Mike Rickard
Remembering Arnold Skaaland
By Mike Rickard II
Mar 15, 2007, 12:58

For many fans, “Golden Boy” Arnold Skaaland is a mystery.  While they may know him as a WWE Hall of Famer, his in-ring career was many years before they started watching wrestling.  Nevertheless, he was a key figure in the history of the business as well as a vital player in the development of the WWE. 

Arnold Skaaland began wrestling in the 1940’s, the start of a career that would see him progress from wrestler to manager to part owner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (Skaaland would be one of the men that Vince McMahon bought out when he purchased control of the WWF from his father Vince McMahon Sr.)

As a wrestler, Skaaland competed against some of the biggest stars in the sport at that time including NWA championship matches with Pat O’Connor and “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers . Like many wrestlers, he competed under different names.  In his case he worked in Georgia as Bobby Weaver. 

Eventually, Skaaland would begin working for Vince McMahon Sr.’s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), a place that would become his home from the 1960’s on.  In 1967, Skaaland held the United States Tag Team Championship in the WWWF with Spiros Arion (after Arion’s partner Antonio Pugilese left the WWWF).  Skaaland and Arion held the belts for about a month until dropping them to the team of the Sicilians (Lou Albano and Tony Altimore). 

As Skaaland’s in-ring career began to wind down, he turned to managing, working with the top babyfaces in the WWWF including Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund during their reigns as WWWF champion.   Skaaland’s tenure as a manager is probably best remembered by fans for the infamous night when he threw in the towel for Bob Backlund during Backlund’s WWF title defense against the Iron Sheik.  An injured Backlund was trapped in the Iron Sheik’s Camel Clutch submission hold and Skaaland feared Backlund would suffer a career ending injury rather than submit to the move.  As a result, he threw in the towel, costing Backlund his title.
 
Behind the scenes, Skaaland worked as a producer for the WWWF’s television tapings.  Over time, he became a partial owner of the WWWF until Vince McMahon Jr. bought him out in 1983.  After that, Skaaland’s onscreen appearances became few and far between on WWF television.  His most memorable appearances after this time were probably his appearance as a foreman in the Piledriver music video and an angle he shot with Bob Backlund where Backlund attacked his former manager during a heel turn in the early 1990’s.

In 1995, Skaaland was inducted into the first class of the WWF Hall of Fame in recognition of his achievements both in front of and behind the camera.