History Wrestling / BuddyRogers

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Perhaps his most controversial use of this tactic was when he claimed to have only lost the NWA World Heavyweight title to Wrestling/BoboBrazil due to a groin injury. Hearing this, Brazil [[GoodIsDumb actually refused to take the championship belt]] until a doctor later clarified Rogers was not injured. Still, [[CanonDiscontinuity the NWA maintained Bobo never won the belt.]]

* GorgeousGeorge[=/=]TheFightingNarcissist: He'd look down on the fans and insisted that his blond hair was natural.

* UrExample: Was the first [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWWF World Heavyweight Champion]], the first Nature Boy, and the innovator of the extremely popular submission hold The Figure Four Leg Lock.

* [[LegacyCharacter Legacy Wrestler]]: He was the first of many Nature Boys in pro wrestling with Wrestling/RicFlair being the most famous, arugably more so than his predecessor. Less famous Nature Boy's includes BuddyLandel (now deceased) and "The Black Nature Boy" Scoot Andrews.

* CatchPhrase: (with the most smug, shiteatingest grin ever) "To a nicer guy, it couldn't have happened"

* BlondsAreEvil: Par for the course for a Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers spent most of his career as a bleach blonde JerkAss.

* FinishingMove: The figure four leg lock.

* [[LegacyCharacter Legacy Wrestler]]: He was the first of many Nature Boys in pro wrestling with Wrestling/RicFlair being the most famous.

* UrExample: Was the first [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWWF World Heavyweight Champion]].

-->"To a nicer guy, it couldn't happen"
-->--'''"The Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers''' after defeating Pat [=O'Connor=] for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/nwa/world/nwa-h.html NWA World Heavyweight Title]]

* UnderwearOfPower: He grew up in an era when there were still popular, even outside of professional wrestling. They were on their way out everywhere else by the time he debuted though.

** UnbuiltTrope: His gimmick could be summarized as Gorgeous George minus the homophobia bait at the time but the "nature boy" has since taken on a life of its own, [[LegacyCharacter having at least four successors]].

** UnbuiltTrope: His gimmick could be summarized as Gorgeous George minus the homophobia bait at the time but the "nature boy" has since taken on a life of its own, [[LegacyCharacter having at least four successors]].

* UnderwearOfPower

* StartMyOwn: His own wrestling promotion, Future Of Wrestling, out of Florida. Incidentally, the first FOW International Champion ''was'' crowned during a tour of South America, though it was in Peru rather than Brazil.

* DyeingForYourArt: He bleached his hair in preparation for the oncoming of television.

* UnrelatedBrothers: With the original Rip Rogers, better known as Eddie Graham.

** UnbuiltTrope: His gimmick could summarized as Gorgeous George minus the homophobia bait at the time but the "nature boy" has since taken on a life of its own, [[LegacyCharacter having at least four successors]].

** UnbuiltTrope: His gimmick could summarized as Gorgeous George minus the homophobia bait.

* PowerStable: (in NWA Mid-Atlantic): Rogers' Army, with Wrestling/BigJohnStudd, Wrestling/JimmySnuka and Ken Patera, until Gene Anderson took it over and renamed it Anderson's Army.

* {{Retcon}}: The tournament in Brazil where he defeated the likes of Wrestling/BrunoSammartino and Antonino Rocca then won the WWWF championship never actually happened.

* HollywoodHeartAttack, WorfHadTheFlu and AllPartOfTheShow: Part of his infamous 48-second title loss to the sport's then-newest superstar, Bruno Sammartino. According to most accounts, Rogers – just 42 years old – had suffered a heart attack not long before his scheduled match against Sammartino, and was booked to lose the title. Depending on who one finds most believable, the heart attack was either legit (and he agreed to drop the title so he could recover), he was indeed sick but – insisting that he be allowed to hold onto the title until he recovered to go on tour as "champion" – was made by bookers to wrestle and drop the title as planned, or he was healthy all along and simply refused to cooperate with (the elder) Vince [=McMahon=] in dropping the title to a wrestler they found more charismatic and had more drawing power. Indeed, Sammartino – one of the few, if not only key figures involved in that match to be alive, much less in good health – has often said the latter explanation is the one, and with few accurate records (no taped footage of the match itself, no existing paper records and strict maintenance of {{Kayfabe}} abounding in that era) there's little evidence to dispute him.

* DirtyCoward

* HollywoodHeartAttack and AllPartOfTheShow: Part of his infamous 48-second title loss to the sport's then-newest superstar, Bruno Sammartino. According to most accounts, Rogers – just 42 years old – had suffered a heart attack not long before his scheduled match against Sammartino, and was booked to lose the title. Depending on who one finds most believable, the heart attack was either legit (and he agreed to drop the title so he could recover), he was indeed sick but – insisting that he be allowed to hold onto the title until he recovered to go on tour as "champion" – was made by bookers to wrestle and drop the title as planned, or he was healthy all along and simply refused to cooperate with (the elder) Vince [=McMahon=] in dropping the title to a wrestler they found more charismatic and had more drawing power. Indeed, Sammartino – one of the few, if not only key figures involved in that match to be alive, much less in good health – has often said the latter explanation is the one, and with few accurate records (no taped footage of the match itself, no existing paper records and strict maintenance of {{Kayfabe}} abounding in that era) there's little evidence to dispute him.

* UrExample: Was the first [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWWF World Heavyweight Champion]].
* WorfHadTheFlu: His excuse for getting squashed by Bruno Sammartino.

'''Herman Rohde Jr.''' (1921-1963) was an American {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er from Camden, UsefulNotes/NewJersey as '''Buddy Rogers.''' He debuted in 1939 and, after working the carnival circuit, first made his name in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}. When television came in, he jumped to UsefulNotes/StLouis, where he became such a major name that he caused Sam Muchnik's outlaw (runs in the same geographical area as an established promotion in opposition) to merge with the existing Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance territory there. While he won various regional titles over his career, he is most famous for being the first wrestler to hold both the NWA World Heavyweight Title and the [[http://www,wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWWF (now WWE) World Heavyweight Title]]. In fact, it was a match he had with Wrestling/LouThesz that led to NWA Capitol Wrestling splitting from the NWA and renaming itself the WWWF. He retired from full-time competition in 1963 due to physical decline. He made a comeback in 1978 when he was in his 50s, ultimately retiring once and for all in 1982. He passed away on June 26, 1992 after having suffered a series of strokes.

* ArchEnemy: He and Lou Thesz did not get along.

* RedBaron: "Nature Boy"

* GorgeousGeorge

* {{Retcon}}: The tournament in Brazil where he defeated the likes of Bruno Sammartino and Antonino Rocca then won the WWWF championship never actually happened.

* SmugSnake