Jon Harris as Trapper John in the WWF

[RCS1988]

I was watching a what culture video on the tallest wrestlers and they mention this guy. He went by Little John in WCCW & Silo Sam in the AWA, but they mentioned he had a tryout dark match for the WWF at a June 1987 TV taping, but was on the payroll for 8 months before that. Any clue which taping he wrestled at and who he faced? I'm sure Parv could dig up a WON to find out. It's always interesting finding out about wrestlers that had dark match tryouts at WWF TV tapings, but you never heard about it before.

[GSR]

I would have to get my copies out of the Observer to be 100% certain, but as someone who keeps a record of WWF/E results (and does it differently to Cawthon's site) am pretty positive there is no mention of a try out match involving him at all in the '87 issues.

[Jingus]

There's a couple of clip videos online of this guy, and I'm amazed that he didn't seem to last long in wrestling just because of his sheer size. He might've been a terrible wrestler (most of the videos don't include much ring footage) but he certainly had just as much "holy shit, LOOK at that guy!" wow factor as Haystacks Calhoun or Great Khali. I found a snippet from Memphis where he's standing next to Lance Russell, and it's a full-body shot so you can tell that Lance isn't ducking down or Harris isn't standing on a box to make him look bigger. And with both men standing flat-footed on the ground, the top of Lance's head doesn't even quite reach the level of Harris's armpit.

 

In terms of a WWF run, though, he's got two things going against him. First of all, his size is the only impressive thing about his body; imagine if Giant Baba had a beer gut, and that's what kind of shape this guy is in. He's not fat all over like a King Kong Bundy, he's wearing all his weight right around his belly button and it looks terrible. They're always careful to keep him fully clothed and wearing a pair of baggy overalls to conceal his big belly as much as possible. Vince always liked giants, but he liked in-shape giants; comparatively, guys like John Studd or Giant Gonzalez had much better physiques. But the real thing that's probably most against him is one simple fact: he looks taller than Andre. And we all know how allergic Vince was to hiring anyone in the 80s who was taller than Andre.

[Matt D]

I would have to get my copies out of the Observer to be 100% certain, but as someone who keeps a record of WWF/E results (and does it differently to Cawthon's site) am pretty positive there is no mention of a try out match involving him at all in the '87 issues.

 

Now I want to know if there's anything hugely interesting you've found not represented on Graham's site.

[GSR]

 

 

I would have to get my copies out of the Observer to be 100% certain, but as someone who keeps a record of WWF/E results (and does it differently to Cawthon's site) am pretty positive there is no mention of a try out match involving him at all in the '87 issues.

Now I want to know if there's anything hugely interesting you've found not represented on Graham's site.

Very much doubt it. I just like to have everything verified, be it through the Observer, Mat Results, Shedlock, PWI Weekly etc. There was a tendency for people to make results up and just send them in to Graham's site. Of course, people could equally have made them up back in the day and sent them in to the newsletters, but I just trust my own research as opposed to copying something off a website. I only go back to '78 with my results as opposed to the start of the WWWF anyway.

[RCS1988]

I would assume that he only worked 1 TV taping. The what culture video said that he worked as Trapper John in the WWF in the 90's, but I know that didn't happen, so it had to have been in the 80's. On Kayfabe Memories, a person said he saw it in an Observer.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Trapper John was the name? Really? Cause I'm sure CBS wasn't gonna dig that. 😄

[Strummer]

his belly was huge which made him look less impressive I guess. Didn't realize he was in Pee Wee's Big Adventure

[RCS1988]

Yeah that was his WWF name. I wonder if Steve Lombardi faced Harris in his tryout match? Also no one knows who that unknown Hillbilly is in the picture with Cousin Luke in both versions of the WWE Encyclopedia.

[Log]

his belly was huge which made him look less impressive I guess. Didn't realize he was in Pee Wee's Big Adventure

ANDY!!!

[GSR]

I was reading some old Observers from 1986 last night and came across the following in the 02.24.86 issue,

 

"Newcomers to the WWF at recent TV tapings are Jake Roberts, Dory Funk Jr, Trapper John (John Harris) and Alexis Smirnoff."

 

Meltzer doesn't say what tapings he debuted at and he seemingly quit a month or so after this debut match despite being on the payroll for a while before. My guess, and this is only a guess, is that his try-out match/debut was in a dark match at the 01.28.86 Poughkeepsie tapings.