Modesty Masked - The Destroyer
The Globe Feb 9 1980
- Larry Millson

 As he walks down a street, attired like a prosperous business man, except for the white mask with red trim, heads turn. “Who is that masked man?” they might well be asking as he strides off into the sunset.

Well, even if they didn’t ask, he would be more than willing to inform them that he probably is the world’s greatest wrestler. That for the past six years he has been the most popular Caucasian in Japan, one of the stars on it’s No. 1 rated television show. “And I’m being modest,” he allows, almost blushing beneath the mask.

He’ll tell all and reveal all about himself. Except his name and what appears to be, judging by the flattened nose, a rugged countenance. Just call him The Destroyer, millions do. And he says that by Monday, no longer will turning heads in downtown Toronto wonder who that masked man is. Instead, they’ll be saying, “Hi champ.”

 
The Destroyer, you see, will be taking his mask and devastating figure-four leg lock, a hold worth $1,000 to any wrestler who can break it (no one has) into the ring tomorrow night at Maple Leaf Gardens in an attempt to wrest the Canadian heavyweight championship from Dewey Robertson.

The Destroyer apologized this week for wearing a rather drab, conservative suit with his red-trimmed mask (he has 50 masks of the same design, all white, with the trim available in several hues). The choice of suit, he explained, was because he was in mourning- for poor old Dewey. “Tell all your Canadian friends to bring their Pittsburgh crying towels with them Sunday night. They’ll need them. I might not be the biggest or the strongest but I’m the quickest and the smartest.

As proof, he brought with him an armload of photograph albums. “This is just some of them. I have about 30 and I’m not exaggerating,” he says. There are pictures of The Destroyer in action, applying the figure-four leg lock taught to him by Lord James Blears (the original lord of wrestling). There are pictures of him on the television in Japan. Pictures of him with celebrities. Pictures of him golfing. Pictures of him dressed as Santa Claus with children. Pictures of him in a football uniform giving instruction. And in all of them he wears the mask.

He has been wearing the mask in public since 1963 when it was suggested by a Los Angeles wrestling promoter. “Look at it as if we’re going to write a book, a mysterystory and we’ll build to an ending,” the promoter told him. The ending was supposed to come in four weeks. But in that time, The Destroyer found that his income had tripled. When the promoter said it was time for the mask to come off, The Destroyer answered: “It never comes off.” The book has not ended. And may not for a long time. “I have two sons, 19 and 11, and I’m hoping one of them could become Destroyer No. 2. But he would have to be good enough. I also have a daughter, 16, who is a swimmer. She’ll be in the junior Olympics next week.”

Perhaps, now, we’re getting closer to finding who this masked man is. He reveals he is from the Buffalo area and coaches a high-school wrestling team. The team is scheduled to compete in a tournament later this month and they will be wearing Destroyer masks and T-shirts. He went to university, where he was second and third in national wrestling championships and was a 210-pound guard and captain on a top-ranked team that went to the Orange Bowl. He also stayed on as assistant coach at the same school for several years. The university shall remain nameless other than to say that Jim Brown and the late Ernie Davis played there.

The mask he finds has its advantages. It enables him to maintain a private life as well as a public one. “When you talk to celebrities you find that privacy is what they seek whereas all I have to do is go into a phone booth and take off the mask.” Other than his nose, which has been broken eight times, and some broken teeth, he says there is nothing about his face that would give away his profession. “I have no cauliflower ears and I’m not gigantic in size (5 feet 10 inches). “I have a circle of friends who regard my identity as much of a secret as I do.”

His masks are now made in Japan. They are also sold in the United States at souvenir stands but are not available in Canada. He wears the mask, even on the street. It’s good advertising, after all. He always has a spare with him. In Japan, he found he practically had to wear the mask 24 hours a day and it can be hot on 90-degree Tokyo days. He says he has worn the mask about 40 times through Japanese customs and has been asked to expose his face only about four times and he figures it was more out of curiosity.

The original Destroyer mask was made by a seamstress form a woman’s girdle. He remembers going into a store and trying the girdles on over his head. The size that fit was tall, small. He first went to Japan in 1963, grappling for the world championship before a crowd of 21,000 with Japan’s No. 1 wrestler, Rikidozan. The Destroyer won and returned for a rematch, a draw. Shortly afterward. The Japanese wrestler died. The Destroyer returned to Japan several times. He was a villain for a long time. “But they can only hate you for so long, then they admire you.” In 1973, he moved to Japan intending to stay for a year. He became so popular, and the television show was so highly rated, that he stayed for six years before returning to the United States.

“I’m a villain, you might say. It’s the way I wrestle.” he said. “Well, not really a villain. It’s just that I’m very good and conceited. People don’t like that. “I’m told that I do a Jekyll and Hyde when I put on the mask as The Destroyer. That I become a new personality. Many people say that when I put it on I become 10 feet tall. I don’t feel it. I’m very confident. I’ve been successful with and without the mask."

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