Ted Gordienko's uncle has been dead for three years now, a man forgotten by all except the most dedicated wrestling fans.
But his nephew hopes to revive interest in a Canadian athlete whose status as a champion was matched only by his achievements as an artist. George Gordienko was a master of the canvas, both in the ring and on an easel. He rassled before an audience of 100,000 in Baghdad and presented a one-man art show in Milan -- a pair of claims it's unlikely anyone can match.
Yet despite a fascinating life, he is relatively unknown in his homeland, a situation his nephew hopes to change.
"Why don't we know about him? Canada needs to recognize one of its sons," said Ted, a 57-year-old Victoria resident.
He cared for his uncle in his final years, sharing a modest basement apartment in exchange for a chance to listen to fantastic stories about his exploits -- exploits that included a meeting with Picasso, a romance with a Greek marchioness and a devastating accusation of Communist affiliation.
Ted has spent the past three years compiling a small mountain of posters, handbills, photographs, magazines, video clips, and even bubble-gum cards about his uncle, who died at the age of 74.
Scrapbooks are filled with press clippings in English, French, Farsi, Hindi and Arabic. He has his uncle's wrestling robe from a tour of Japan; the Kanji symbols on the back declare the wearer to be the world's greatest wrestler.
Ted has worked on tugboats and as a chef. He boasts a wrestler's build himself, a legacy of his Russian-Ukrainian heritage. His father was an amateur boxer who once had a tryout with the B.C. Lions football team and went on to become the ultimate pro wrestling bad guy -- a referee. But in the Gordienko household in Victoria, the boy's imagination was inspired less by his father than by his uncle.
"My dad was my dad, but my uncle was my hero," he said.
In his day, George Gordienko thrilled and enraged the most discerning devotees of the grappling arts. "I am born strong," he once said. "I roll over all my challengers like a big steamroller." He traded eye pokes and headlocks with the sweaty likes of Beautiful Brutus, Moose Morowski and Abdullah the Butcher. He twice fought world champion Lou Thesz to a draw. Like the champ, he had no need for costumes, gimmicks, or a funny name.
He fought in "Clashes of the Titans"at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Palais des Sports in Paris. In Iraq, he faced Adnan Alkaissy, the Sheikh of Baghdad, before tens of thousands of fanatics whose frenzied partisanship did not bode well for the foreigner, win or lose. (He wisely chose the latter.)
In one scrapbook, a 15-year-old George flexes his muscles on what appears to be Grand Beach, north of Winnipeg. He looks like he has stepped out of a Charles Atlas advertisement. A star fullback on his high-school football team, George claimed his first wrestling championship as Manitoba's top amateur.
As the 1948 Olympic Games approached, the bodybuilder considered competing as a weightlifter, a category in which he held several provincial titles and records. Instead, he turned professional, exchanging freestyle wrestling for free-for-all wrestling.
Newspapers loved him. The "wonder boy" was said to be possessed of "the body beautiful." Fans flocked to see the "popular Winnipeg strongboy" in the Dakotas.
When not delivering a flying scissors kick, he could be found in the classroom at the University of Minnesota. He was taking premed classes when he met his future wife; he would return to Winnipeg with her and their son.
In 1951, their marriage ended in bizarre circumstances. Ruth Gordienko accused her husband of forcing her into the Communist Party, which she said ordered them to Winnipeg as "sleepers." She returned to the United States with their son and, by her own later admission, received assurances from the FBI that her husband would be barred from the country.
In the Red Scare of the 1950s, George was suddenly washed up as a pro wrestler, unable to make a decent living without being able to cross the border. He moved to Vancouver Island to work on log booms, hooked up with wrestling patriarch Stu Hart, and eventually left for Australia.
The wrestler's later romance with a Greek marchioness, which began in the 1960s, was also fraught with drama. Christina Tassou was engaged to the scion of an industrial empire when they met, but left her fiancé to be with her "man of muscles." The European tabloids relished the affair between the ring Goliath and the petite noblewoman (who was forced by postwar circumstances to dance nearly topless in revues). She was also cast by Federico Fellini in an uncredited role in his 1957 movie, Nights of Cabiria.
She encouraged George to indulge his artistic desires; he travelled with a case of oil paints, undertaking formal studies with the likes of sculptor Anthony Caro in London. While other pro wrestlers caroused on the road, George patronized Europe's finest museums and art galleries.
He even met with Pablo Picasso -- but while George wanted to discuss art, the famous artist wanted only to know about life in the ring. Still, the wrestler achieved great success when his work appeared in a multidisciplinary show that also included Miro, Moore and Picasso. In Italy, he had one-man shows at prominent galleries. In Canada, his art was shown at the Eaton's in downtown Winnipeg.
The wrestler worked in different forms, although surrealism and cubism came to be his greatest influences.
"He said anybody can paint what they see," his nephew said, "but only a true artist can paint what's in their mind."
In 1990, George left Europe for good, moving to Black Creek on Vancouver Island, and continued painting. He had an exhibition at the Winchester Galleries in Victoria in 2000.
As his uncle's health declined from his bout with cancer, Ted asked for a list of friends to contact. George resisted but eventually handed over an envelope to be opened after his death.
When the time came, Ted checked his uncle's list. He read the names Tokyo Joe, Zebra Kid, Prince Kumali and Masked Marauder. A jokester to the end, George Gordienko had deliberately omitted proper names and contact information.