Big John Studd: The Only 'Real' Giant?.

John Minton, who would go on to fame as one of the greatest big men in professional wrestling history as Big John Studd, began his career tag teaming with his trainer, the legendary Killer Kowalski in 1976, going on to win the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) World Tag Team Championship as the masked Executioners. After leaving the WWWF, Studd would wrestle under several different personas: Chuck O'Connor, who would team with Ox Baker to hold the Indianapolis-based World Wrestling Association (WWA) World Tag Team championship in 1977, the Masked Destroyer II, and Captain USA, who would not only win a NWA Texas Tag Team title, but defeat Bruiser Brody for the NWA American Heavyweight title, only to lose it to, of all people, Ox Baker!

1978 would see Studd team with Ric Flair to win the first of his three Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championships, in addition to some success in Hawaii, winning a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Hawaii Tag Team title with "Playboy" Buddy Rose and the territory's North American title, renamed the NWA Pacific International Championship during his reign, later dropping it to Don Muraco. While Studd would win another Mid-Atlantic Tag Team title with Ken Patera, in January 1979, the big man would drift around a bit, teaming with "Crusher" Jerry Blackwell in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and feuding there with Dino Bravo and Mad Dog Vachon, in addition to several unsuccessful attempts at Verne Gagne's AWA World Heavyweight title.