For nearly forty years Mark Sciarra has been a facet in the world of professional wrestling. His athleticism in and out of the ring through those years is hard to deny and for that reason he’s the focus of today’s Sports legend of the Ville segment.
Wrestling most famously under the ring name of Rip Rogers, Sciarra to this day prides himself a hometown hero working with Louisville’s Ohio Valley Wrestling as well as Derby City Wrestling, notably as a trainer.
Prior to producing superstars though, Rogers had quite the resume himself, opening his career as a Tag-Team champion with Pez Whatley and Gary Royal in the ICW wrestling promotion. It was the 1970’s and small wrestling organizations were what brought out spectators, and in the ICW the Convertible Blondes as his team was dubbed were always at the top of the bill.
Sciarra left the promotion after a flare up with future World Wrestling Federation superstar Randy Savage but quickly found himself at the hugely influential National Wrestling Alliance or NWA, an organization which catapulted the careers of the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Jesse Ventura to name a few.
Knowing he excelled in a team Sciarra formed the Hollywood Blonds with Ted Oates, a collaboration which would culminate with Sciarra’s second Tag-Team championship belt.
After the NWA, Sciarra found himself at several international promotions, working with Canada’s Calgary Stampede Wrestling and Puerto Rico’s World Wrestling Council.
Meanwhile a noticeable shift was happening in the professional wrestling community as Vince McMahon Jr. was building up the World Wrestling Federation, to combat this; the former preeminent wrestling company the NWA underwent a change, and with that alteration came a change of name to World Championship Wrestling.
Almost immediately after the name change Sciarra was welcomed back to his old yet new stomping grounds, where he met up with several up and coming stars of the brand including “Flyin’” Brian Pillman and the tag-team known as the Road Warriors.
Again Sciarra parted ways with the organization after some time, going to work with several small upstart organizations. Notably, the Global Wrestling Federation where he worked in a team with then new-comer but current pro-wrestling legend Mick Foley.
Eventually, Sciarra found his way back home becoming one of the early major draws for Ohio Valley Wrestling, and one of the outfit’s preeminent champions. Today the man who has had a series of names including the Disco Kid, Hercules Marseilles and Mark Skeara still works with OVW teaching a class and working as a trainer.
Outside Sources
Image courtesy of Online World of Wrestling
