Missouri Wrestling Revival

SICW East Carondelet Illinois 823 State St East Carondelet. Il 62240 – Doors at 7 PM; Bell Time at 8 PM 618-286-4848

The One Man Gang is one of the top big men ever in pro wrestling. Feared and dangerous, the OMG sent many of men away on a stretcher while a member of Skandor Akbar’s “Devastation Inc.” as well as working with Gary Hart in World Class Championship Wrestling. During his career he feuded with the likes of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage while participating in the very first WW(F) E’s Survivor Series and Royal Rumble along with manager Slick.
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The OMG reinvented himself later on as the “Akeem, the African Dream teaming with the Big Boss Man in one of the memorable tag teams of the late 80’s. The OMG made runs at World Championship Wrestling while terrorizing opponents and delivering fear in fans at ringside for years.

On October 18th SICW Promoter Herb Simmons continues to deliver the fans an opportunity to meet another wrestling star that has toured around the world in East Carondelet, Illinois.

Purchase your tickets for this rare opportunity to meet The One Man Gang and enjoy a night of wrestling with the stars of SICW.

Born George Gray, a native of South Carolina, trained with longtime local independent wrestler and promoter Chief Jay Eagle (Jerry Bragg) and Darren “Rattlesnake” Westbrooks. He started his career at the age of 17 on the Carolina independent circuit wrestling both under his real name and as “Crusher Gray.” He then moved onto wrestle in the Kentucky/Tennessee area, including for International Championship Wrestling, under the ring name Crusher Broomfield. Gray went in as part of a package along with Bragg, Westbrooks, and Ric Starr. One of Broomfield’s major angles was that his contract was owned by ICW Champion Randy Savage and Savage’s nemesis Ron Garvin defeated Savage in a match to set Broomfield free. He later worked for several National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated promotions, Mid-South Wrestling, and World Championship Wrestling as One Man Gang, billed as being from Chicago’s Halsted Street on the South Side. He was managed by Kevin Sullivan, Theodore Long, Gentleman Jim Holiday, and Sir Oliver Humperdink in various territories.

In the regional territories, he was a member of Skandor Akbar’s “Devastation Inc.” as well as working with Gary Hart in World Class Championship Wrestling. It was as a protégé of Akbar’s in the Mid-South territory where Gray would get the name that would stick with him the rest of his career. Making his debut in the territory by interfering in matches and assaulting the fan favorite, Mid-South announcer Jim Ross would say about the then-unnamed assailant “He’s a one-man gang!”. The Gang worked on-and-off in Mid-South in between tours of Florida, Japan, and Texas. He would also return to his hometown territory, the Carolinas, to work for Jim Crockett Promotions, where he was initially billed as “The One Man Gang, George Gray.” He worked in Texas All Star wrestling where he feuded with Big Bubba. It was on his last tour for Mid-South when the promotion renamed itself the Universal Wrestling Federation, with Gang one of its top villains, feuding at the main-event level with UWF top fan favorite Hacksaw Jim Duggan. In late 1986, Gang won the UWF Heavyweight Championship in an angle where the champion Terry Gordy was injured earlier in the evening by a revenge-minded “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. Gang, scheduled to face Gordy later on the card, was awarded the belt via forfeit. He held that title for six months, mostly facing Duggan, Williams, and Ted DiBiase.

In May 1987, Gray began receiving inquiries from the World Wrestling Federation about coming up to wrestle for them. He promptly agreed to terms, but returned to the UWF in order to drop the title to Big Bubba Rogers, who was there from his normal place in the NWA due to the recent sale of the UWF to Jim Crockett.