Page 22 - 200710 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2007

22 Remembering The Missing Link Remembering The Missing Link 22 The 'X' Zone The 'X' Zone Remembers Remembers The Missing Link The Missing Link Former Hamilton wrestler Former Hamilton wrestler tried to help others take tried to help others take the right path the right path By Scott Radley - The Hamilton Spectator ‘X’ Zone Senior Producer Laura Rogers with Dewey “The Missing Link” Robertson in Hamilton, Ontario in August 2006. (C) REL-MAR McConnell Media Company. You'd probably know Myers better by call that came in the next morning was from his wrestling name of George "The Animal" TSN iron star Chris Schultz. He'd spent his teen Steele. As a bald, green-tongued, grunting, turn- years in Robertson's Burlington gym, pumping buckle eating wild man, he gave Robertson a up, getting strong and learning how to become a The man they call Cowboy spent years trying to run for his money as the most out-there high-level athlete. turn Dewey Robertson into a star. Bill Watts had character in the WWF of the heady '80s. "I give him a lot of credit for throwing battled in the ring with the clean-cut Hamilton In their early days - prior to the arrival of me around the ring a few times and toughening wrestler and as owner of the Universal the Missing Link - they'd wrestled a number of me up," Schultz says. "It was the first time I was Wrestling Federation, he'd promoted the times. Only once were they scheduled to put in a headlock and thought my head would muscular grappler in an effort to take him to the grapple in their later incarnations, but pop off." top of the game's talent pool. Good as Robertson was fired shortly before they were to Almost every evening, he'd spend a Robertson was though, these efforts could never go at it. couple of hours going hard on the weights and quite push him into the rarefied air. Myers says that was for the best. then finishing the workout with some wrestling So, eventually, as often happens in the "Could you picture me in one corner in the ring. The regular butt-kicking- his words transient world of pro wrestling, the two went eating the turnbuckle and him in the other, - gave him some of the tools he later used in their own ways. For a number of years they running his head into it?" he laughs. "We'd carving out a pro football career. never saw each other. Until they finally crossed never have fought." It'd been years since he'd seen paths again and Watts' jaw nearly hit the floor. While both were essentially memorable Robertson, but he never lost sight of the help the "The next time I saw him, he had cartoon characters, what separated them was huge man with the huge personality had given transformed himself into the Missing Link," that Myers was a high school teacher who only him. Watts says. wrestled three months a year. The contact with "I really regret I didn't have a moment to The squeaky clean all-Canadian guy had real life during the other nine months at home look him in the eyes and tell him what a positive become a green-faced, wild-haired, semi-crazed helped him remain grounded. Robertson didn't impact he had on me," Schultz says. freak of nature from parts unknown. Even for a have that. Robertson leaves behind two sons, Jason guy like Watts who'd dreamt such off-the-wall So for years, Robertson's life spiraled and Mark, his mother Ethel Vanderveken, characters as Junk Yard Dog, this was a out of control with alcohol, drug and steroid brother Ken, former wife Sheena Robertson, shocking and brilliant transformation. Shocking abuse. Amazingly, he was wilder outside the girlfriend Karen Antoniak, and three because of who Robertson had been. Brilliant ring than in it, which wasn't easy to do. grandchildren. [] because the character made cash registers ring "It bothered me to see a guy that at arenas everywhere. twisted," Myers sys. "He was so far out of "I would've never dreamt this gimmick reality, it was unbelievable. That wasn't the up," Watts says. "It was different. It was out young man from Hamilton I knew from years there. But it worked… as the Missing Link, he before." was box office." But years ago, with the help of former Robertson - whose real first name was wrestler Ted "The Million Dollar Man" Byron but was known to absolutely everyone by DiBiase, he cleaned up his act, straightened up the more familiar, Dewey - died early in the his life and set out to warn others against the morning on Thursday, August 16 2007 of choice he made." complications resulting from cancer that had "I saw a huge difference in him," spread through his kidney and liver. He was 68. DiBiase says. "He was more like the Dewey of As good a wrestler as he was, what old." really made him a star was how completely That would be the guy whose impact unlike anyone else he was. was felt far away from wrestling circles. Dewey “The Missing Link” Robertson and "Different is interesting," explains Jim When a story ran in the The Spec earlier The ‘X’ Zone’s Rob McConnell in 2006 - Myers. in the week about his health problems, the first (C) REL-MAR McConnell Media Company