"Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers
Real name: Herman Gustav Rohde, Jr.
Home: Camden, NJ
Membership: worked with Slave Girl Moolah, Big John Studd, Gene Anderson, Jimmy Snuka, Ken Patera, Ray Stevens
A.K.A.: Dutch Rogers, Wally Ward, Dutch Rohde, Herman Rohde
Finisher: Figure-Four Leglock
Background: The first and the wellspring from which everything flowed.
Buddy grew up rough and mean. Post WWII America had an influx of bad habits, and Buddy decided he was going to get everything he couldn't before. He rose up the ranks from backrooms in Jersey to running his own gangs from Albany to Miami. He might have gone on to greater things too, if he hadn't run across Vincent McMahon.
He decided to kidnap the businessman, but he happened to do it at the same time as Bruno Sammartino was visiting the Titan Inc. office, hoping to sell McMahon on a new idea of his. Bruno intervened and thus the Superstars were born.
Buddy spent some time behind bars after that, but he still ran his gangs. By the 80s he had slowed down (even giving up the title Nature Boy to some punk out of the Carolinas) and even acted as a mentor, striking up a few odd friendships here and there.
He saw what McMahon Jr. was doing with the Superstars though and opted to retire fully.
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