Former WWWF tag team champion and territorial wrestler/manager Sonny King died this past Friday.
King (real name Larry Johnson) grew up in North Carolina and was directed toward the industry by Ernie Ladd. It led King to train in Detroit and become a regular for Big Time Wrestling.
He had a high-profile match challenging Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship on July 26, 1971, in Orlando when King was working in Florida.
His next territory was the WWWF and made his first appearance at Madison Square Garden in January 1972 teaming with Gorilla Monsoon and beating Ernie Ladd & Jimmy Valiant.
Four months later, Kong and Chief Jay Strongbow became the fourth WWWF tag champions when they beat Curtis Iaukea & Baron Michel Scicluna on May 22 at The Garden. They held the titles for one month, losing them to Prof. Tanaka & Mr. Fuji on June 27 at the TV tapings in Philadelphia.
The pair wrestled on the undercard of the Showdown at Shea on September 30, 1972, beating The Spoiler & Captain Lou Albano. The card was headlined by WWWF champion Pedro Morales and former champion Bruno Sammartino wrestling to a draw in front of 22,508 and a gate of $140,923.
King stayed in the WWWF until March 1973 with his last Garden appearance occurring in January against Ray Stevens.
King would travel to Los Angeles, Texas, and end up in the Mid-Atlantic territory to feud with Johnny Valentine over the Mid-Atlantic heavyweight title. The two wrestled all over the territory including a Texas Death Match in Columbia, South Carolina in October 1974 and a December 3 match in Raleigh where Joe Louis served as the referee. King also teamed with Wahoo McDaniel, Swede Hanson, and Paul Jones.
He challenged Jack Brisco for the NWA Championship on June 19, 1975, in Norfolk.
King toured with New Japan Pro Wrestling beginning in August 1977 and spent two months in the country. During his stay, he teamed with Stan Hansen against Antonio Inoki & Kantaro Hoshino while also working singles matches with Riki Choshu, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Strong Kobayashi.
After New Japan, he made his way to Memphis for the Continental Wrestling Association and would make his way through Georgia Championship Wrestling, and a return to Championship Wrestling from Florida. In Florida, he had a run as its Brass Knuckles champion after exchanging the title with Killer Karl Kox.
King settled back in Memphis and would challenge AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel at the Mid-South Coliseum on November 19, 1979. During this stint, he teamed with a young Ricky Morton and the pair won the Southern tag titles from Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy.
King would also work as a heel manager with clients that included Jos Leduc, John Louie, and Ron Bass in Memphis and Afa & Sika in Georgia. King would often be seen sucking on a lollipop and holding a calm demeanor on promos to denote a dangerous element. When speaking with Greg Oliver in 2010, he shared his philosophy on managing:
The manager’s not going to draw you money, the guy that’s participating is going to draw you money. So instead of interfering with the match itself, I would object to stuff the ref is doing. You’d call him, ‘What are the rules here?’ But not to the point where I had his attention, but he’s not refereeing the match either. I don’t know. I think my success was letting everything be the way it was supposed to be and keeping it logical. That was it really.
In 1982, he was a victim of an attack while in Charlotte, North Carolina. A fan was thrown out of the Charlotte Coliseum and was harassing the security guard prompting King to tell him to stop, which led to the man calling King the n-word. The man was with two other guys and they proceeded to stab King multiple times in the arm, back, and chest.
In 1984, he left for Mid-South Wrestling for his last major run. He wrestled at the Louisiana Superdome twice with a win against Buddy Landel on June 16 underneath Junkyard Dog vs. Butch Reed drawing approximately 20,000 and a gate of $166,000. On August 24, King replaced Junkyard Dog (who had left for the WWF) to team with Dusty Rhodes to beat Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton on a Superdome card headlined by Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich, which drew 18,000 and a gate of $165,000.
King had put pro wrestling in the rear-view mirror and didn’t speak about his career after leaving the business. Tiger Conway Jr. convinced King to start attending conventions including the Cauliflower Alley Club where he did a rare interview about his career with Greg Oliver. The interview was seen by John Tighe, who reached out to Oliver and revealed that King was his father which led to the two forming a relationship late in King’s life.
After wrestling, King was operating a junkyard and had suffered from dementia over the past decade.
Notes:
– Sonny King talks about his career – for the first time (SLAM Wrestling)
– The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette – 25th Anniversary Scrapbook
– Wrestling in the Garden, Volume 2 (Scott Teal and J Michael Kenyon)
