Les Thatcher Bio

Les Thatcher became a professional wrestling fan the first time he watched the action on a friend’s television in 1949 at the tender age of eight years old. “The action on that little 10 inch black & white screen just reached out an grabbed me,” states Thatcher.

Les had always been involved in athletics from an early age. He played baseball, football, and basketball through out elementary and high school.  At age 12 he added wrestling at the local YMCA, and at 15 years of age and one year before he was of legal age to drive in his home state of Ohio, he won his first of many drag racing trophies at an outlaw track in Kentucky. His nature was competitive, and although he did not know it at the time, the dye was cast for his future in the grunt and groan sport.

Leslie Alan Malady was born to an Irish father, and a French/English mother on October 28,1940 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The beginning of his life in pro wrestling began at what may have been the first Pro Wrestling School in America. Les read about Tony Santos, a promoter in New England, and his wrestling school based in Boston, Massachusetts in a 1959 issue of Wrestling Revue, then the top magazine in the industry, and after writing back and forth he climbed on a Greyhound Bus in February 1960 and traveled to Boston to begin what has been a 44 year love affair with professional wrestling.

When you bring up Les’ name in a conversation with wrestling fans, you at first may think they are all talking about different people. Why? Well one may speak of Thatcher the wrestler, Tag Team Champion, and World Junior Heavyweight contender.  A second could talk of Les the television commentator, innovator, and producer.  A third could mention Les Thatcher the writer/Editor, and still a fourth will bring up the trainer/teacher. The bottom line is that all of them are right.  Les Thatcher is one of the renaissance men of pro wrestling.

As a wrestler his career spanned 20 years from July 4 1960 when he stepped into the ring as a pro for the first time against “Cowboy” Ronnie Hill in Blue Hills, Maine.  During that twenty-year period he shared over a dozen different tag team titles multiable times with several tag partners. You will hear him joke that he helped prepare wrestlers for runs as NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champions as he partnered both Roger Kirby, and Nelson Royal as tag champs before either held the Jr. singles belt.  As a Junior Heavyweight he held the Southern Jr. Title and in his prime was always ranked in the top 15 Junior Heavyweights in the world.  Although he was considered a high flyer for the time because of his drop kicks, and flying head scissors, his sound technical in ring skills were his strong suit.

As a broadcaster, Les shared the microphone over the years with hall of famers such as Gordon Solie, Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, and Jim Ross. In 1974 he began hosting and producing Southeastern Championship Wrestling and introduced such new concepts to the pro mat world as a low-key mid-show interview segment called “Personality Profile” and other technical features that are common place today.  He had runs with such great companies of that time as Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and Georgia Championship Wrestling in the role as Host/Color man and also involved in production.

Les Thatcher the writer/Editor saw his byline in several of the nations top newsstand magazines such as Wrestling Revue, and The Wrestling News during the seventies.  His “Wrestler’s Eye View” column along with his editors skills were seen in The Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Southeastern territories as he photographed, wrote, edited, laided out and designed both photo albums, weekly programs, and magazines.

The very first ever four color WWWF magazine was designed and edited by Thatcher for Vince McMahon Jr. in 1978.

As a trainer/teacher for the last ten years Les opened Les Thatcher’s Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp in Cincinnati in 1995 and an “off shoot” of that is the Heartland Wrestling Association which during that period was considered one of the top independent promotions in the country.  From 1998 through 2001 HWA promoted the famous “Brian Pillman Memorial Shows” bringing WWF, WCW, and ECW together under the same roof on the same night for the first time in wrestling history.  As a trainer, Thatcher is considered one of the tops in North America.  Having been a developmental trainer for both WCW, and WWF/E.  Before selling The Main Event Camp and HWA this past year, he trained, touched, and sharpened the careers of such pro grapplers as Matt Stryker, Shark Boy, B.J. Whitmer, Chad Collyer, Rory Fox, Charlie Haas, Shannon Moore, Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli, Jimmy Yang. Kaz Hyashi, Cody Hawk, Nigel McGuinness, Jamie Noble, Elix Skipper, Rosie & Jamal of Three Minute Warning, Chet Jablonski, Garrison Cade, and Steve Bradley to name a few.

To wrap it all up, EPWT was the vision of Les Thatcher as well. Adding this background with that of Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, and Leilani Kai, the reader can see why we think EPWT can give the most complete training offered today.  Les’ dream for the future is to share the over one hundred years of experience within this company along with the trainers love and passion for pro wrestling to help secure the future of the professional wrestling industry.