Episode 5: Mark Hanna, Jake Roberts, Paul Ellering, and Sailor White
From early promise to short runs and surprising twists, four wrestlers passed through Portland before going on to bigger things—and in some cases, completely different paths.
In this episode, host Frank Culbertson shares the stories of:
💥 Mark Hanna (Steve Olsonoski) — A clean-cut rookie in 1977 who learned his craft in Portland before going on to win the prestigious National Heavyweight Championship in Georgia.
🐍 Jake “The Snake” Roberts — Long before the mind games and DDTs, Jake appeared briefly in Portland in 1978, wrestling on the night fans paid tribute to Lonnie Mayne. Even then, his calm, cerebral presence was unmistakable.
💪 Paul Ellering — Arriving in 1982 as a powerhouse with main-event potential, an untimely injury ended his Portland run after just eight days. But he’d rebound to manage the legendary Road Warriors and even compete in Alaska’s Iditarod.
⚓ Sailor White — A burly, tattooed brawler who worked Portland in the early ’70s before becoming a WWF Tag Team Champion as one of the Moondogs—a tough life, a wild career, and a story that truly fits the word “grit.”
Four names. Four Portland chapters. All proof that this territory produced—and sometimes missed—wrestling’s next wave of stars.
📚 Based on The Encyclopedia of Portland Wrestlers by historian Mike Rodgers, available now on Amazon.
🎧 Follow On to Better Things: The Portland Chapters on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
📅 New episodes drop every Friday.
