RIP Chief Jay Strongbow (wrestling, pro, champions, legend)
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Joe Scarpa born in Philadelphia paased away at his Georgia residence on April 3rd. Scarpa was better known to wrestling fans over the past 3 decades as Chief Jay Strongbow. He started out wrestling under his real name back in 1947. He was a top babyface draw in various Southern NWA territories including Georgia, Mid Atlantic, and Florida. He also worked successful stints in Hawaii and the old Roy Shire's Northern California Promotion. In the very late 60's while in California Gorilla Monsoon told him that Vincent H. Mcmahon was looking for an Indian babyface wrestler. Scarpa who is half Native American and Italian thought he would give it a try. At the start of the 70's and in his 40's Scarpa started what would become the biggest run in his career. As Chief Jay Strongbow he was loved by the rabid Northeast WWF fanbase. He held the WWF tag team titles on 3 occasions with Sonny King, Chief Billy White Wolf (who was really Shiek Adnan El Kaissie) and later in his career with his staged "brother" (Frank Hill- a real full Native American). He also had top feuds with Spirios Arion, Ken Patera, and Greg Valentine.
Strongbow also had a run in Detroit around 1977 feuding with the Sheik and Bulldog Don Kent. In addition he had a brief stint on Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1980 feuding with the "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd.
Strongbow wound down his career in 1983 officially retiring in 1985. He became a road agent and mentored many of the WWF stars including Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Brett Hart and others. Strongbow was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 1994 and the Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame in New York in Amsterdam NY a few years ago. He also attended a Pro Wrestling convention in 2010 in Charlotte.
RIP Chief Jay. Always loved the tribal dance when he was building himself back up before throwing blows.
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