The Crusher Dead At 79

Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski was a professional wrestler considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots. Reggie "The Crusher" LisowskiLisowski died Saturday night at the age of 79. His son David Lisowski told reporters that his father never fully recovered from surgeries to remove a tumor at the base of his brain stem. Promoter Frank DeFalco called Lisowski a constant in the world of wrestling in a career that went from the 1950s to the 1970s. Lisowski learned to wrestle while in the Army in Germany during World War II. His son says one night after his father returned he accepted a fight in a carnival ring for the prize of one dollar. He won and then never looked back.
The beer-drinking, cigar-chomping wrestler began his career as a bad guy but people liked him anyway. He told a reporter in 1985 that his popularity in Milwaukee came because of his worker roots. Lisowski said he worked in a packing house, in manufacturing and was a bricklayer before he gave up punching the clock for fighting
in the ring.