TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING
TONY GAREA
05/26/20

Tony Garea said Jay Strongbow did not do much in the ring but got an amazing reaction because he was such a great seller. When Strongbow made his comeback, the people exploded. In 1973, Ray Stevens and Nick Bockwinkle were supposed to come in to fight Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji for the WWWF Tag Team Titles. Stevens and Bockwinkle cancelled. Vince Sr put Garea and Haystacks Calhoun together as a replacement team and they won the tag team titles. Tanaka and Fuji couldn’t do anything with Calhoun, so Garea worked most of the match selling and eventually making the hot tag to Calhoun.

Tony Garea spent his career as a babyface. He doesn’t feel he would have made a good heel because he said was not good using heel psychology in the ring. His favorite tag team partner was Rick Martel. When Garea retired from the ring, he became an agent. He said there was a primary and secondary agent. The primary agent at the time was Jay Strongbow, whom he learned under.

Garea started as a secondary agent that reported the box office numbers. Garea, between working as a wrestler and an agent, worked for the WWE from 1977-2014.

The full episode is available at this link.