DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling July Marathon: The Assassin

Today’s show looks at Joe “Jody” Hamilton, best known in professional wrestling as The Assassin. He and Tom Renesto were THE prototype heel tag team that traveled the country feuding with the Kentuckians, but Karl saw none of that.

He saw Hamilton as the masked Flame — a fireball-throwing heel in a bright red and yellow outfit who talked in a scary voice, the man who tortured Bob Armstrong and Lord Humongous in Karl’s childhood and scared him to death. He once even threatened to shoot Bob Armstrong on television and had a videotape to prove that he would do it.

While Karl only saw The Assassin at the end of his career when he was past his prime and had put on a lot of weight, he learned about his legendary career with The Assassins through his book and videotapes.

Later, Karl was personally involved in the WCW racial discrimination lawsuit where he worked for the plaintiffs who were suing Turner Sports.  

Karl collected and compiled statistics for Bobby Walker, Ernest Miller, and the other half-dozen or so wrestlers who took part in that lawsuit. Hamilton was a trainer at the WCW Power Plant during part of that time so Karl worked exhaustively on information related to his career at that point.  

So, while Karl probably knows as much about the career of The Assassin as anyone, he will always remember him as that menacing heel throwing fireballs at the good guys – The Flame.

Today’s show is all about The Assassin’s career, but focuses more on the Flame era which isn’t as well known known to most fans. Karl also talks about The Assassin’s brother and his son, both of whom were in pro wrestling too.  

On today’s edition of the July Classic Wrestling Marathon, Karl looks at the career of The Assassin.

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