Blackjack Mulligan
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Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham would grow up initially setting his sights on becoming a football player whilst at the Texas Western Collage and was entered into the American Football league (AFL, now NFL) for the New York Jets. Unfortunately his career would be ended early following a compound fracture in his leg forced him into medical retirement from the AFL in 1967. In his early years he would also join the marines where he would find a love for diving.
Windham has stated that he grew up idolizing Wahoo McDaniel who lived only 20 minutes away from Windham who was a few years younger. It would be Wahoo who convinced Windham to take a shot at the professional wrestling scene and arranged a meeting for him with Joe Blanchard.
After brief training with Joe, a call was made and led to Windham travelling up to the American Wrestling Association (AWA) where he continued the training process and officially started wrestling by 1969. The first recorded match for him I can find took place on November 1, 1969, in St. Paul, Minnesota, wrestling as Bob Windham he lost to Billy Red Lyons.
During his time in the AWA Bob would get beaten in several matches by his future partner, Blackjack Lanza. Windham states in interviews that when he saw Lanza's gimmick he fell in love with it and knew it would be perfect for him as he was a real life cowboy. All together Windham would stay in the AWA for around a year and a half. The last match for him I can find took place on November 9, 1970 at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois losing to Wilbur Snyder.
Windham would receive a call from Vincent J. McMahon (Vince Sr.) to come up to the North West to become the tag-team partner of Blackjack Lanza. Windham recalls that Lanza actually requested they became a tag-team which led to Vince Sr's call. Adopting the surname of his great-uncle Jerry Mulligan, who had been an 'old-time fighter/boxer' in the Sweetwater Texas area, Robert Windham became Blackjack Mulligan and headed straight up to the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE) at the beginning of 1971.
For his first run in the WWWF though it would end be the newly named Mulligan mainly as a singles competitor having particularly bloody matches with Pedro Morales. The run would dry up pretty quickly though as Mulligan would be at the receiving hand of an over enthusiastic fan wielding a knife in the Boston Garden. A few weeks off to recuperate and Mulligan headed over to Japan gaining tag-team gold with Larry Hennig for the International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE).
Mulligan then headed to the World Wrestling Association based from Indianapolis and teamed up with Blackjack Lanza forming the Blackjacks in the back end of November of 1971. The Blacks stayed in Indianapolis for a just over a year and became one of the hottest tag-teams in the North of America. The Blackjacks wrestled all over the area against the top stars such as Moose Cholak, Bob Ellis, 'Sailor' Art Thomas, and Dick the Bruiser.
Then they headed down to Texas and continued as a tag-team. Mulligan recalls he wanted to go out on his own again, he remembers Lanza being fine with this. Mulligan would quickly capture singles gold on top of the . In the middle of 1973 a short run back in the WWWF came about as the Blackjacks against Bruno Sammartino and Dominic DeNucci. Towards the end of 1973 Mulligan headed over to Japan to wrestle for the IWE.
1974 was a year spent in Texas for Mulligan entirely as a solo star where he would capture yet more gold including the Texas International Heavyweight Championship, the Amarillo version. Feeling it was time to move on toward the end of 1974 Mulligan agreed to head back up to the WWWF, however, Vince Sr. suggested Blackjack Lanza should come along for one more run.
Mulligan recalls going to New York and taping six months worth of TV to build up the return of the Blackjacks thus leaving him with six months of free time. After being out in contact with George Scott a short stint was agreed upon in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW). Whilst there Mulligan again competed mainly as a singles star but did occasionally tag with Ric Flair against the likes of Rufus R. Jones and Swede Hansen, some of his singles competitors included the two aforementioned opponents, Dusty Rhodes, Stan Hansen in Bull Rope matches, and the man responsible for him getting into the business, Wahoo McDaniel in Indian Strap matches remembered as particularly brutal battles.
By summer of 1975 Mulligan was back full time with Blackjack Lanza in the WWWF competing in the top echelon of the tag-team division. On August 26, of that summer the Blackjacks were crowned WWWF World Tag-Team Champions after defeating Pat Barrett and Dominic DeNucci in the Philidelphia Arena. The Blackjacks took on all comers including the monstrous Haystacks Calhoun & Gorilla Monsoon, the duo they had toppled to gain the gold, and the iconic pairing of Bruno Sammartino and Bobo Brazil to name a few teams.
He remembers his time there:
"It was very, very easy working stints in the WWWF being the tag-team compared to say, working in Texas and Minnesota. It was a different style... it was a big guy territory. You would pound guys to death, so the matches were shorter and easier. It was a very comfortable place to be...I enjoyed my runs there with Vince Sr.' On the money side of things he recalls, 'We made lots of money... making REAL good money. You didn't make the money you made if you were on top... I mean, we were on top, but the singles guy on top always made more money. But Vince always promised us that Lanza would get one [Singles World Title] shot a month and I'dget one shot a month... to get us some top money. Things were really going great..."
In the midst of his run in the WWWF, Mulligan received a frantic call from George Scott promoter of the MACW territory. The infamous plane crash had happened losing several top stars to injury and even death and George was desperate for new talent. Mulligan recalls that Scott guaranteed him that he would match what he was currently earning at the WWWF and more on top of that. The deciding factor was the promise of being the number one guy on the roster whilst they built up their new guy, Ric Flair. At which point Mulligan would become the number two guy for as long as he so chose to be.
Mulligan tells the story of Vince Sr. refusing to accept his resignation to the point that Mulligan actually pulled a guy down on top of him during an event and holding him down for the one, two, three, forcing them to announce new tag-team champions. In Mulligan's account he states this all took place in October and that DeNucci was the held down for the victory, however, all records show that it took place on November 8, 1975 and the new champions were Tony Parisi & Louis Cerdan.
Either way Mulligan would head immediately over to MACW and following a discussion with George Scott on the best way to get himself over, Mulligan received one of the hardest and most in your face pushes ever seen in that territory. Starting out in a feud with one of the most well known names of the era, Tim Woods A.K.A. Mr. Wrestling. These were very stiff, brutal matches between the two participants, Mulligan remembers that Tim was one of the toughest guys he ever competed with and they regularly broke each others noses and in one particular bout he broke his knuckles on Tim's face because Tim just wouldn't go down when he was supposed to, but Tim still managed to get a shot in on the way down, Mulligan says that it was great working with him though.
One of the most memorable feuds of 1976 for Mulligan would be against Paul Jones in a David and Goliath-esque contest over the United States Heavyweight Championship trading it back and forth. The matches are imprinted in many fans minds as they were made so believeable for the size difference by both participants. Mulligan recalls that this feud was actually drawing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the time it was so over.
The other feud that sticks out in the memory of people is the feud with Rufus R. 'Freight Train' Jones and his cousin Burrhead. Blackjack Mulligan recalls getting really personal and insulting on a racial level with Rufus, but the two had agreed for the angle to go that way. Mulligan recalls having his car being vandalized during this feud there was so much heat on him for all of the comments he was making and also the bullying of Rufus' little cousin.
Moving into 1977 Mulligan would lose the United States Championship to Bobo Brazil, he recalls it was due to politics by the NWA board. By the end of the year Mulligan would be back in the hunt though challenging Ricky Steamboat for it. The feud as you would imagine was an entertaining run ending with Mulligan regaining the belt on January 1, 1978. Mulligan would lose the in March of 1978 though to Mr. Wrestling.
Up until this point Blackjack Mulligan had an on air (and real life) friendship, but it was now time for Ric Flair to become the number one heel in the territory. In the feud that arguably truly made Ric an angle would be worked where Ric would become the major heel whilst Mulligan for the very first time in his career would become a babyface.
Their feud would incorporate one of the most talked about promo's of that era when Blackjack Mulligan came out with a bag of Ric's stuff and he emptied it all on the stage, the bag included such items as women's clothing leading to Ric Flair seemingly really losing his temper. Mulligan recalls the bag of stuff was legitimately Ric Flair's with a couple of added items as the two had shared a van in real life and one Sunday Mulligan's wife had wanted to go to Church in the can but Ric had the van last so Mulligan had to quickly empty out all of Ric's party leftovers.
Part of the angle would include Ric Flair issuing a $10,000 bounty on Mulligan's had leading to some incredibly vicious steel cage matches with Bill Eadie as the Masked Superstar, the two competitors would often go an hour or more inside of the steel cage. The next notable opponent for Mulligan was Big John Studd, these two would have some classic big man battles over the course of 1979 and 1980 including violent street fights.
1980 would also see Mulligan clash with a fellow rough Texan by the name of Bobby Duncum. The program would unfortunately end short though when as Mulligan tells it, Bobby took offense some comments made in a promo about his ol' lady and children, of course not being serious but in the normal over the top, in your face Blackjack Mulligan outlaw style.
During the spring of 1981 Mulligan would leave Mid-Atlantic and try his hand briefly at promoting in Knoxville, but in hindsight he has said he never really stood a chance with the big promotions making national moves at that time. This would occur after he declined to take up the booking of MACW out of respect for George Scott who had just been let go by the Crockett's.
Following his departure from MACW he went traveling around the territories such as Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), the AWA, Maple Leaf Wrestling (MLW), and Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF). Mulligan recalls he traveled the world including Arabia, Germany, Kuwait, Pakistan, and he also went to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). During his international tours he would battle famous figures such as Jan Wilkens in South Africa.
In 1982 Mulligan would stop off back in MACW to team up with his son Barry Windham, performing as Blackjack Mulligan Jr. Mulligan also became known for his battles with Andre the Giant during this time and these legendary bouts would eventually lead to another short run in the WWF against Andre the Giant.
CWF would be Mulligan's next permanent stop from 1983 to 1987, for three of them years with a guaranteed contract. It would see Mulligan going up against Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair in two of his most prominent and possibly well known feuds from his time there. Mulligan recalls a promo where he ran Ric Flair off into the woods and tore all of his clothes off of him.
1984 would see another short run in MACW after he had advised Dusty Rhodes to go for the booking job up there. The plan was too have a long feud with Dusty up there carrying the heat which had bene devoloped down in Florida with a series of vignettes recorded in several locations including a swamp. Unfortunately during a match with Wahoo McDaniel and one of Wahoo's notoriously stiff chops Mulligan would find himself suffering a gall bladder attack when the shot had kocked the gallstones about. Mulligan would need time off and was rushed to hospital to have surgery.
As fate would have it George Scott would be booking in New York at this time for Vince K. McMahon's (Vince Jr.) World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Mulligan would not last very long in the WWF this time though, he was disenchanted with the direction of the product and didn't enjoy the time spent there. He speaks of Vince Jr. offering large amounts of money to stay their, Mulligan believes this is because Vince Jr. needed to keep in touch with the old school.
By mid-1985 Mulligan would be back down in CWF, everyone who saw his feud with Kevin Sullivan will never forget it. Mulligan recalls cars being burned, being legitimately split open with a coke bottle, and demonic goings on that fit in with Sullivan's gimmick. Mulligan remembers it being a shame that they just went to far with the stuff they were doing which resulted in it having to be cut short.
In what seems a strange set of events Mulligan ended back up in the WWF despite leaving earlier and donned a mask as the Big Machine during 1986 and into the beginning of 1987 teaming with Bill Eadie and Andre the Giant as Super and Giant Machine respectively, altogether known as the Machines in a very memorable run.
Following a bit of time on the independents Mulligan went on down to World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), he had gone back to Texas through-out his career mainly to the Amarillo territory. This time he was winding up his career though back near to his home, in WCCW he would meet some of the biggest names of that territory including Bruiser Brody and Chris Adams.
As admitted by himself during the course of the late 1980's Blackjack Mulligan made some poor decisions. In 1983 he had purchased some real estate with four attorneys and made a lot of money through their business; this was one of the main reasons he decided to wind down his career.
Toward the end of the 1980's though the law was changed on what was and wasn't tax deductible in the real estate industry, Mulligan and his partners made some bad choices which led to them all being imprisoned. Mulligan himself served a sentence of 24 months whilst his son Kendell served a sentence of 27 months in 1989.
When released from jail Mulligan would have a short stint on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) on TV, the management decided it did not give off the best public image for the company though due to his recent situation. The last match I can find for him took play on May 23, 1993 at the WCW Slamboree event, A Legends Reunion. He teamed with Jim Brunzell and old friend Wahoo McDaniel in defeating Don Muraco, Jimmy Snuka, and Dick Murdoch.
Mulligan would spend a couple of years working backstage in the training facility for WCW, but in the end decided it just wasn't for him, he enjoyed being on TV so he parted ways with the company. Robert transitioned back into life outside of the wrestling world, he did promo work for a lot of car dealerships, using his legendary talking ability to sell cars for them. It wouldn't take him too long to work out he could open up his own car lot.
With his wife he opened up a small car dealership, they used to do a live radio where he would advertise on and play a variety of rock and country stations through it. Mulligan managed to keep busy though at one point he set the record for being the oldest man to pass the Dive Master test and also held the world record on how many dives one person can do.
Blackjack Mulligan has suffered health wise on and off over the last 10 years or so, he retired at the legal age and his wife took over the business. Mulligan Windham has always fought through though and in 2006 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with his partner Blackjack Lanza by their former manager, Bobby 'the Brian' Heenan. Robert Windham currently till lives in Orlando, Florida.
Whether you remember Blackjack Mulligan as a dominant tag-team competitor as part of the Blackjacks with Bobby Heenan in their corner or whether you remember him as a singles star locking horns with the biggest names the NWA had to offer in often really physical encounters brought together by intense, personal promos, you know that this Texas was one bad son of a gun and you knew he was going to bring you a straight-up fight.
Windham has stated that he grew up idolizing Wahoo McDaniel who lived only 20 minutes away from Windham who was a few years younger. It would be Wahoo who convinced Windham to take a shot at the professional wrestling scene and arranged a meeting for him with Joe Blanchard.
After brief training with Joe, a call was made and led to Windham travelling up to the American Wrestling Association (AWA) where he continued the training process and officially started wrestling by 1969. The first recorded match for him I can find took place on November 1, 1969, in St. Paul, Minnesota, wrestling as Bob Windham he lost to Billy Red Lyons.
During his time in the AWA Bob would get beaten in several matches by his future partner, Blackjack Lanza. Windham states in interviews that when he saw Lanza's gimmick he fell in love with it and knew it would be perfect for him as he was a real life cowboy. All together Windham would stay in the AWA for around a year and a half. The last match for him I can find took place on November 9, 1970 at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois losing to Wilbur Snyder.
Windham would receive a call from Vincent J. McMahon (Vince Sr.) to come up to the North West to become the tag-team partner of Blackjack Lanza. Windham recalls that Lanza actually requested they became a tag-team which led to Vince Sr's call. Adopting the surname of his great-uncle Jerry Mulligan, who had been an 'old-time fighter/boxer' in the Sweetwater Texas area, Robert Windham became Blackjack Mulligan and headed straight up to the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE) at the beginning of 1971.
For his first run in the WWWF though it would end be the newly named Mulligan mainly as a singles competitor having particularly bloody matches with Pedro Morales. The run would dry up pretty quickly though as Mulligan would be at the receiving hand of an over enthusiastic fan wielding a knife in the Boston Garden. A few weeks off to recuperate and Mulligan headed over to Japan gaining tag-team gold with Larry Hennig for the International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE).
Mulligan then headed to the World Wrestling Association based from Indianapolis and teamed up with Blackjack Lanza forming the Blackjacks in the back end of November of 1971. The Blacks stayed in Indianapolis for a just over a year and became one of the hottest tag-teams in the North of America. The Blackjacks wrestled all over the area against the top stars such as Moose Cholak, Bob Ellis, 'Sailor' Art Thomas, and Dick the Bruiser.
Then they headed down to Texas and continued as a tag-team. Mulligan recalls he wanted to go out on his own again, he remembers Lanza being fine with this. Mulligan would quickly capture singles gold on top of the . In the middle of 1973 a short run back in the WWWF came about as the Blackjacks against Bruno Sammartino and Dominic DeNucci. Towards the end of 1973 Mulligan headed over to Japan to wrestle for the IWE.
1974 was a year spent in Texas for Mulligan entirely as a solo star where he would capture yet more gold including the Texas International Heavyweight Championship, the Amarillo version. Feeling it was time to move on toward the end of 1974 Mulligan agreed to head back up to the WWWF, however, Vince Sr. suggested Blackjack Lanza should come along for one more run.
Mulligan recalls going to New York and taping six months worth of TV to build up the return of the Blackjacks thus leaving him with six months of free time. After being out in contact with George Scott a short stint was agreed upon in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW). Whilst there Mulligan again competed mainly as a singles star but did occasionally tag with Ric Flair against the likes of Rufus R. Jones and Swede Hansen, some of his singles competitors included the two aforementioned opponents, Dusty Rhodes, Stan Hansen in Bull Rope matches, and the man responsible for him getting into the business, Wahoo McDaniel in Indian Strap matches remembered as particularly brutal battles.
By summer of 1975 Mulligan was back full time with Blackjack Lanza in the WWWF competing in the top echelon of the tag-team division. On August 26, of that summer the Blackjacks were crowned WWWF World Tag-Team Champions after defeating Pat Barrett and Dominic DeNucci in the Philidelphia Arena. The Blackjacks took on all comers including the monstrous Haystacks Calhoun & Gorilla Monsoon, the duo they had toppled to gain the gold, and the iconic pairing of Bruno Sammartino and Bobo Brazil to name a few teams.
He remembers his time there:
"It was very, very easy working stints in the WWWF being the tag-team compared to say, working in Texas and Minnesota. It was a different style... it was a big guy territory. You would pound guys to death, so the matches were shorter and easier. It was a very comfortable place to be...I enjoyed my runs there with Vince Sr.' On the money side of things he recalls, 'We made lots of money... making REAL good money. You didn't make the money you made if you were on top... I mean, we were on top, but the singles guy on top always made more money. But Vince always promised us that Lanza would get one [Singles World Title] shot a month and I'dget one shot a month... to get us some top money. Things were really going great..."
In the midst of his run in the WWWF, Mulligan received a frantic call from George Scott promoter of the MACW territory. The infamous plane crash had happened losing several top stars to injury and even death and George was desperate for new talent. Mulligan recalls that Scott guaranteed him that he would match what he was currently earning at the WWWF and more on top of that. The deciding factor was the promise of being the number one guy on the roster whilst they built up their new guy, Ric Flair. At which point Mulligan would become the number two guy for as long as he so chose to be.
Mulligan tells the story of Vince Sr. refusing to accept his resignation to the point that Mulligan actually pulled a guy down on top of him during an event and holding him down for the one, two, three, forcing them to announce new tag-team champions. In Mulligan's account he states this all took place in October and that DeNucci was the held down for the victory, however, all records show that it took place on November 8, 1975 and the new champions were Tony Parisi & Louis Cerdan.
Either way Mulligan would head immediately over to MACW and following a discussion with George Scott on the best way to get himself over, Mulligan received one of the hardest and most in your face pushes ever seen in that territory. Starting out in a feud with one of the most well known names of the era, Tim Woods A.K.A. Mr. Wrestling. These were very stiff, brutal matches between the two participants, Mulligan remembers that Tim was one of the toughest guys he ever competed with and they regularly broke each others noses and in one particular bout he broke his knuckles on Tim's face because Tim just wouldn't go down when he was supposed to, but Tim still managed to get a shot in on the way down, Mulligan says that it was great working with him though.
One of the most memorable feuds of 1976 for Mulligan would be against Paul Jones in a David and Goliath-esque contest over the United States Heavyweight Championship trading it back and forth. The matches are imprinted in many fans minds as they were made so believeable for the size difference by both participants. Mulligan recalls that this feud was actually drawing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the time it was so over.
The other feud that sticks out in the memory of people is the feud with Rufus R. 'Freight Train' Jones and his cousin Burrhead. Blackjack Mulligan recalls getting really personal and insulting on a racial level with Rufus, but the two had agreed for the angle to go that way. Mulligan recalls having his car being vandalized during this feud there was so much heat on him for all of the comments he was making and also the bullying of Rufus' little cousin.
Moving into 1977 Mulligan would lose the United States Championship to Bobo Brazil, he recalls it was due to politics by the NWA board. By the end of the year Mulligan would be back in the hunt though challenging Ricky Steamboat for it. The feud as you would imagine was an entertaining run ending with Mulligan regaining the belt on January 1, 1978. Mulligan would lose the in March of 1978 though to Mr. Wrestling.
Up until this point Blackjack Mulligan had an on air (and real life) friendship, but it was now time for Ric Flair to become the number one heel in the territory. In the feud that arguably truly made Ric an angle would be worked where Ric would become the major heel whilst Mulligan for the very first time in his career would become a babyface.
Their feud would incorporate one of the most talked about promo's of that era when Blackjack Mulligan came out with a bag of Ric's stuff and he emptied it all on the stage, the bag included such items as women's clothing leading to Ric Flair seemingly really losing his temper. Mulligan recalls the bag of stuff was legitimately Ric Flair's with a couple of added items as the two had shared a van in real life and one Sunday Mulligan's wife had wanted to go to Church in the can but Ric had the van last so Mulligan had to quickly empty out all of Ric's party leftovers.
Part of the angle would include Ric Flair issuing a $10,000 bounty on Mulligan's had leading to some incredibly vicious steel cage matches with Bill Eadie as the Masked Superstar, the two competitors would often go an hour or more inside of the steel cage. The next notable opponent for Mulligan was Big John Studd, these two would have some classic big man battles over the course of 1979 and 1980 including violent street fights.
1980 would also see Mulligan clash with a fellow rough Texan by the name of Bobby Duncum. The program would unfortunately end short though when as Mulligan tells it, Bobby took offense some comments made in a promo about his ol' lady and children, of course not being serious but in the normal over the top, in your face Blackjack Mulligan outlaw style.
During the spring of 1981 Mulligan would leave Mid-Atlantic and try his hand briefly at promoting in Knoxville, but in hindsight he has said he never really stood a chance with the big promotions making national moves at that time. This would occur after he declined to take up the booking of MACW out of respect for George Scott who had just been let go by the Crockett's.
Following his departure from MACW he went traveling around the territories such as Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), the AWA, Maple Leaf Wrestling (MLW), and Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF). Mulligan recalls he traveled the world including Arabia, Germany, Kuwait, Pakistan, and he also went to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). During his international tours he would battle famous figures such as Jan Wilkens in South Africa.
In 1982 Mulligan would stop off back in MACW to team up with his son Barry Windham, performing as Blackjack Mulligan Jr. Mulligan also became known for his battles with Andre the Giant during this time and these legendary bouts would eventually lead to another short run in the WWF against Andre the Giant.
CWF would be Mulligan's next permanent stop from 1983 to 1987, for three of them years with a guaranteed contract. It would see Mulligan going up against Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair in two of his most prominent and possibly well known feuds from his time there. Mulligan recalls a promo where he ran Ric Flair off into the woods and tore all of his clothes off of him.
1984 would see another short run in MACW after he had advised Dusty Rhodes to go for the booking job up there. The plan was too have a long feud with Dusty up there carrying the heat which had bene devoloped down in Florida with a series of vignettes recorded in several locations including a swamp. Unfortunately during a match with Wahoo McDaniel and one of Wahoo's notoriously stiff chops Mulligan would find himself suffering a gall bladder attack when the shot had kocked the gallstones about. Mulligan would need time off and was rushed to hospital to have surgery.
As fate would have it George Scott would be booking in New York at this time for Vince K. McMahon's (Vince Jr.) World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Mulligan would not last very long in the WWF this time though, he was disenchanted with the direction of the product and didn't enjoy the time spent there. He speaks of Vince Jr. offering large amounts of money to stay their, Mulligan believes this is because Vince Jr. needed to keep in touch with the old school.
By mid-1985 Mulligan would be back down in CWF, everyone who saw his feud with Kevin Sullivan will never forget it. Mulligan recalls cars being burned, being legitimately split open with a coke bottle, and demonic goings on that fit in with Sullivan's gimmick. Mulligan remembers it being a shame that they just went to far with the stuff they were doing which resulted in it having to be cut short.
In what seems a strange set of events Mulligan ended back up in the WWF despite leaving earlier and donned a mask as the Big Machine during 1986 and into the beginning of 1987 teaming with Bill Eadie and Andre the Giant as Super and Giant Machine respectively, altogether known as the Machines in a very memorable run.
Following a bit of time on the independents Mulligan went on down to World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), he had gone back to Texas through-out his career mainly to the Amarillo territory. This time he was winding up his career though back near to his home, in WCCW he would meet some of the biggest names of that territory including Bruiser Brody and Chris Adams.
As admitted by himself during the course of the late 1980's Blackjack Mulligan made some poor decisions. In 1983 he had purchased some real estate with four attorneys and made a lot of money through their business; this was one of the main reasons he decided to wind down his career.
Toward the end of the 1980's though the law was changed on what was and wasn't tax deductible in the real estate industry, Mulligan and his partners made some bad choices which led to them all being imprisoned. Mulligan himself served a sentence of 24 months whilst his son Kendell served a sentence of 27 months in 1989.
When released from jail Mulligan would have a short stint on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) on TV, the management decided it did not give off the best public image for the company though due to his recent situation. The last match I can find for him took play on May 23, 1993 at the WCW Slamboree event, A Legends Reunion. He teamed with Jim Brunzell and old friend Wahoo McDaniel in defeating Don Muraco, Jimmy Snuka, and Dick Murdoch.
Mulligan would spend a couple of years working backstage in the training facility for WCW, but in the end decided it just wasn't for him, he enjoyed being on TV so he parted ways with the company. Robert transitioned back into life outside of the wrestling world, he did promo work for a lot of car dealerships, using his legendary talking ability to sell cars for them. It wouldn't take him too long to work out he could open up his own car lot.
With his wife he opened up a small car dealership, they used to do a live radio where he would advertise on and play a variety of rock and country stations through it. Mulligan managed to keep busy though at one point he set the record for being the oldest man to pass the Dive Master test and also held the world record on how many dives one person can do.
Blackjack Mulligan has suffered health wise on and off over the last 10 years or so, he retired at the legal age and his wife took over the business. Mulligan Windham has always fought through though and in 2006 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with his partner Blackjack Lanza by their former manager, Bobby 'the Brian' Heenan. Robert Windham currently till lives in Orlando, Florida.
Whether you remember Blackjack Mulligan as a dominant tag-team competitor as part of the Blackjacks with Bobby Heenan in their corner or whether you remember him as a singles star locking horns with the biggest names the NWA had to offer in often really physical encounters brought together by intense, personal promos, you know that this Texas was one bad son of a gun and you knew he was going to bring you a straight-up fight.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Blackjack Mulligan.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: July 2014.
Biography: #97.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Blackjack Mulligan.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: July 2014.
Biography: #97.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.