Bobby Shane Biography

Bobby Shane Web Page

Young Bobby!

Bobby and Don Curtis

Bobby and Silent George, 1959

Fan Club Photo

Through the course of our lives, each of us encounters a vast number of people, and the impression we make on each person varies. When our time here comes to an end, the legacy we leave behind is the effect we had on others, and how they remember us. The late Bobby Shane, real name Robert Lee Schoenberger, was different things to different people: beloved family member, best friend, respected colleague, favorite wrestler, most loved-to-hate villain. There is one constant, though, as all who knew him agree that Bobby was one of a kind.

Bobby was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 25, 1945, and his beginnings were similar to those of other children. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Schoenberger, Bobby was baptized at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Charles, Missouri, he attended a private Lutheran elementary school, and he learned to play the accordion. On a night that would dictate the course of his life, however, Bobby’s parents took him to a wrestling card at the Kiel Auditorium. Though he was only five years old, something happened as Bobby viewed the matches that night. He sat mesmerized as he watched the gladiators in the ring, captivated by their every move, and the cheering fans exhilarated him as the grapplers struggled to victory.

Going home that night, young Bobby could not get the excitement of the wrestling card off his mind. He closed his eyes, imagining himself standing in the ring with his arm raised in victory. That night, a burning desire was borne in his heart, and he eagerly told his parents that he wanted to be a wrestler when he grew up. Believing it to be little more than a childhood whim, Mr. and Mrs. Schoenberger didn’t think much of it. Bobby, however, continued to dream of the day when he would step through those ropes amidst the roaring crowd, and he made himself a promise that nothing would stop him from doing just that.

As the years passed, Bobby was as big a fan as anyone could be. He watched wrestling whenever it was on television, and he always wanted to go and see the matches each month at the Kiel Auditorium. He collected all the magazines and programs that he could find, and he made scrapbooks of his favorite wrestlers. He also corresponded with fans in other parts of the country, trading match results and newspaper clippings. Though wrestling in those days was regionalized, Bobby loved the sport so much that if there was a card anywhere, no matter how far away, he wanted to know about it.

Bobby’s parents soon realized that wrestling was in their son’s blood, and they encouraged his interest in the sport. When Bobby was eight, his father took him to the local YMCA for his first match. “My father was a fitness fanatic, and believed wrestling was a sport that made everyone a man,” Bobby told writer Bernie John in a 1974 interview in Australia for The Wrestling News. “He stressed to me that anybody with a sound wrestling knowledge could protect himself against any physical attack.”

Bobby continued wrestling at the YMCA, learning the basics of amateur wrestling. When he was a teenager, he started going downtown to Harry Cook’s gym, where the local pro wrestlers would work out. He approached the wrestlers, and enthusiastically spoke of his love for the sport, and he shared his dream of being a wrestler himself someday. Schoenberger was a likeable boy, but he was small and skinny, and the pros hardly took him seriously. In fact, very few who knew Bobby during that time believed he could ever be a pro wrestler due to his small size. Bobby, however, was undaunted by the disbelief around him. Being from the “Show Me State,” Bobby vowed to work long and hard and show everyone that once he set a goal for himself, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

Despite the wrestlers’ negative attitude, Bobby became a regular at the gym, observing them, asking questions, and maintaining that one day, he would step into the ring.

Though the men remained unconvinced, Bobby had made some connections, and they paid off. One connection landed him a summer job cutting the lawn of St. Louis legend “Wild” Bill Longson. Longson, a former NWA champion was one of the top trainers for the St. Louis Wrestling Club. A little later, Bobby got a job as an office boy for legendary St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick. The two had met during a card at the Chase hotel, where the matches were taped for the promotion’s “Wrestling at the Chase” television show. Bobby had told Muchnick about his love of wrestling, and that he aspired to be a wrestler himself someday. As he and Bobby spoke, Muchnick was so moved by Schoenberger’s passion for the sport, that he offered him a job. Bobby readily accepted the offer, and his foot was finally in the door. A couple of years after that, he became a second; escorting the wrestlers to the ring and taking their jackets and robes back to the dressing room. Bobby was so excited to be a part of the action, and it strengthened his resolve to see his dreams to fruition.

Bobby continued going to Harry Cook’s gym, trying his best to convince the wrestlers to start working with him. They still didn’t take him seriously, and their patience soon wore thin. Some of them finally did agree to work with him, but it was mainly to get rid of him. The wresters were quite rough with Bobby, figuring that if this was just a whim, he’d be gone within a week. However, Schoenberger surprised them all by taking whatever they dished out and coming back for more. It didn’t take the men too long to see that Bobby’s determination to be a pro wrestler was strong, and he earned their respect. They admired his persistence, and they were soon more than happy to help him train.

Bill Longson and local promoter Bobby Bruns were impressed by Bobby’s burgeoning skill, and they took him under their wing. The two put Schoenberger through some real, intensified training. Where did this training take place? “In the ‘Torture Room,’” Bobby stated with both humor and pride in numerous interviews throughout his career. The following is a vivid account Bobby had given to Gene Gordon in an article for Wrestling Revue.

“Longson would lead me to a small room in the gym which I had never seen before. There were no windows, no ring, only a mat on the floor. He would start by demonstrating some holds on me. Later he would call in a friend of his, one of these old, seasoned pros to work with me. ‘I’ll be back in around an hour,’ he’d tell me. ‘Meanwhile, defend yourself as best you can.’ He would then leave, locking the door behind him. For one solid hour, we’d wrestle, and I’d learn more in that hour than anything I had learned anywhere else. You know, I thought they wanted to kill me at the time; they didn’t fool around with me. I learned later that Bill had told them to give me the works, rough me up, and see if I could take it. Believe me, I came up from the ranks the hard way. I was only a young boy then, but I grew up to be a man quick. The first time this happened, I wound up with a stitched lower lip, a sprained back, and a purple and blue left ear.”

The determined teenager showed a tremendous amount of courage and not only withstood the sessions; he actually began to handle himself quite well. No matter how tough it got, he was back the next day for another round. He often went home with several bruises (each of which he wore like a badge of honor), and his parents thought he might give it up, but he would not quit.

Though they may have wished that Bobby would have been able to sidestep the bumps and bruises, his parents were always most supportive. Bobby and his dad attended the matches together each month at the Kiel Auditorium, and as stated earlier, Mr. Schoenberger encouraged Bobby’s active involvement in wrestling. And while on the subject of Bobby’s training, Mrs. Schoenberger herself related the following:

“Bobby would go almost every evening to the gym. He waited for my husband and me to come home from work, and he’d say to his dad ‘leave the car engine running,’ and he’d leave to go downtown. Later, he’d always call me at home and say ‘Mom, get my supper ready.’ He’d mostly want steak, a baked potato, and salad. His friends would tease him and say that his mother would not cook at that time of night for him, but I did.”

Two of the wrestlers who helped Bobby quite a bit in the early days were Dick the Bruiser and Rip Hawk. In addition to working with Bobby on the mat, they helped him in other areas as well. They instructed him to start working out with the lighter barbells in order to build up a powerful body, and they advised him on what health foods he should be eating. It meant a great deal to Bobby to be working so closely with the pros, and he made the most of the opportunity he was given. He remembered every hold and counter-hold that he was taught, and the men were amazed by how quickly he learned. They knew without a doubt that they had a future main event wrestler on their hands.

Bobby attended Southwest High School, and he continued working towards his dream. He joined the wrestling team, he read all kinds of health and training magazines, and he ate foods that would specifically give him a strong body. “He was a small guy then, so he ate a lot of steak and potatoes, and he would go to nature stores and buy all kinds of juices,” his best friend at Southwest, Charlie Bent recalled. “Also, he was always eating ‘Bob Hoffman’s Protein.’ He even tried to get me on it so we could bulk up together, but I just laughed. I should have followed him, he did really well.”

As the years went by, Bobby grew bigger and stronger, and by his senior year of high school, he had turned into quite an athlete. He loved all sports, but wrestling remained his primary focus. “I had a gym class with him and he had the build of a wrestler even back then, while the rest of us were skinny and gangly teenagers,” Rich Vogelpohl, another classmate at Southwest recalled. Rich and other classmates remember his as a good-natured, friendly fellow, but you didn’t dare try to suggest to him that wrestling was less-than-legitimate. “He would get so mad,” Charlie Bent recalled. “He would say ‘Oh yeah? Come down to the gym and see what I’ve learned.’” By this time, Bobby was an “insider,” and he knew that the matches were “worked” (incidentally, he never would break kayfabe, not even for his closest friends), but his experiences at the gym were real, and he grew very protective of the sport he loved.

Even at home, Bobby spent most of his spare time in training. “He was always working out,” next-door neighbor, Mrs. Johnson recalled. “The other boys would be playing ball or something, but he’d be doing pushups and other exercises. He was short, but he was built. He could take care of himself; you didn’t want to sass him.”

Bobby graduated from high school in June of 1963, and now he could devote all his time to wrestling. He was in the gym day and night, preparing for what was now his inevitable pro debut. His routine included weight training, cardiovascular training, and, of course, working on the mat to perfect his technique. Within a few months, he completed his training and was ready to enter the ring for the first time.

Bobby faced a problem, however, as the laws in Missouri stated that one had to be at least twenty-one years old to wrestle. Promoter Sam Muchnick went to bat for him, and he made several phone calls to promoters across the country. In time, Muchnick hooked up Schoenberger with promoter Don Owens in the Pacific Northwest, and eighteen-year-old Bobby was soon on his way to Seattle for his pro debut.

Shortening his name to Bobby Schoen (which could be pronounced as “Shane”), Bobby was undoubtedly nervous on the night of his first match. Though he lost, it was still an unbelievable thrill for him to have realized his goal of becoming a professional wrestler. Bobby’s earliest opponents included such men as Pampero Firpo, Pat Patterson, Tony Borne, and Haru Sasaki. Bobby gained invaluable experience in the ring against such a wide variety of opponents, and working a match in front of a crowd was a completely different experience than a match in a gym or even in the Torture Room. As in the past, Bobby learned fast, and he soon saw the first of his many victories. At 5’9” and 224 pounds, he was smaller than the average wrestler, but he made up for it with a great deal of heart, and his never-say-die attitude. He wrestled in an exciting style, utilizing such maneuvers as dropkicks, and flying head scissors, and a wide variety of holds such as a short arm scissor, and, a bit later, the figure four leglock. He also used the rolling reverse cradle as his favorite finishing move in the early years of his career.

After his stint in the Pacific Northwest came to an end, Bobby spent the next several years traveling throughout the wrestling world, working for many different promotions. Appearing now as Bobby Shane (Schoen was always being mispronounced), Bobby appeared in Oklahoma in 1965, where one of his opponents was future tag team partner Terry Garvin, and then he settled in Kansas (Central States territory), where he wrestled from 1965 through early 1966. The fans, especially teenagers, took an instant liking to the good-looking newcomer, and Shane’s popularity grew with each match. His fellow wrestlers took to him quickly as well. Sonny Meyers was one wrestler who Bobby worked closely with during this time, as an on-air angle introduced Bobby as Meyer’s protégé. “I learned a great deal from Meyers,” Shane told Lou Sahadi in a 1968 Wrestling World article. “It means a great deal to any youngster breaking in to secure help form a veteran such as Meyers. He was fantastic! He worked with me for months, showing me how to perfect a sleeper hold. I can never forget all the help he gave me.” Among the other grapplers whom Shane became a good friend of was Leo Garibaldi. The veteran wrestler was so impressed with Bobby after seeing him in the ring, he gave him the nickname “Wonder Boy,” and it was a nickname that well-suited the talented young grappler. While in the Central States, Bobby teamed briefly with fellow fan favorite Ron Reed. This was years before Reed became blond haired villain Buddy Colt.

Bobby won the Central States version of the United States Championship from the Mongolian Stomper in 1966, and he feuded with such stars as Bob Geigel, “Bulldog” Bob Brown, and “Missouri Mauler” Larry (Rocky) Hamilton. Bobby rated Hamilton as his toughest opponent in those days. “He’s a tough cookie,” Bobby told Gene Gordon in Wrestling Revue. Reflecting further on Hamilton, Shane recalled a match in which Hamilton slammed him on the arena floor, and Bobby suffered a serious back injury, which kept him out of action for two months. “After he slammed me on the floor, I blacked out,” Bobby told Lou Sahadi in Wrestling World. “When I awoke in the dressing room I couldn’t move. In fact, for the next three days I couldn’t walk. I didn’t have any feeling in my legs. I thought that was it. For the next three weeks, I took a lot of heat treatments and rubdowns. My back started to come around, and in two months, I was back in the ring again. I had some anxious moments then. I seriously thought my career was over before it really began.”

Shane concluded his stay in the Central States and headed to Georgia in March 1966. He scored impressive victories over local stars such as Bad Boy Hines, Pancho Villa, and Bob Armstrong, who had just started his pro career a few months earlier. In tag team matches, Bobby joined forces with veteran Mario Galento. They soon won the Southern Tag Team championship, and engaged in a vicious feud with the Masked Infernos and their manager J. C. Dykes. In one match, Shane was burned by the Infernos, and before another bout, Dykes destroyed a large birthday cake that was presented to Bobby in honor of his 21st birthday. Shane also teamed occasionally with Dickie Steinborn, with whom he had a close friendship.

While wrestling in Georgia, Shane earned two title shots against NWA champion Gene Kiniski, making him one of the youngest men to ever wrestle for that title. He and Kiniski battled for nearly an hour on both occasions. “He has a great amount of endurance, and he never lets up,” Shane told Lou Sahadi in the aforementioned Wrestling World article. “We went over 50 minutes both times in a 60 minute match.” Bobby was unable to defeat the rugged Canadian, but he certainly earned his respect. To this day, Kiniski recalls Shane as being ahead of his time, a wrestler with a great future ahead of him, and a nice guy as well.

From Georgia, Bobby entered the Eastern States area, and he while in that territory he encountered such men as Bronco Lubich, George “Two Ton” Harris, a familiar face in Rip Hawk, and Swede Hanson. Facing Hanson was a personal test for Bobby. Hanson had a big height and weight advantage over Shane, and Bobby was anxious to work against a man that size. “I had doubts as to whether I could pick up a man the size of Hanson,” he told Gene Gordon in Wrestling Revue. “But I did it, and then I knew I could hold my own with any of them.” For Shane, each opponent and each bout was an opportunity to both grow as a wrestler and to test his own ability. Bobby rated men like Gene Kiniski, Larry Hamilton, Rip Hawk, and Pat Patterson among his most memorable opponents. “Any time I had to wrestle them, I didn’t feel like going out on the town afterwards,” he related to Gene Gordon. “But meeting these top wrestlers, although I lost, it gave me confidence and experience, and put me where I am today.”

Another factor that aided Bobby in his climb to the top was his charisma. Fans were quite taken by his fast-paced, energetic style, his good looks, and his confident-yet-soft spoken manner. He was seen as a very positive role model, and he often spoke at boys clubs and visited children in hospitals. Shane enjoyed the adulation he received from his admirers, and he spent a lot of time signing autographs, posing for photos, or just hanging out and talking with the fans. Years later during his days as a villain, he still maintained a great deal of respect for the fans, realizing that they were the ones who paid his salary. And even now, so long after his passing, those sentiments still ring true as his first wife, Bernice, shared the following: “Bobby enjoyed the fans so much, I’m sure he would like it that they are still interested in him after all these years.”

While wrestling in the South, Bobby held the Southern Junior Heavyweight title, and he later captured the United States Junior Heavyweight championship as well. Moving on in February 1967, he began wrestling in Nebraska, and in March, he defeated Dale Lewis for the Nebraska state title. That championship put him in line for an AWA title shot against Verne Gagne. Their match was a great scientific battle, but ended when Shane suffered a knee injury. The match was declared a draw, as Gagne refused to accept a victory under the circumstances. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gagne,” Shane told Lou Sahadi in Wrestling World. “I respect him so much that I referred to him as Mr. Gagne on television whenever I was interviewed. He’s an outstanding scientific wrestler with great poise and style.”

While in Nebraska, Bobby wrestled such tough competitors as Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon, Reggie Parks, and Bob Orton, who defeated Shane for the Nebraska title in May. From there, he wrestled in Detroit where his opponents included Prince Pullins and the Masked Student. Shane and the popular Pullins had a fantastic “good guy vs. good guy” match. The Masked Student, a native of Detroit, was a couple of years away from gaining fame as George “the Animal” Steele. Bobby also appeared in Toledo, OH for several matches, his opponents included Karl Von Brauner, the Fabulous Kangaroos (he and Prince Pullins joined forces to take on the veteran Australian team), and he joined Ricky Cortez to battle Bill and Dan Miller. He also made an appearance in Tampa, FL, where he took on Japanese great Hiro Matsuda, another man for whom Bobby had great deal of respect.

In 1968, Bobby returned home for a series of matches in St. Louis, battling men such as Danny Dusek, and Corsica Joe. He also teamed with Thor Hagen to battle his old foes from the Central States, Bob Geigel and “Bulldog” Bob Brown. From there, he went back for a stint in the Pacific Northwest where he feuded with John Tolos. In a memorable encounter on television, Tolos was berating Shane during an interview, and he later ran in during Bobby’s match and bloodied him. Shane came out later, and in an emotionally charged interview, vowed revenge on Tolos in their upcoming arena match. Shane also joined fan favorite Don Leo Jonathan for several tag team matches against such teams as Abdullah Bey and Arman Hussein, John Tolos and Tom Andrews, and Stan Stasiak and Gene Kiniski.

In 1969, Bobby wrestled in Hawaii where he and Nick Bockwinkel won the Hawaiian tag team championship from Ripper Collins and Luke Graham in March. They held the belts for a month before losing them to Collins and Buddy “Killer” Austin. Also in ’69 and 1970, Shane wrestled in San Francisco, CA. “You know, San Francisco is one of the mat capitals of the world,” Bobby told Al Bolte in a Wrestling World article published during his stay in the Bay area. “Roy Shire is certainly a great promoter and does a good job of bringing world famous wrestlers to the Cow Palace.” Shane’s opponents included such greats as Pat Patterson, Ray Stevens, the Mummy, and Stan Stasiak. Shane had a deep admiration for Ray Stevens. “My goal in wrestling is to have as vast a knowledge of wrestling as the great Ray Stevens,” Bobby said in the above-mentioned article. Shane loved not only wrestling in San Francisco, but living in the area as well, and he rated it as one of his favorite cities.

While in San Francisco, Bobby teamed occasionally with Pat Barrett, and later, he formed an exciting tag team with Jerry Monti. It was also during this time that Shane started bringing a valet to the ring. Her name was Miss Sherri, and she was a beautiful young woman who became quite popular with the fans. Shane was actually one of the first wrestlers of the 70's to employ the service of a female valet. In life away from the ring, Bobby and Sherri met in British Columbia during Shane’s stay in the Pacific Northwest, and they were soon married.

One of the things Shane enjoyed most about being a pro wrestler was the traveling it enabled him to do. He always had a great time going to exotic places and meeting different people. In addition to his sojourns across the U. S., Shane wrestled in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. He also made many memorable trips to Japan where he was very well received by the fans, and he won several tournaments there. Bobby loved Japan so much, he went back there every year. In the October 1971 edition of Inside Wrestling, he provided a vivid account of one of the fantastic trips he made to the Orient. He found the people there to be very hospitable, and a group of fans even presented him with a Japanese style robe to wear into the ring.

Shane was able to fit some sightseeing into his busy schedule, and he visited many of the cities in Japan. Osaka, in particular, impressed him so much that he stated “I’d like to live there about three months out of the year.”

Bobby was also crazy about Japanese cuisine. “The food there is probably better than anyplace in the world,” he stated.

Another pleasurable aspect of the trips to Japan was the stopovers in Hawaii, which he also spoke of in the aforementioned article. “”I had a hotel room with a big balcony that looked out on the blue Pacific Ocean. What a view! What a place to relax and meditate. What peace,” he said. “I had most of my meals served on the balcony, and when I was finished eating, I usually lit the biggest cigar I could buy. Honest, I felt like Howard Hughes!” Years later, Bobby brought his pet dog, a beautiful Alaskan Samoyed named Klondike on the road with him, making his trips even more enjoyable.

Following his stay on the West Coast, Bobby returned to Georgia in the summer of 1970. With Sherri at his side, Bobby won the Georgia TV title, and he and Doug “the Pro” Gilbert won a tournament to become the Georgia tag team champions. Shane and Gilbert were a hot duo, and they had a bloody feud with the masked Assassins. They also faced such teams as Luke Graham and Skandor Akbar, and Mr. Ito and The Great Ota. In single action, Bobby faced Paul DeMarco, Sputnik and Rocket Monroe. He had a classic match against Junior Heavyweight champion Danny Hodge, and he had a series of grueling bouts with Buddy Colt as well.

Shane remained in Georgia through January of 1971. Little by little, he began to make changes in his appearance. He grew his sideburns long, at times appeared with a mustache, and wore more colorful ring attire (including a sequined Tarzan-style singlet). In addition, for a brief time, he wrestled as the masked Challenger, but that gimmick was soon abandoned. As a seven-year veteran of the mat game by this point, Bobby wanted something that would push him to the next level. Though he had seen many successes during his time in the sport (and he had wrestled in main events), he was mostly used as a mid-card to semi-main event wrestler. While he was grateful to have made it that far, his desire to be the best he could possibly be - the same desire that saw him through those sessions in the Torture Room and the prelims in the early part of his career - made him hunger for more than that. He knew in his heart that he had what it took to be a solid main event wrestler, and he decided that a change was due.

Bobby was scheduled to wrestle in Florida for Eddie Graham later that year, and he had an idea for a new gimmick, one that was quite different from his clean-cut “Wonder Boy” image. In a reply to a question posted on WrestlingClassics.com, Dickie Steinborn was kind enough to set the stage for “the transformation of Bobby Shane.”

“Bobby was a real close friend. We traveled together and understood each other quite well,” Steinborn related. “We were driving to Savannah (GA) one time where Leo Garibaldi was going to take some photos of he and I demonstrating holds. Bobby then told me about this new gimmick he wanted to do. I knew he was a little shorter than the average athlete was, and I think he thought he needed something to give him the edge. He asked me to suggest it to Eddie Graham. Eddie turned him down. After I moved to Florida, Bobby called me one day, stating he still wanted to do the new gimmick he had just dreamed up. He kept asking it I thought it would work. I told him I thought it would, because Dusty Rhodes had proven himself with his antics. I called Lee Fields in Mobile, and suggested he try Bobby out in his territory. That’s where Bobby went, and Mobile was the springboard of what was eventually getting over everywhere he went.”

Bobby entered the Gulf Coast territory along with Miss Sherri in January 1971, and though he still used the nickname “Wonder Boy,” it was evident to anyone who had seen him in other territories that this was a quite different Bobby Shane, as he left his clean-cut image behind. He had the aforementioned long sideburns and a handlebar mustache. His hair was a bit longer than he normally wore it, and it was bleached platinum blond. He smoked what would soon become his trademark cigar. All that plus a colorful sequined ring jacket, Bobby had the classic heel look. All that remained to be seen was whether he could play the heel role effectively. In hindsight, the answer to that question is a resounding “yes,” as one of the greatest heels in wrestling history was born.

Controversy followed Shane from the moment he set foot in the Gulf Coast area. He came out on interviews playing the cocky heel to the tenth degree. Once in front of the camera, he would rant on and on, extolling his own greatness, and berating everyone from the local wrestlers to the fans, from the announcers to the promoters. In his new role, Shane especially delighted in verbally tormenting Lee Fields (referring to him derisively as “Leroy”). The fans clamored to see him in action, both to see if he could back up his bragging, and to see local favorites such as Cowboy Bob Kelly and Ken Lucas shut his mouth and take him down a peg or two.

Bobby’s debut was in Mobile, AL on January 20 against Dick Dunn. He won the match with a Japanese sleeper hold, but the decision was reversed when he refused the referee’s order to awaken his opponent. It soon became a familiar scenario, Shane disqualified, as the “victor” lay unconscious in the ring. The fans were elated, however, when it was announced that Shane would soon be tangling with Gulf Coast Champion Cowboy Bob Kelly. Their first battle was on January 27, but to the fans’ dismay, Shane was able to put Kelly to sleep as well. Only Bobby’s refusal to revive Kelly enabled the Cowboy to retain his championship. The two faced off again the following week, this time, Kelly put his City of Mobile championship on the line, and Bobby won the two out of three fall bout to capture the title.

As Shane and Kelly continued their feud, Ken Lucas became a thorn in Shane’s side, as he was there to revive Kelly each time Bobby would use the sleeper and refuse to awaken him. To battle the duo of Kelly and Lucas, Bobby brought in Terry Garvin, who was accompanied by his 16 year-old brother and manager, Jimmy Garvin. The duo of Shane and Garvin had many bloody battles with Kelly and Lucas, including a “Kamikaze Match,“ in which the loser of the first fall returns to the dressing room, leaving his partner alone against the remaining two opponents.

Shane and Garvin feuded not only with Kelly and Lucas, but also with the Rising Suns (the Great Ota and Mr. Koma), the Wrestling Pro and the Blue Yankee, and later, the Wrestling Pro and Cowboy Bob Kelly. Both Terry and Jimmy Garvin soon left the area, and Shane enlisted the aid of veteran tough guy Don Fargo.

While teaming with Garvin, Bobby had put the next phase of the gimmick he had spoken to Dickie Steinborn about into effect. Prior to one of their matches against Kelly and Lucas, Shane and Garvin entered the ring wearing kings’ crowns and robes. Bobby was accompanied, not by Miss Sherri, but by a short, bearded man named Beauregard. The explanation was simple. Bobby had put his past as the “Wonder Boy” to rest, and he demanded that all now hail the King of Wrestling! As for Beauregard, Bobby explained that he had hired the bearded man as his court jester. “Every king needs a court jester,” he stated..

Now that he was the King, Bobby refused to wrestle on TV. To see the self-proclaimed mat monarch in action, the fans would have to pay for the privilege and watch him in the arenas, and no longer for free on television. He still appeared for interview segments though, and soon incurred the wrath of promoter Lee Fields. One week while Shane was in mid-tirade, Fields came out and confronted the King. This encounter resulted in an on-air brawl, and a subsequent match, which Bobby won. A rematch was set up, and Fields went on to avenge his defeat, as well as the verbal abuse he had taken from Shane during the past few months

Bobby had really come into his own as a villain, and he turned the Gulf coast upside-down with his new, outlandish persona. It was a complete metamorphosis as the once soft-spoken wrestler was now quite outspoken, and his sarcastic, wise-guy manner was biting, yet humorous. Bobby’s boyhood friend, Larry Gross, provides an insight into Shane’s talents on the mic. “Bob (as he was called in those days) collected humor as a hobby,” he stated. “Comedy recordings came into vogue in the 1950's and early 60's, and Bob liked some of the hip comics such as Bob Newhart, Jonathan Winters and Shelly Berman. He also had some of the satirical magazines of the day, of which there were a number besides the only real survivor, Mad Magazine. Bob was fun to be with, whether playing little practical jokes or razzing people. He liked to be sarcastic, a kind of a Don Rickles style when he was "on," but always in fun. In a group, Bob was always ready to stir the pot.”

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