Gregory Wojciechowski a.k.a. “The Great Wojo”, who was a top amateur wrestler out of Ohio, died earlier this week.
Wojciechowski was a top U.S. wrestler who served as an alternate at several Olympics and made the team in 1980, but failed to compete at any of the games.
Wojciechowski was a two-time state champion while wrestling at Willmer High School in 1967 & 1968 before attending the University of Toledo, where he excelled as an NCAA Division I champion and multiple-time AAU champion.
He was a runner-up for the NCAA crown in 1970 as a junior before winning the championship the following year. In 1972, he lost in the finals to rival (and future pro wrestler) Chris Taylor.
From 1968 until 1980, Wojciechowski was in the U.S. wrestling picture, vying for spots on both Freestyle and Greco-Roman teams. In 1968, he lost in the trials to another future professional wrestler, Bob Roop, and was a runner-up in 1972 and 1976 as well.
His peak was in 1980 when he earned a spot on the men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman teams after beating legendary wrestler Bruce Baumgartner. However, fate would intervene as U.S. President Jimmy Carter withdrew the country from the Olympics that year in the Soviet Union, and Wojciechowski’s Olympic hopes were dashed. It was his final crack at competing in the Olympics and ended his amateur career.
The next act was in professional wrestling, where he was recruited by high school classmate Jerry Jaffe, who wrestled as Jerry Graham Jr. Wojciechowski would debut in 1980 and worked for Dick the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder’s WWA group out of Indianapolis, Indiana, and adopted the “Great Wojo” moniker.
Wojciechowski would win the WWA’s version of its heavyweight championship three times between 1984 and 1987. In August 1986, he lost the title to rookie Scott Rechsteiner a.k.a. Scott Steiner.
After turning heel, he would host a $10,000 challenge, inviting fans from the audience to try and last five minutes.
Wojciechowski wrestled in Canada, Japan, and Puerto Rico and had a handful of matches for the AWA and WWF in 1983 & 1984.
In April 1989, he participated in a “Boxer vs. Wrestler” bout for undisputed heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist Leon Spinks, with Wojciechowski winning the match in his hometown. The two ran it back in May 1993 for a match in Windsor, Ontario.
After retiring, he dedicated his life to coaching high school and youth wrestling and spoke about his work to Greg Oliver in 2015:
I taught a vocational program. I got kids that were a dropout problem, disenfranchised. I taught them just reading, writing and arithmetic, and I tried to place them on jobs,” he said. “These were tough kids, an inner-city school. It was good to have a shaved head and a reputation that was bigger than life.
His life took a dramatic turn in 1999 when he sustained a dissected aorta while training, which impacted his physical lifestyle and warned him not to wrestle again nor engage in heavy weightlifting.
Wojciechowski was inducted into the George Tragos & Lou Thesz Professional Hall of Fame in 2015, is a member of the University of Toledo Athletics Hall of Fame, and was named a distinguished member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame this year.
