The Destroyer

One of the most successful masked wrestlers in Texas and all of wrestling was the Destroyer. He debuted in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market in August of 1965 and made a big impact. Top notch interviews and psychology were trademarks. The Destroyer was a small man unlike the other really successful masked wrestler ever to appear in Dallas, the Spoiler.

There were some interesting gimmicks done by the Destroyer. One of them was that he would give anyone $1,000 if they could break the figure four leg lock once it was properly applied. No one won the money. Also, he would remove his mask if someone beat him two out of three pin falls or submission. The mask was ripped and torn several times teasing that it would be pulled off and we would see who he was. The mask was pulled off once by Torbellino Blanco, a masked Mexican wrestler. However, the Destroyer just happened to have a towel handy to cover his face. This set up a program between the two with Blanco losing his mask. The Destroyer did lose some two out of three fall matches but one of the falls was always lost by count out or disqualification. Even if he had lost a match and was unmasked, not very many people had heard of Dick Beyer.

The Destroyer had feuds with heels and babyfaces alike: Fritz Von Erich, Billy Red Lyons, Killer Karl Kox, Duke Keomuka and Nick Kozak.

It is too bad that film of the Destroyer in the '60s is rare. He was very entertaining and was worth the money to see.