Thunderbolt Patterson is the latest addition to the 2024 WWE Hall of Fame class.
Patterson, 82, is known for his influential past inside and outside of the professional wrestling ring during the territory years.
The Waterloo, Iowa-born wrestler started performing in the mid-1960s, quitting his job at John Deere to pursue his new career. His run started by working in the Midwest before he moved over to Texas to perform under promoter Dory Funk Sr. He earned championships around the continent during his near two-decade in-ring run, picking up NWA belts in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tri-State, and Toronto. He notably also had a national tag title reign with Ole Anderson during a return run in the mid-1980s.
Patterson’s promo style, which Andscape writer Martenzie Johnson compared to the “low, smooth, and rhythmic cadence” of blaxploitation actors, was highly influential in wrestling. Many have argued that Dusty Rhodes took inspiration from Patteron’s talking.
Patterson says his career ground to a halt in the late 1970s due to his outspokenness about the racism he experienced as a Black man in the industry and the working conditions that wrestlers put up with. “I tried to organize wrestlers and was blackballed and I paid a hell of a price just because I didn’t go along with the system,” he told the New York Times in 1988.
Later in life, Patterson advocated for labor unions and spent time working with youth camps.
Patterson was a recipient of the Lou Thesz Award in 2019, an honor handed out by the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame to recognize wrestlers who used their careers “in the realm of public service.”
The 2024 WWE Hall of Fame class is set to also include Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano, Muhammad Ali, plus Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda of The US Express. The ceremony is expected to take place on April 5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, following an episode of WWE Smackdown.
