Georgia Football: Armarlo Herrera future WWE Champion
Wresting rebel, “Big” Jim Wilson
But Georgia football players going on to become pro-wrestlers didn’t begin with Bill Goldberg. Jim Wilson was the first Bulldog to become a star in pro wrestling. Wilson played for Georgia from 1962-to-1964 and was a member of Vince Dooley’s first team. At Georgia, Wilson played both offensive and defensive line.
After Georgia, Wilson was drafted by the Boston Patriots of the AFL and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and he chose to play in the NFL instead and was on the 1965 All-Rookie Team. When the Atlanta Falcons were established, he requested a trade to return home.
But upon coming to Atlanta, he was approached by wrestler and promoter Ray Gunkel to wrestle in the off-season. Which at the time was a very lucrative move because players weren’t paid like they are now and they also didn’t get paid in the off-season.
Wilson told journalist Mike Mooneyham in 2003, “The money was great. Linemen were making 25 to 30 (thousand), and some weren’t even making that. (Mr. Wrestling) Tim Woods was making around 50 (thousand) a year back then. I saw wrestling as a way to make some money, but it was a completely different lifestyle. It’s like the circus…. all the carny and the secret talk, and everybody had guns back in those days. You pack up and go to the next town, and you do it over and over,”
Wilson wrestled for several promotions in the National Wrestling Alliance, including Championship Wrestling of Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Falcons weren’t pleased with him wrestling and so they traded him to the Los Angeles Rams where he played before injuries forced him into retirement in 1971.
“The money was great. Linemen were making 25 to 30 (thousand), and some weren’t even making that. (Mr. Wrestling) Tim Woods was making around 50 (thousand) a year back then. I saw wrestling as a way to make some money.”
His career as a major pro-wrestler also took a hit in 1973 when he pushed to unionize the industry. That led to him getting blackballed by the NWA and forced him to wrestle for promotions outside of the Alliance.
Because of that, Wilson never became a major star in wrestling despite his look and strength. His animosity towards the industry led to an anti-trust lawsuit against the NWA in 1980 and co-wrote the book Chokehold: Pro Wrestling’s Real Mayhem Outside the Ring in 2002.
But for at least a few years, Wilson was an up and coming talent in pro-wrestling.