Wrestling World Mourns Loss of WWE Legend Pat Patterson

Courtesy of WWE

Wrestling pioneer Pat Patterson died Wednesday at the age of 79. In addition to a storied career in the ring, Patterson spent decades working behind the scenes for WWE and as a result impacted the lives of multiple generations of superstars.

Patterson was a trusted advisor for performers, always willing to dish out the wisdom he accumulated in six decades in the business, and apparently the life of the party, too. Many former WWE stars who mourned his loss on social media fondly remembered Patterson’s legendary karaoke parties. 

After news of Patterson’s passing broke on Wednesday morning, tributes poured in from many of those whose lives he touched. 

Patterson only wrestled for WWE for a short period, from 1979 until his retirement in 1984, but he became a fixture in a variety of on-screen and behind-the-scenes roles after his in-ring career ended. He worked backstage as a match booker and became a trusted advisor to Vince McMahon. Perhaps his biggest contribution to WWE in that time was inventing the now-iconic Royal Rumble match. 

Patterson described the process of convincing McMahon of the idea in his 2016 memoir. 

The difference between WWE’s Royal Rumble and a traditional over-the-top rope battle royal is that the participants come into the match at two-minute intervals — not all at the same time at the beginning of the match. I wanted to create something special, something just like we had in San Francisco where it had been such a hot event.

The more I kept running the idea over in my mind, the more it took shape and I was sure I was on to something. I felt it: every instinct in my body told me it would work. So I finally brought the idea to Vince. He laughed at the concept at first, saying that an hour was way too long to keep fans interested.

I didn’t get upset; I knew sometimes he needed time for ideas to sink in. But I made sure to say, “All right, but keep it in mind, will you? Because I know this can work.”

Quietly, Patterson was also a trailblazer for members of the LGBTQ community in wrestling. Patterson’s homosexuality was an open secret in the industry since his days in the San Francisco-based Big Time Wrestling in the 1960s and was widely known during his time in WWE, though he did not come out publicly until 2014.