Dark Side of the Ring: Junkyard Dog – What We Learned

JYD Broke Ground for Black Wrestlers

One message that was told very clearly by nearly everyone who spoke on this episode is that the Junkyard Dog was a trailblazer when it came to Black wrestlers. Though he wasn’t classically trained by any stretch of the imagination, he had a magnetic personality, a great look, and was powerful and believable enough that he got over.

Jim Ross points out that, at the time, many wrestling promotions had an unwritten rule that they would only have so many Black wrestlers on the roster. If a company already had a Black babyface, for instance, they felt like they didn’t need another. Ross correctly points out how misguided this was, but says it was the way things worked at the time.

Many of the other wrestlers interviewed, such as Koko B. Ware, Tony Atlas, and Teddy Long, point out how wrestling at the time was a “white man’s sport” and that Ritter ended up showing how successful a Black wrestler could be, which opened doors for them and many others.

A former college football player, Sylvester Ritter tried to get into wrestling for a while, most notably working as “Big Daddy Ritter” in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling in Canada. However, it wasn’t until he hit Mid-South Wrestling and adopted the Junkyard Dog gimmick that he truly hit it big.

He Had a Close Relationship with Bill Watts

Bill Watts was the booker for Mid-South Wrestling in the 1980s. When Ritter joined his company, Watts was the one who gave him the Junkyard Dog name and gimmick, eventually positioning him as the top face in the promotion. The company worked around his wrestling limitations and leaned into his power, football background, and personality. They booked him in matches where he could show off what he did well while hiding what he wasn’t as good at.

Ted DiBiase was a big part of helping him get over, as he worked as a heel against JYD, highlighting the things that made the Junkyard Dog special. JYD was so insanely over at the time that security needed to protect the heels who challenged him because fans would be so angry at anyone trying to hurt the Junkyard Dog.

Jim Cornette tells a story about an angle where the Fabulous Freebirds blinded JYD in storyline. Since this was the 80s, Ritter kept kayfabe and pretended he actually was blind, even going as far as to cut a promo saying that his wife was about to give birth to their daughter and that now, thanks to the Freebirds, he would be able to hold her but he wouldn’t get to see her.

It got to the point where a “blind” JYD was sitting at ringside during a Freebirds match only to hear a fan tell him that he had his back and then pull out a gun, pointing it at the Freebirds. JYD had to decide whether to break kayfabe and grab the gun or keep the storyline going and potentially let someone get shot. Thankfully security intervened.

During their time working together, Sylvester Ritter and Bill Watts became very close. However, eventually, Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) came calling with a lot of money and promises of superstardom. Ritter ended up leaving Mid-South and joining the WWF.

This upset Bill Watts so much that he went on TV and told the audience that Junkyard Dog had left the company and that he was letting down the fans. It was shockingly similar to the speech Michael Cole would give when Sasha Banks and Naomi left the company.

Teddy Long, however, tells a story about how he heard that Ritter was in a bathroom stall and he overheard Bill Watts and Grizzly Smith talking about how JYD might leave the company. Allegedly, Watts used a racial slur during this conversation. Watts denies that this happened.

His WWF Career Didn’t Go How He Wanted It To

The Junkyard Dog hit the WWF and he experienced the company’s incredible marketing machine. Soon he had action figures, a role in a cartoon, and a song on The Wrestling Album (“Grab Them Cakes“). However, despite the marketing push, JYD did not move up the card like he expected.

Koko B. Ware points out that not only was no face going to be pushed to the level of Hulk Hogan at the time, but that the WWF in that era primarily pushed white wrestlers to attract a white audience.

It was during his time in the WWF that he developed a serious drug problem. Hacksaw Jim Duggan mentions that nearly everyone in the company did drugs at the time, but that Ritter had an “addictive personality” that caused him to get into serious trouble with them. He was eventually fired by the WWF for missing shows. He had become unreliable and lost his focus, seeming to care more about drugs than wrestling. Jake Roberts talks about how he had felt the same way at points in his life and that drug addiction can consume you.

Drug Use Damaged His Life

After spending some uneventful time in various small indies, Ritter was hired by World Championship Wrestling. Bill Watts was Vice President and booker at the time. Watts hoped that the duo could recapture their Mid-South magic, but JYD was in bad shape at this point and his drug problems had taken over his life. He wouldn’t last long in the company and that was his last chance at working a consistent role in a major promotion.

In 1998, he was driving home from his daughter’s high school graduation celebration when he died in a single-car accident. It’s assumed that he fell asleep at the wheel and wasn’t wearing his seatbelt when the car flipped, causing his death.

The Junkyard Dog blazed a trail in wrestling but, like so many wrestlers of that era, his demons caught up to him and he tragically died at a young age.