Ivan Putski: Worthy or Not?

[TheOneBigWill]

Josef Bednarski (born January 21, 1941)[1], is a Polish former professional wrestler and bodybuilder. Throughout his wrestling career he was known by the ring name Ivan Putski and was given the nickname "Polish Power".

Putski is a former WWF Tag Team Champion with Tito Santana. Ivan was known to have an ongoing feud with another professional at the time, "Superstar" Billy Graham over the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, who also had an incredible physique and strength, which led to many pose-downs, arm wrestling bouts, and long, physical matches between the two. Other rivals included Iron Sheik, Ivan Koloff, and Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

Putski debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1976. While in the WWWF, Putski feuded with many wrestlers, such as Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, and Ivan Koloff. On June 25, 1976 at Showdown at Shea, Putski defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna. Four years later on August 9, Putski was once again victorious at the same event when he beat Johnny Rodz.

On October 22, 1979, Putski teamed with Tito Santana to defeat Johnny and Jerry Valiant to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. They held the title for six months before they lost it to the Wild Samoans.
He began to slow down his career in the 1980s. He won his last tag team championship in May 1981, teaming with Wahoo McDaniel to defeat Dory Funk, Jr. and Larry Lane for the SWCW World Tag Team Championship. In November 1985, Randy Savage defeated Ivan Putski in the opening round of the Wrestling Classic.

He returned to the WWF in November 1987, but he was defeated in a WWF Legends Battle Royal by Dan Spivey.

In 1995, Ivan was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame by his son, Scott. The father and son team returned in July 1997 to defeat Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher in tag team action on Raw is War. His list of accomplishments and Championships (according to Wiki) are as follows:

Big Time Wrestling
NWA American Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jose Lothario
NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Jose Lothario

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Tag Team of the Year (1979) with Tito Santana
PWI ranked him # 170 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
PWI ranked him # 92 of the 100 best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Tito Santana in 2003.

Southwest Championship Wrestling
SCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Wahoo McDaniel

World Wrestling Federation
WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)
WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tito Santana

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Readers' Least Favorite Wrestler (1984)
Worst Wrestler (1984)

Ivan Putski: Outside of being Polish, and holding a couple Tag Team Championships throughout his career, I've found nothing remarkably rememberable about 'The Polish Power'. While I'll with-hold early judgment largely in part to not being old enough to know him, any footage I've ever seen of him doesn't make him stand out to me, either.

I think the truly sad part of everything is I've compared Putski, to Stan Stasiak and I think that's a bit much. Another rememberable item worth bringing up, is to me, Ivan's son Scott was more rememberable to me, and he also failed as a Professional Wrestler. I don't understand why Ivan is in the Hall of Fame, except for him being Polish possibly playing a part in it. What are your thoughts and opinions on Ivan Putski being in the Hall of Fame? Worthy or Not?

 

[klunderbunker]

He is another prime example of a guy that just doesn't belong in the HOF and is in because he was a fairly I guess well known guy in his day. You can see on his resume that he did nothing, and that can be overlooked in cases like Andre or Piper, but they're remembered for other things. Putski simply isn't remembered at all, and fromt eh tapes I've seen of him he's not remembered for a reason. He was nothing more than a guy with muscles and they were a dime a dozen. No reason to put him in the HOF at all.

 

[NSL]

I think my parents are on crack. Growing up, I was always told about how great "THe Polish Power" was, and he isn't anywhere near great. He is not a Hall of Famer.

He wasn't impressive in-ring, and considering he wrestled at a time when in-ring was about all the fans had to go on, he didn't have an im pressive career. Tito was probably the reason they had the tag titles, and Putski was probably the reason they lost them...