Louie Tillet

One of the colorful heels that came through the Dallas territory during the mid-'60s was Louie Tillet. As with many wrestlers in the '60s, psychology was a strong point. Louie would break cleanly and wrestle for about the first five minutes of a match and get the people applauding good sportsmanship. He would then do dirty tactics and get the people riled. His finisher was an elbow to the jaw coming off the ropes and then a falling elbow to the chest.

Louie's most famous feud of the time was with Bull Curry for the Texas Brass Knuckles Title. They had a few matches that were stopped because of blood loss. Louie eventually won the title but lost it to Tony Borne. A closed fist was legal in a brass knuckles match where it was not in a regular match. Even though a closed fist was illegal in a regular match, I never saw anyone get disqualified for using one.

The babyfaces that Louie faced included Kanji Inoki, Bob Ellis, Ken Hollis, Torbellino Blanco, Nick Kozak, and Dory Dixon. He teamed with Al Costello, The Golden Terror, and Roger Kirby.

Tillet worked other NWA territories and became a booker in Florida. You could always depend on Louie to have a good match and be entertaining.