Lou Bastien

**Louis John Klein** (July 10, 1916 – October 11, 1979), better known by his ring name **Lou Bastien**, was an American professional wrestler and trainer best known for teaming with Red Bastien.

## Professional wrestling career

Growing up, Lou Klein was an amateur wrestler who in the 1930s hoped to qualify for the Olympics. When World War II broke out, in order to support his wife and child, he turned professional in 1942.

In his early days, dubbed the “Atomic Blonde from Detroit,” he extensively wrestled in the Midwest region as a junior-heavyweight. There, he primarily competed in the Midwest Wrestling Association. Klein had also donned a mask as the Green Hornet so he could earn a living.

Klein defeated Johnny Demchuk on October 23, 1948, to win the MWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. On November 6, Demchuk defeated Klein to win the title back. He won the title again on March 19, 1953, by defeating Ed Francis, but his reign lasted a week as he dropped it back to Francis.

Years later, Klein earned his big break when he debuted in the north-east region of the Capital Wrestling Corporation (the precursor of the WWWF/WWF/WWE). While there, he was paired up with Red Bastien, and together they formed the Bastien Brothers. On February 4, 1960, the Bastien Brothers defeated the team of Eddie Graham and Jerry Graham to win the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship.

They held onto the belts for two months until April 16, when the Grahams won them back. However, the Bastiens regained the titles from them just a week later. On July 21, the Bastiens lost the titles to Al Costello and Roy Heffernan of the Fabulous Kangaroos, who they had a series of matches with. This included the Bastiens defeating the Kangaroos on August 8 to win back the titles for a final time, holding it until the Kangaroos bested them on the 24th.

Upon their exit, Lou and Red went to the Indianapolis region. On February 9, 1961, they won the Indiana version of the AWA World Tag Team Championship by defeating Chris and John Tolos. They dropped the titles on May 12 to Art Neilson and Ray Shire, one of Lou's future tag partners. However, they reclaimed the gold on June 27, until dropping it on July 18 to Art and Stan Neilson.

After this run, Lou would split from Red Bastien and made his way to Big Time Wrestling in his hometown of Detroit. He served as an undercard veteran with the “Man of 1000 Holds” moniker. On August 30, 1969, Lou teamed with Ray Shire to win the Detroit version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, defeating Paul Dupree and Ron Dupree of Hell's Angels. They would drop the titles to the Angels not long afterwards, but on September 13, Lou and Ray won the titles for a second time. They held onto the belts until they were defeated on December 6 by the Skull Brothers.

On July 9, 1977, Lou Klein won the tag team titles for a third and final time with Ed George, but their reign proved to be the shortest as Lou announced his retirement after the match, ending a career lasting three decades. Later, he operated a gym called "The Doorway to Wrestling", helping to train many wrestlers like Art Neilson, Count Drummer, Jim Lancaster, Malcolm Monroe Sr., Rujet Woods, Sandy Parker and Tanya West.

## Death

Klein died from a heart attack in Okeechobee, Florida, on October 11, 1979, at the age of 63.