Brian Leslie Blair (born January 12, 1957) is an American former professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name B. Brian Blair as one half of the tag team The Killer Bees in the 1980s.
Blair was born on January 12, 1957, in Gary, Indiana, United States. Blair began competing in sports in junior high school and won city championships as well as a regional junior high school heavyweight. Blair won many accolades in high school other than sports; he was named "Mr. Titan" and was voted "Best all Around" his senior year. To this day he holds the record for most letters at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida. After graduating at the age of 17, Blair started training in the summer for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF). Blair had his heart set on playing football for the then NCAA Division II powerhouse, the University of Tampa, where he sold sodas to the fans and watched his favorite players, Freddie Solomon and Paul Orndorff. The University of Tampa folded their football program, largely due to the new arrival of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Deeply saddened, Blair attended Saint Leo College near Dade City under coach Tillrow Morrison, then transferred to the University of Louisville on a football scholarship, although he never earned a varsity letter; he majored in both business and political science.
In the summers months from 1975–1977 Blair started training to be a wrestler with Hiro Matsuda in Florida. Blair debuted in 1977 with Eddie Graham's CWF where he worked primarily as a face. Blair debuted in a tag team match facing Pat Patterson and Ivan Koloff. One of Blair's early opponents was another Matsuda student later known as Hulk Hogan. After CWF, Blair moved on to Bob Geigel's NWA Central States promotion out of Kansas City, Missouri around 1978 where he feuded with Jesse Ventura. Blair also teamed up with "Bulldog" Bob Brown and won the Central States Tag Team championships. He also appeared regularly for Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State promotion, here he met and married Leroy McGuirk's daughter Mike McGuirk in 1980. He was even shot at by Leroy when he tried to talk to Mike before leaving town. While in the Tri-State promotion Blair briefly won the Junior Heavyweight Title from Ron Starr. The one-week reign was Blair's first professional wrestling title reign. After leaving the Tri-State promotion Blair joined up with Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling promotion in Texas, where he lived with David Von Erich for over a year. In WCCW he gained victories over Killer Tim Brooks and former WWWF World Champion Stan Stasiak. During his time in Texas he was asked by Alberto Madril to be his partner in a tournament to crown new American tag-team Champions. Their run with the gold was cut short by Killer Tim Brooks and Armand Hussein in September 1981.
In 1981 Vince McMahon, Sr. booked Blair to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) most notably on their tours of Japan through New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where he faced Japanese wrestlers Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. After gaining experience all over the world Blair returned to CWF. On July 11, 1982, Blair beat Jimmy Garvin for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship and defended it successfully against Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody. In 1983 Blair joined the WWF once again as they began to expand to a national promotion. During his first stint with the WWF his self-proclaimed highlight was a match with Paul Orndorff in St. Louis. After the short run with the WWF, Blair moved on to Georgia Championship Wrestling as well as a return to Florida Championship Wrestling. In Florida, Blair picked up another Florida title run as well as unseating "Ravishing" Rick Rude as the Florida Southern Champion. During his run with the WWF in 1984, Blair often teamed with fellow wrestler Tony Garea. The team of Blair and Garea would dominate jobbers, but were unable to move up the card against more established tag teams. They teamed up until Blair left later in that same year.
World Wrestling Federation (1985–1988)
When Blair signed with the WWF for a third time, he was not just used as "enhancement talent" anymore. Instead, he was teamed up with Jim Brunzell to form The Killer Bees. The teaming of Blair and Brunzell was suggested by Hulk Hogan. The team had a special gimmick referred to as "Masked Confusion" where both wrestlers pulled out identical masks during the match to confuse their opponents and usually win their matches that way. The "Masked Confusion" idea was given to Blair by Billy Red Lyons who had used it in Maple Leaf Wrestling. They constantly challenged for the WWF World Tag Team Title but never won it, although the fans were thoroughly behind them. Their biggest feud in the WWF was against The Hart Foundation, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart whom they wrestled somewhere between "300 and 600" times according to Blair himself. The Bees also had a running feud with the Funks (Hoss, Terry and Jimmy Jack). They faced Hoss and Jimmy Jack Funk in front of 70,000 people at The Big Event in Toronto (a card headlined by Hulk Hogan and Paul Orndorff).
Shortly after SummerSlam 88, the team was split without any reason. Still cast as faces, both Brunzell and Blair were recast as singles wrestlers. In his first televised match following the undeclared split, Blair defeated Danny Davis on Prime Time Wrestling on September 27, 1988. This would be his only notable win that month, as he found himself on the losing end of house show series with Hercules, Dino Bravo, and the newly arrived Terry Taylor and Curt Hennig. Meanwhile, on television Blair remained undefeated, pinning Barry Horowitz and Mike Sharpe on episodes of Prime Time. On the November 5 edition of Prime Time he was announced as a replacement for the departing Junkyard Dog on the team of Jake Roberts at the 1988 Survivor Series. In the buildup to the PPV Blair wrestled Mike Sharpe on the house show circuit; however he departed on November 16 and was ultimately replaced on the show by Scott Casey. His former partner would remain with the WWF into the early 1990s.
In the fall of 1988, Blair left the WWF amid claims that the team had been promised the WWF Tag Team Championship three times by company owner Vince McMahon, but the promises were never kept. Blair also claims he was asked to help heel team The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) win matches. Not wanting to become a heel, Blair refused and quit instead. Brunzell and Blair later complained about WWF owner Vince McMahon who continued merchandising products of The Killer Bees without their permission or financial compensation.
Blair and Brunzell wrestled at Wrestlemania 2, 3 and 4 before Blair gave his notice in Salisbury, MD right before Wrestlemania 5. The Killer Bees also won the Frank Tunney Memorial Tag Team Tournament in Toronto, Canada, were winners at the first Survivor Series, performed at The Big Event in Toronto, Canada, and at the first Royal Rumble. The Killer Bees were also featured on Saturday Night's Main Event VIII, X, and XV cards. Bret Hart states in his book "My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", that the best tag team match of his career was against Blair and Brunzell. Blair left the WWF that November and took a hiatus from wrestling.
American Wrestling Association (1990)
After leaving the WWF in 1988, Blair returned to wrestling in 1990 as Blair signed a short-term contract with Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. Blair challenged Larry Zbyszko for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. Blair defeated Zbyszko by disqualification meaning the title couldn't change hands that way with Zbyszko retaining the title.
Universal Wrestling Federation (1990–1994)
Blair was one of the first "names" to work regularly for Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) when it opened its doors in late 1990 quickly becoming a regular on the federations Fury Hour shows. In the UWF, Blair reunited with Jim Brunzell but due to the WWF holding the trademark to the name "The Killer Bees" they were billed as "Masked Confusion". They competed on the UWF's first (and only) PPV, Beach Brawl, where they beat the Power Twins. The team was also the only UWF Tag Team champions. They won the title at UWF's last big show known as Blackjack Brawl where they beat the "New Powers of Pain" (The Warlord and Power Warrior). The Bees would also regularly wrestle as one of the top tag teams on UWF Fury Hour. Blair was given a big push in the UWF, usually defeating the UWF's preliminary talent, and even one of the top heels of the company who he also feuded with, Bob Orton, Jr.