ventura having signed a contract
waiving the right to collect royalties. A federal court
ruled his signature had been obtained fraudulently.
Moving on the from the WWF, Ventura landed a 2-year
contract to announce events for World Championship
Wrestling (WCW). His contract, worth close to a million
dollars, made him the highest paid figure in wrestling. But
WCW bought out his contract before it was completed,
charging that Ventura cared more about promoting himself
than the events he was supposed to be covering.
Of his fallings out with wrestling executives, Ventura
remained bitter even years later, telling reporters, according
to Doyle and Kaszuba, “The question was
whether I would fall under their thumb—whether they
could control my talent. They’re not even talented
enough to hold my jock.”
Nevertheless, Ventura left the wrestling business a
wealthy man. In 1994, Ventura and his wife, with son,
Tyrel, and daughter, Jade, moved into a luxurious custom