Dennis Stamp

Dennis Stamp
Dennis Stamp circa early 1970s
Birth name	Dennis Stamp
Born	1947 or 1948 Brainerd, Minnesota
Residence	Amarillo, Texas
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Dennis Stamp The Tulsa Tornado
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1]
Billed weight	250 lb (110 kg)[1]
Debut	1971

Dennis Stamp (born 1947 or 1948) is a former American professional wrestler and current referee from Amarillo, Texas. He is best known for wrestling extensively during the 1970s and 1980s for the American Wrestling Association, and for the National Wrestling Alliance territories.^[2]

Early career

Stamp, who grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota, won the 1965 Minnesota State High School Wrestling Championship for the 175 pound weight class.^[3] After entering professional wrestling and having his first match on August 9, 1971, in Thunder Bay Ontario,^[1] he would join Verne Gagne's AWA where he became their 1971 Rookie of the Year.^[2] Shortly thereafter, he joined Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State territory, and in 1973 he and Bull Bullinski won the NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship.^[2] After losing the titles seven days later, he would regain the titles (with a new partner, Dewey Robertson) in May of that year.^[2]

In 1974, Stamp had moved to the NWA's Los Angeles territory, where he was a two-time Television Champion, first defeating Man Mountain Mike and then Greg Valentine.^[2] By the fall of 1975, he had joined Vancouver's All Star Wrestling, and with Tiger Jeet Singh won the Canadian Tag Team Championship.^[2]

By 1976, he had joined the NWA's Western States promotion operated by Dory Funk and his sons Dory Jr. and Terry.^[1] There, wrestling primarily as a heel, he would become a four-time Western States Tag Team Champion, and multiple-time Brass Knuckles champion.^[2]

Stamp appeared with several other professional wrestlers, including Ted DiBiase, Bob Roop, Dick Murdoch, Gene Kiniski, and Tonga Fifita, in the 1978 Sylvester Stallone movie Paradise Alley.^[4]

Later career

Beginning in the 1980s, Stamp began hiring out as a jobber,^[1] for which work he would later receive praise from fellow wrestler Manny Fernandez.^[5] He later appeared once again in the AWA, which was in decline at the time due to heavy competition from the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. He was used primarily to put over major stars and veterans, like Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Colonel DeBeers, Jerry Lawler, and The Midnight Rockers.^[2] Throughout his career, Stamp wrestled about 2,000 matches.^[1]

Life after wrestling

When he felt his wrestling career declining, he began working at a pest control company, where he remained for over 30 years. In 2011, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which he successfully beat.^[1]

In 2014, Stamp published a book about his wrestling days entitled The Stamp Collection: A Collection of Short Stories from the worlds most famous unknown Wrestler.^[6] That year he also refereed a main event for Scottish Wrestling Entertainment.^[7]

In 2016, Stamp announced that his cancer had returned.^[8]

Beyond the Mat appearance

Stamp attained a measure of cult popularity after appearing in the 1999 documentary, Beyond the Mat.^[6] The film's footage of him was from 1997, when he was the referee for one of Terry Funk's many "retirement" matches (this one against Bret Hart).^[4] In the film, Stamp said that he didn't wrestle as much anymore because he hadn't been booked for matches, but kept in shape just in case he got a call: his training ritual involved holding arm weights and jumping up and down on a trampoline in his backyard in his underwear.^[4] His repeated use of the phrases "I'm not booked!" while discussing his referee job with Funk, and "I don’t do tricks. I just jump." while working out, resulted in popular memes.^[1][4]

References