Ox Baker
Beyer began as a babyface wrestler in the mid-1950s. His career as a masked wrestler, The Destroyer, began in 1962 in Los Angeles. Beyer traveled to California after Freddie Blassie praised Beyer’s heel skills to local promoter Jules Strongbow. Strongbow informed him he would wrestle as the masked Destroyer. Unfortunately for Beyer, the mask was an extremely uncomfortable woolen contraption that made him claustrophobic and itchy. Beyer was determined to rid himself of the gimmick, but Ox Baker lent him a mask made from a woman’s girdle, which would serve well for Beyer.