My professional career began in 1969. I had a long talk with my friend Larry Heiniemi, who most people knew as Lars Anderson, and his stories of global travel and making good money really appealed to me. I decided to start working for Eddie Graham, the promoter of Championship Wrestling from Florida, and he became my trainer. I played the part of an arrogant villain, a bad guy who loved to flaunt his genuine amateur wrestling skills. Over the course of my career, I challenged for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship five times.

In 1976, I took what looked like a career-ending knee injury while wrestling Eddie Graham. The move that supposedly caused it, the figure-four, was banned afterward for being too crippling. While I was "recovering," a new masked wrestler called The Gladiator showed up in Florida. He used my signature finishing move, the shoulder breaker, and the crowd would chant my name every time he entered the ring. During one of his matches on Championship Wrestling from Florida TV, Eddie and Mike Graham ran into the ring and ripped off his mask. Of course, it was me. After the reveal, they brought the figure-four back. This whole incident is actually number 24 on the list of "The Twenty-Five Greatest Angles in CWF History." I ended up using a similar trick in Roy Shire's San Francisco NWA territory in 1977. I was "injured" by Kevin Sullivan, and a masked wrestler named The Star Warrior showed up. Later on, Sullivan unmasked me, and everyone realized it was me all along.

I also spent some time wrestling and even doing commentary for Mid-South Wrestling. People often give me credit for creating the reversal to the figure-four leg lock—the same move that "injured" me in Florida—but that's not true. "Cowboy" Bob Ellis was using that move against Buddy Rogers all the way back in the early 1960s.

In the 1980s, I wrestled for Angelo Poffo's International Championship Wrestling (ICW) promotion out of Lexington, Kentucky. That promotion had a lot of guys who would go on to be huge stars, like 'The Macho Man' Randy Savage, 'The Genius' Lanny Poffo, "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr., and Ronnie 'Hands of Stone' Garvin.

Later on, in 1982, I became part of a group called the Army of Darkness. The stable included Kevin Sullivan, Purple Haze, Luna Vachon, and Fallen Angel. For that group, I adopted the ring name Mayha Singh. I shaved off all the hair and beard on one side of my head and put face paint on the shaved side.