Good morning to you pro wrestling enthusiasts.
I hope you had a great weekend. I'm back with some analysis today on the National Expansion in our issue today. We will look at some top matches in some cards around the promotions still existence at the time and see what we can see.
Let's get started.
July 28th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Tim Woods\Mr. Wrestling 1934
Luke Brown\The Kentuckian 1935
Happy Birthday:
Tomoko Kitamura\Lioness Asuka (62)
Dana White (56)
Xia Zhao Li\Lei Ying Lee (37)
Nick Massie Jackson (36)
Sammy Guevera (32)
RIP Memorial: We stop & remember those who have passed on this day and gave themselves to the business for us, the fans. We salute you and thank you.
Janet Wolfe 7-28-1951 at the age of 18
Bull Ortega\Mighty Ursus 7-28-1977 at the age of 55
Karl Gotch 7-28-2007 at the age of 82
Ted Lewin 7-28-2021 at the age of 86
Gil Hayes 7-28-2022 at the age of 83
40-Year Flashback
A Time Capsule Review of the Pro Wrestling Cards on This Day in Pro Wrestling History in July 1985
The National Expansion Continues
It's amazing that ten years previous to this date, pro wrestling offices did not run very much on Sundays, which this date forty years ago was a Sunday. The WWF ran a Maple Leaf Gardens show and Maple Leaf was always on a Sunday and Jim Crockett Promotions ran Asheville, North Carolina, which was always also on a Sunday. The B-Show circuit town for JCP was Augusta, Georgia, which was a strong Monday night town for the Atlanta office, but now was a shadow of what it once had been. The WWF's B-Show town was Davenport, Iowa.
You can see that some of the towns that in the previous decade had been strong, home-based weekly wrestling towns that drew a lot of money every single week, were now on the monthly schedule as the big two were widening their geography for monthly touring schedules and the secondary promotions that were remaining were trying to defend what was left of their former territory.
Bill Watts ran Tulsa, which was previously a Monday night town for decades, but when Watts started running it monthly instead of weekly, he changed it and Oklahoma City to a Sunday town.
The Tampa, Florida office usually ran Orlando on a Monday night, but now in the waning days of the six months after the death of Eddie Graham, they are running the building with his name on a Sunday. Which, the other previous Championship Wrestling from Florida Monday night town was West Palm Beach, and the WWF will be in that town the next night on 7-29-85. World Class did not run on this day, but they will run the next night in what was their traditional Monday night town, Fort Worth, but the Texas All-Star Promotion, run by Fred Behrend, had bought out Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling in April of 1985, ran their San Antonio show.
The next night on 7-29-85, the Kansas City office will run their regular every other Monday night show in Wichita, Kansas. Ron Fuller's Continental Championship Wrestling will run Birmingham, Alabama and Jerry Jarrett's CWA will run the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.
Let's hit the top matches and program highlights of the shows as we progress through 1985 and this important national expansion year. We will do the Sunday shows today and hit the Monday shows tomorrow so we get a slice of what is happening to pro wrestling at the end of July 1985.
Sunday 7-28-1985 WWF
A-Show: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada
Main Event: $25,000 Bounty Match Paul Orndorff defeated Big John Studd by DQ
Ricky Steamboat & George "The Animal" Steele defeated Don Muraco & Mr. Fuji
Terry Funk defeated S.D. Jones
The Killer Bees (Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell) defeated Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart
B-Show: Palmer Auditorium, Davenport, Iowa
Main Event: US Express (Windham & Rotunda) (CH) defeated The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff in a Texas Tornado Match to retain the WWF World Tag Team Titles
Randy Savage defeated Rick McGraw
Tito Santana (CH) defeated Greg Valentine to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title
**Tony Notes: The evidence of George Scott's booking from the previous generation of professional wrestling booking style is still very evident on these WWF shows. One main event is a Bounty Match, and the other is a Texas Tornado Tag Team Match. These types of gimmick matches that were part of pro wrestling's past will slowly disappear from WWF's product as we progress through the years, but it's amazing to look back and see what the product was then and trying to attract a mixture of yesterday's fan and cultivate a new generation of fans. They are slowly working Savage up the house show cards after getting him from Jerry Jarrett in late May/early June. Lanny Poffo is in one of the first two matches in Iowa, while he was in the main event of Maple Leaf Gardens tagging with his father as an NWA World Tag Team champion, 10 years previous when Randy was working under a hood as an unknown. Crazy huh?
Sunday 7-28-1985: Jim Crockett Promotions
Tony Note: I should mention that JCP had a television taping at WTBS earlier this day on a Sunday. Talent that worked the taping for WTBS show included new talent in Terry Taylor, the Florida office sent a Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Jack Haynes, the NWA United States Tag Team Champions vs Jimmy Backland (Del Ray later) & Rick Rude match. Others were the two Express teams in enhancement matches, Buddy Landel, Ivan & Nikita Koloff, Manny Fernandez & Bob Roop all won their enhancement matches.
A-Show: Sunday 7-28-1985: The Civic Center, Asheville, North Carolina
Main Event: Jimmy Valiant defeated Paul Jones in a Dog Collar Match
The Rock & Roll Express (CH) vs Ivan Koloff & Khrusher Khruschev for the NWA World Tag Team Titles ended in a time limit draw
Tully Blanchard (CH) vs Magnum TA for the NWA United States Heavyweight Title ended in a double count out
B-Show: Sunday, 7-28-1985: Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, Augusta, Georgia
Main Event: The Midnight Express defeated Brett Sawyer & Italian Stallion
**Tony Notes: Dusty Rhodes, JJ Dillon and Jim Crockett Jr, who comprised the booking team at this time, are moving pieces around. The continue to keep the two Express teams apart with one on the A-Circuit and one on the B-Circuit, while also trying to be cooperative with the remaining NWA offices that are operating like Florida. I'm sure Dusty has a special place in his heart for the place where his career really rocketed 10 years prior and he is using the current booker Wahoo McDaniel in a featured match on the newly created Championship Challenge Series by featuring the US Tag Title match. It does give the impression that the NWA is still a nationally powerful organization by using WTBS' cable penetration to show fans the national influence of the show.
It's notable that Bob Roop is still here in late July and has been since the Ole Anderson Georgia sale in late March. Terry Taylor has come over from Mid-South where he was just in the main event against Flair at the Superdome for Watts in June. So, on this one television taping, since late winter of 1985, Crockett has taken the Rock & Roll Express, Buddy Landel and Terry Taylor from Watts' Mid-South Territory and had previously taken Barry Darsow (Khruschev) and Magnum TA last Fall.
They are moving Tully on from the Dusty World TV Title program to Magnum and the US Title by having Blanchard beat Magnum for the title back on July 21st in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Coliseum. This program will be a hot one for the next 5 months as Dusty is about to move to the forefront with Flair in a few weeks.
AWA
Sunday 7-28-1985 Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena in Green Bay, Wisconsin
The Fabulous Freebirds (Hayes\Roberts) vs Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher ended in a no contest
Sgt Slaughter defeated Terry Gordy by DQ
Bill Irwin defeated Steve O
**Tony Note: The Freebirds are definitely still stars at this point in 1985, but their opponents are The Bruiser and The Crusher whose expiration date had long since passed. True to form, much the way Bruiser had run his WWA Promotion from the mid-1970s on, he couldn't get out of his own way to make way for younger stars or put guys over when it should have been obvious. I could possibly sort of see his argument if this was Chicago, but in Green Bay? Put the Freebirds over. Same thing with the Slaughter match, if you want to be the babyface then you have to put the heels over strong until it’s time to blow off the program. More evidence to the eventual demise of this once great territory.
Championship Wrestling from Florida
Sunday 7-28-1985: Eddie Graham Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida
Main Event: Rick Rude defeated Billy Jack Haynes
Tiger Conway, Jr & Coco Samoa defeated Rip Oliver & The Grappler
Rip Rogers defeated Bugsy McGraw
**Tony Note: As previously mentioned, Rude and Haynes had been in Atlanta that morning to do the tag match for the WTBS program and then main event in Orlando that night with Rude going over on Haynes, which I believe might have been for the Southern Title that Rude was holding. Rude had been to Jarrett's promotion in Tennessee and was starting to really come into his own. He will still be here in the Sunshine state for a while.
Texas All-Star Wrestling
Sunday 7-28-1985: Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas
Main Event: Al Madril & Chavo Guerrero (CH) defeated American Breed (Nick Kiniski & Paul Diamond) to retain the Texas All-Stat USA Tag Team Titles in a Texas Tornado Tag Team Match
Jose Lothario & Big Bubba defeated Black Gordman & Hood #1 by DQ
Mike Golden defeated Terry Daniels
Shawn Michaels & Ric McCord defeated Ken Jonhson & The Samoan
**Tony Note: This promotion which is the remnant of Joe Blanchard's promotional territory plus some of the towns that were part of the old Dallas Territory like Corpus Christi, Austin, Waco, Beaumont along with the towns from the old Amarillo Office like Odessa and Midland, LeRoy McGuirk's Territory which has Wichita Falls and the home base of San Antonio and they have a nice little wrestling circuit to run 15-18 shows a month.
Stars from those territories in the 1970s are on top here with Madril and Guerrero mixed in with Lothario & Black Gordman and the effort to develop new stars like Kiniski, Michaels and Diamond and you have a decent roster of performers to work your towns.
We know it’s not eventually successful, but they are off to a nice start with hopes by the ownership and I'm sure the wrestlers that this is going to work. We will keep an eye on this as we go through the evolution of pro wrestling in 1985.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Danny Hodge, an NCAA Wrestling Champion, became the first wrestler ever featured in the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1957.
Thank You for Reading
I'm Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller. I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my information on select events, matches and insights, please share it with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!
Remember, paid subscribers get access to exclusive and special content such as some special issues including a multi-part deep dives on wrestling territories, wrestler bios and championship title histories, special audio and video interviews on territory pro wrestling and more available in the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel for Paid Subscribers.