by Stephen Von Slagle
A man whose talent as a performer was nearly unrivaled and whose vision & skill behind the scenes truly helped change the business forever, there are few men who have been as influential during the modern era of professional wrestling than Pat Patterson. In terms of his ringwork, Patterson was clearly one of the premier workers in the sport during his (or any other) time. His sense of timing, realistic bumping and fluidity of moves placed him in an elite class of performer and his unique, believable style influenced both the wrestlers of his day and those who were yet to come. However, following his retirement from active competition after a career of more than twenty-five years, Pat Patterson went on to become even more influential as one of the main creative forces at WWE for more than two decades. Second only to Vince McMahon himself, Patterson is the man responsible for booking some of the most unique matches & memorable angles in World Wrestling Entertainment history.
With several years of experience in the business now to his credit, it was during his lengthy stay in Roy Shire’s San Francisco territory that the talented Patterson truly came into his own as a top-level competitor. Whether working as a beloved babyface or a hated heel, Patterson excelled at eliciting the desired response from his audience while delivering consistently outstanding matches against a variety of opponents. Indeed, outside of Ray “The Crippler” Stevens, there had never been a more popular babyface or hated heel than Pat Patterson to compete in the popular San Francisco promotion. Consequently, Patterson was responsible for countless sell-outs of the territory’s premier venue, the legendary Cow Palace. Given his level of popularity, it’s no surprise that Patterson captured the coveted NWA United States Heavyweight championship (the territory’s top prize) no less than six different times between 1969-1977 by defeating opponents such as Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson, Mr. Fuji, The Great Mephisto, Bugsy McGraw, Alexis Smirnoff and Angelo “King Kong” Mosca.
In addition to being one of the most successful singles performers of his day, Patterson was also one-half of some truly formidable, top-level tag teams and he won numerous championships with a variety of different partners. Included among his many accomplishments in the tag division are two NWA Pacific Northwest Tag team titles (with Tony Borne and The Hangman, both in 1964) and one IWA World Tag Team title (with Art Nelson in 1967).
As far as the San Francisco territory is concerned, Pat Patterson won the prestigious NWA World Tag Team championship on eleven different occasions with diverse partners such as Billy Graham, Ray Stevens, Pedro Morales, Pepper Gomez, Peter Maivia, “Moondog” Lonnie Mayne, Peter Maivia and Tony Garea. Patterson also went on to capture the Florida Tag Team title with Ivan Koloff in 1977 and, along with Stevens, the AWA World Tag Team title in 1978. In Los Angeles, he teamed with Johnny Powers to win the NWA North American Tag Team title in 1973 while back home in Quebec, Patterson scored five separate Canadian International Tag Team championships (two with Ray Rougeau and three with Pierre Lefevre).
As the WWF experienced its second wave of incredible popularity during the “Attitude Era” of the late Nineties, Patterson returned to Federation storylines with Gerald Brisco, forming the entertaining comedic heel duo known collectively as The Stooges. While he later admitted that he was not particularly fond of the role, the two beguiling veterans, each trying his best to out-do the other in order to become Mr. McMahon’s favorite lackey, was a guilty pleasure of WWF fans and a surprisingly consistent ratings draw for Federation television programming. The bumbling, stumbling Stooges were an ancillary part of several very important and successful storylines involving McMahon adversaries such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock and The Undertaker, among others.
As an openly gay man in the oftentimes conservative world of professional wrestling during the Sixties and Seventies, Patterson surely faced his share of discrimination. However, his talent and good character often won over those who were prejudiced against his lifestyle. And, although Patterson’s sexuality was not openly discussed on television, it was occasionally alluded to in a tongue-in-cheek manner by announcers and co-workers.
Pat Patterson was honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club in 1995 and is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame (1996), the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (1996) and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame (2006).
On November 27, 2020, Patterson, who had been battling cancer for several years, was rushed to the hospital and treated for a blood clot in his liver. On December 2, 2020, Pierre “Pat Patterson” Clermont passed away in Miami, Florida.