JESSE VENTURA & BULL RAMOS
1975 - 1976
PNW Tag Team Champions
Written by Mike Rickard
Jesse “The Body” Ventura is well-known for his East-West Connection tag team with Adrian Adonis (a team we covered a while back), but did you know Jesse’s first brush with greatness occurred in the mid-1970s in another tag team? Ventura’s career was just beginning when he joined forces with veteran heel “Apache” Bull Ramos, forming a championship-winning team in Don Owens’ NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling (aka Portland Wrestling) territory.
Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) featured some incredible tag teams, with Owens often pairing a veteran wrestler with a rookie wrestler to help the rookie get over. This formula wasn’t limited to Portland, nor did it start there. However, Owens used it effectively, creating
many successful tag teams and new stars.
Jesse Ventura debuted in PNW following a run in Central States Wrestling. Working as
Jesse “The Great” Ventura, he defeated babyface Jimmy Snuka for the promotion’s top singles title, the Pacific Northwest Championship. Jesse was just getting warmed up as he teamed with “Apache” Bull Ramos, a veteran brawler who debuted in 1964, working globally until settling in the Portland region. Unlike most Native American wrestlers, Ramos played a heel, and he excelled at it, enraging the fans with the brutality he unleashed on babyface opponents.
Dutch waged a five-year war with babyface Dutch Savage in the PNW area. As Savage would recall of his frequent sparring partner:
“He was a perfect match for me. Anything I wanted, he did, anything he wanted I did. Bull was the perfect Indian heel … if he isn’t the embodiment of a real Chirakawa Apache Chief, no one on earth is.” (Oliver, Greg. “Apache Bull Ramos Still Battling.” SLAM! Wrestling).
Promoter Don Owen capitalized on the heat between Ramos and Savage to create a tag team feud. Savage had formed a successful tag team with Jimmy Snuka, which meant Ramos and Ventura were ideal opponents, not only due to the Ramos/Savage feud, but also because Ventura had beaten Snuka for the PNW title.
The Ramos/Ventura team defeated Savage and Snuka for the PNW Tag Team Championship before dropping them to The Royal Kangaroos (Lord Jonathan Boyd and Norman Frederick Charles III). Bull and Jesse regained the titles, feuding again with Savage and Snuka until the babyfaces regained them.
Fans of Jesse “The Body” may be surprised to learn that not only was Ventura known as Jesse “The Great,” but he also played the strong, silent type to Ramos during interviews. That
eventually changed, but it would require a catalyst. According to PNW historian Mike Rogers, the Ramos/Ventura team began to crumble:
Midway through ‘76, Ramos & Ventura started to have problems. Ramos started slapping Ventura when things started going wrong in the partnership. Enter Buddy Rose, who started teaming with Jesse Ventura. Finally, in a six-person tag match, it finally exploded, and Ventura & Rose double-teamed Bull Ramos to end their partnership. (Rogers, Mike. “PNW #4.” Kayfabe Memories.).
While PNW seemed to be building to Jesse turning babyface, that didn’t happen. Instead, his team with “Playboy” Buddy Rose motivated him to step out of Ramos’ shadow. Jesse would solidify his alliance with Rose, forming a team called “The Younger Generation” until Jesse later turned babyface following an angle where Rose accidentally injured him.
Do you remember the Jesse Ventura and Bull Ramos team? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to join Wrestling Merchandise and Memories as we celebrate Tag Team
Appreciation Month.
Works Referenced
Oliver, Greg. “Apache Bull Ramos Still Battling.” SLAM! Wrestling. 13 Oct. 2004. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
Rogers, Mike. “PNW #4.” Kayfabe Memories. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.
Oliver, Greg. “‘Apache’ Bull Ramos dies.” SLAM! Wrestling. 28 May 2006. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
Rodgers, Mike. Katie Bar the Door!: History of Portland Wrestling. 2022.
Rodgers, Mike. Encyclopedia of Portland Wrestlers: From the House of Action. 2023.
Ventura, Jesse. I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up. Villard, 1999.
Verrier, Steven. Professional Wrestling in the Pacific Northwest: A History, 1883 to the Present. McFarland, 2017.