RIP, Chief Jay Strongbow

One of the mainstays of pro wrestling in the WWWF in the 1970s. Real name was Joe Scarpa and he used to joke he was a member of the "Wop-a-ho" tribe.

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25011-long-time-wwe-regular-chief-jay-strongbow-passes-away

 

He had the stiffest, prissiest war dance, which all the "Indian" wrestlers had to have back in the day, in the same way all the black wrestlers, save Ernie Ladd, had to win with the head butt.

 

RIP. used to watch him all the time growing up. Wasn't he a part of an Indian tag team?

 

Was he partners with Wahoo McDaniel?

 

What about Jules?

 

Wow, forgot about him. Got his start in St. Louis using his real name, but had Native American trappings even then.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Strongbow

There actually was two Jules Strongbows, one of whom was a promoter in California in the 50s- through the 70s.

As for Chief Jay, he was a bit before my time, although I've seen a few of his matches thanks to the magic of Youtube. As posted earlier, he was actually an Italian guy, and did get some heat from Wahoo and a few other legitimate Indians because they thought he was stealing their gimmick.

When he was with the WWF, he'd frequently was used as the guy (along with Gorilla Monsoon, who was one of the minority owners) to test a heel to see if they were over enough with a crowd to have a run with the champion. One of his matches that's still remembered is an Indian Strap match he had with Greg Valentine at MSG in '79. It's not a technical masterpiece, by no means, although they both bled considerably. The most memorable moment was Valentine grabbing a chair at ringside, and some fan grabbed it away from him. Valentine went after the fan, and Monsoon, who was sitting as an offical at ringside, had to break it up.

After he retired, he served as one of the locker-room agents who helped the wrestlers set up their matches for many years in the WWF. Bret Hart told a very sad story, though. After Chief retired from being an agent, he was babysitting his young grandson one day when the child fell asleep. Chief fell asleep too, then woke up to find the grandson drowned in his swimming pool. Absolutely heartbreaking.

RIP to a legendary wrestler who was very loved by the fans.

 

Watched him countless times as I was growing up.

RIP.

 

It probably wouldn't have been considered to be an all time classic, but one of the most memorable matches of my youth was Jay and Jules vs. Mr. Fuji and Mr. Siato in a 2 of 3 falls for the tag titles.

 

Putski was the guest ref for that match? Holy hell.

RIP

God needed a man with a chop like a knife blade.

 

The Chief always made my day. He'd get his ass kick, start his war dance, and win. RIP

 

Chief's value to the old WWWF was that he was very popular and could be used as the headliner in the secondary towns that weren't a stop for whoever was champion.

He was a WWF road agent after his wrestling days. That was a thankless job because essentially road agents are the eyes of the office, reporting back to HQ on who was late, absent, impaired, etc.

Honky Tonk Man, who pretty much hates everybody, laid into him on this clip:

<b>WARNING: Language NSFW</b>