Jody Hamilton Joseph " Jody " Hamilton ( August 28 , 1938 ) is a retired American professional wrestler and current wrestling promoter and trainer . In his active days Hamiltion was best known as known as one half of the tag team The Assassins where he was called " Assassin # 1 . When the Assassins ended Hamilton wrestled as " The Assassin " and " The Flame " both while wearing a mask . Jody Hamilton teamed up with Tom Renesto in late 1961 to form the masked heel ( bad guy ) team known as " The Assassins " and for over a decade Hamilton and Renesto wrestled all over the world with great success . Once Renesto retired , Hamilton kept the Assassins team alive by partnering with wrestlers such as Randy Colley and " Hercules " Hernandez under the tradmark gold and black masks of the Assassins . In the late 1980s Hamilton founded Deep South Wrestling ( DSW ) , where he also wrestled until a back injury forced him to retire in 1988 . After Deep South Wrestling closed Hamilton worked extensively for World Championship Wrestling both on the booking team and later on as a trainer at WCW ' s Power Plant training facility . In 2005 Hamilton reopened Deep South Wrestling , this time as an affiliate of World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) , to train wrestlers the WWE had signed to developmental contracts . In 2007 the WWE ended their contract with DSW . Biography . Jody Hamilton was born in St . Joseph , Missouri , in August 1938 . Before turning pro Hamilton was a promising amateur boxer , but instead of continuing his training he decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Larry Hamilton . Larry was a professional wrestler billed as " The Missouri Mauler " . Hamilton started working for " Gus Karras Promotions " , a Professional wrestling promotion based in St . Louis , Missouri , where he made his debut against Rip Hawk in a 40 - minute match . By 1957 Hamilton had started teaming with his brother Larry and worked as a full - time professional wrestler . The Hamilton Brothers worked for the New York - based Capitol Wrestling which became the World Wide Wrestling Federation when Vince SR left the NWA ( the precursor to World Wrestling Entertainement ) where they were put in a storyline with the top tag team of the promotion Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez . In May 1958 the Hamilton Brothers faced Rocca and Pérez in the main event of a Madison Square Garden show , making Jody , age 19 at the time , the youngest man to ever costar in a main event at Madison Square Garden . After the Hamilton Brothers time in New York Jody Hamilton decided to strike out on his own , working as a singles wrestler . As a singles wrestler Jody Hamilton first got a promotional push by " NWA Western States " booker Doc Sarpolis , who billed him as " Silent " Joe Hamilton . Hamilton has revealed in recent years that the " Silent " moniker was because he was not a very good at interviews and promos . After working in Texas Hamliton would work in Oklahoma and then in Florida . When Hamilton left Florida in 1961 he intended to return to Oklahoma , but an offer came in from Georgia Championship Wrestling ( GCW ) that would change the direction of Hamilton ’ s career for good . Masked Assassins . The original plan for Hamilton was that he was going to wrestle under a mask as " The Iron Russian " , but once Hamilton got to Atlanta the plans had changed and instead he became “ The Assassin ” . After working as a singles competitor Hamilton was given a partner in late 1961 , another masked Assassin , Tom Renesto . Renesto had teamed with Hamilton ’ s older brother Larry but the two did not know each other before stepping into the ring in December 1961 . The team worked well together from the onset and soon moved up the card towards the main events . For over a dozen years Hamilton and Renesto teamed together as the " vile " Assassins , a team hated for their " rulebreaking ways " wherever they wrestled . The Assassins , or the Masked Assassins as they were sometimes billed , worked all over the world for promotions in Georgia , California , Australia , the Far East , Japan and Canada . The only place the duo did not work as the Assassins was in the Carolinas where they were billed as " The Great Bolo " ( Renesto ) and " The Mighty Bolo " ( Hamilton ) because Renesto had worked for Jim Crockett Promotions as the Great Bolo before teaming up with Hamilton , and was more known in that region under the Bolo name . The Assassins longest stay with one promotion was from 1968 to 1972 where they worked for Georgia Championship Wrestling and held the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship a record breaking 12 times . While in Georgia the team worked storylines with teams such as ” the Torres Brothers ” ( Ramon and Alberto ) , Terry and Dory Funk and the team of Ray Gunkel and Buddy Fuller . Their most successful and profitable feud came against the team of ” Tiny ” Smith and Luke Brown known as " The Kentuckians " . the matches between the Assassins and the Kentuckians drew sell out crowds up the east coast of the United States from Florida to the Carolinas . At times the Assassins would be backed up by Jody ’ s brother the Missouri Mauler to take on the Kentuckians and their " fellow hillbilly " Haystacks Calhoun . During their time in GCW Renesto became more and move involved in the booking of the promotion in the hopes of turning a decline in attendance around . Renesto is credited with turning the territory around with a series of hotly contested angles that brought the fans back . In 1972 after GCW owner Ray Gunkel died Gunkel ’ s widow Ann Gunkel split off from the National Wrestling Alliance - associated GCW and started her own company " All - South Wrestling " with Tom Renesto as the head booker . With his backstage responsibilities expanded Renesto cut back on his wrestling dates as Hamilton was pushed as a singles wrestler . In October 1972 Renesto unmasked on television , rumor has it that GCW was going to publish pictures of the Assassins without their masks on and Renesto wanted to beat them to the punch . After the unmasking Renesto would still occasionally team with Hamilton both with and without the mask but the glory days of the Assassins ended when Renesto took off the mask . After Renesto . When All - South Wrestling was folded after being bought out in 1974 by Jim Barnett who also bought into GCW , both Hamilton and Renesto returned to Georgia Championship Wrestling , deciding to bury any past animosity . Renesto retired from the ring and focused more on the booking aspects of GCW while Hamilton started to work as a singles wrestler billed simply as The Assassin . When he joined GCW Hamilton started a storyline with Mr . Wrestling II that would become the longest running storyline in Georgia wrestling history . Over the following years the Assassin would enlist several other " Assassins " to team with him as he fought against Mr . Wrestling II and various face partners . One of these partners was Randy Colley , who would go on to greater success as one of The Moondogs in the 1980s . Together Hamilton and Colley would hold the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship on two occasions . Colley and Roger Smith would team together as the Assassins in Memphis . While GCW was Hamilton ’ s " home promotion " he also competed for other promoters all over the south east especially in Florida and Alabama working for promotions such as Championship Wrestling from Florida , NWA Mid - America and Southeast Championship Wrestling . Hamilton used his “ Assassin ” gimmick but did not find another partner to recreate the Assassins , instead he would team with local stars such as Ron Fuller and Don Carson . By the beginning of the 1980s Hamiltion decided to return to his roots in Oklahoma , after having worked more or less exclusively in the south east for ten years or more . First he worked for Central States Wrestling where he teamed with both Ernie Ladd and Angel to win the local version of the NWA United States Tag Team title . He would also hold the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship , which was the main title for the promotion . After working for Central States Hamilton switched to Bill Watts ’ Mid - South Wrestling promotion . In Mid - South Hamilton teamed up with yet another “ Assassin # 3 ” , this time it was ” Hercules ” Hernandez under the gold and black mask . Hernandez run under the golden mask ended when he was unmasked by Jimmy Valiant after a match in Toronto , Ontario as part of Valiant ’ s lengthy feud with Paul Jones ’ army . In the mid 1980s Hamilton retired the golden mask and adopted a new ring identity : The Flame , together with another masked man going by the name “ Fire ” , he won the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship in 1986 . He would also hold the NWA Southeast Continental Heavyweight Championship on four occasions . Deep South Championship Wrestling . In 1986 Hamilton started a small independent promotion in Georgia called Deep South Championship Wrestling . Hamilton would work both backstage and in the ring under his “ Flame ” ring persona . One night in 1988 Hamilton was thrown from the top rope during a match and landed wrong , the fall caused him to break the lumbar vertebrae in his back . Because Hamilton was in no shape to run a wrestling promotion he sold it to someone else , only to see that person go out of business without ever putting on a wrestling show . Retirement from the ring . Once Hamilton recovered from his back injury he opened the official training center for World Championship Wrestling , the Power Plant . With Hamilton as director of the school it produced talent such as Kevin Nash , Diamond Dallas Page , Bill Goldberg , and the Big Show over the years . As well as working at the Power Plant Hamilton was also used as a manager in 1993 , mainly managing Paul Orndorff , in addition to Orndorff ’ s tag team partners The Equalizer and Paul Roma . Hamilton ' s last on - screen appearance in WCW was at WCW Starrcade ' 93 on December 27 , 1993 , as The Assassin and managing Pretty Wonderful ( " Pretty " Paul Roma and " Mr . Wonderful " Paul Orndorff ) to the WCW World Tag Team Championship . Hamilton was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame as part of the 1994 class on May 22 , 1994 at The Civic Center in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . When WCW was bought out by the WWF in March , 2001 the Power Plant was closed but Hamilton continued to train wrestlers . Deep South Wrestling . In 2005 , World Wrestling Entertainment ( formerly World Wrestling Federation ) reached an agreement with Hamilton wherein Hamilton would open a new version of Deep South Wrestling for WWE to use as a training ground . The company ran shows on a regular basis featuring WWE - contracted talent until April 18 , 2007 , when WWE ended its relationship with DSW . Personal life . Jody Hamilton ' s son , Nick Hamilton , was a long - standing referee in WCW and is now the senior referee for WWE ' s SmackDown ! brand under the stage name Nick Patrick .