Good morning to you pro wrestling enthusiasts.
I am NEVER moving all my stuff again!
I may move myself, but never all my stuff. Do you have any idea how much my book library weighs? A lot. A whole lot. I think I lost 25 pounds in sweat yesterday.
By the way, I wanted to mention that Steve Gennarelli, our WWWF analyst and commentator, and our producer, Jake Hamar and I had a great discussion and conversation about the passing of Hulk Hogan on Sunday evening and that will air on our Time Tunnel podcast this Wednesday. Everyone contributed great stuff and Jake's perspective about being a little Hulkamaniac was invaluable.
I wanted to let you know that due to the hectic and tiring schedule I have had lately, I totally missed the Wrestlefest card that took place 7-28-1985 in Mid-South. I was looking at one website for information and typically I would check a couple different sources but because I was so tired last night, I didn't do that and Greg Klein who works with us as our East Texas analyst and historian, alerted me at the break of dawn about my oversight. I do always try to mention any mistakes I make and offer a correction as soon as possible.
I committed a researching sin by trusting a single source and didn't dig any deeper and formed my thought around that. At any rate, my thoughts about WrestleFest in Tulsa and how it fits into the two days I'm analyzing in July are in today's issue.
July 29th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Mike London 1909
Leo Garibaldi 1929
Baron Mikel Scicluna 1929
Captain Lou Albano 1933
Bobby Whitlock 1936
Bette Boucher 1943
Raymundo Rodriguez\Pirata Morgan 1962
Happy Birthday:
Sonny Onoo (63)
Scott Steiner (63)
Lana Star (49)
Adnan Virk (47)
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.
Harold Sakata\Tosh Togo 7-29-1982 at the age of 62
Dennis Coraluzzo 7-29-2001 at the age of 48
Brian Christopher Lawler 7-29-2018 at the age of 46
Nikolai Volkoff 7-29-2018 at the age of 70
Frederick Seawright\Brickhouse Brown 7-29-2018 at the age of 57
40 Year Flashback
A Time Capsule Review of the Pro Wrestling Cards on This Day in Pro Wrestling History
The National Expansion Continues
In the 1980s era, Jim Crockett Promotions is considered to have done the first SuperShow with Starrcade 1983 in Greensboro, North Carolina. While it was the first show to be broadcast on closed circuit distribution, it was far from the first SuperShow, even in the 1980s, as Eddie Graham had done a few shows of that type in Florida, Crockett had an annual Thanksgiving Show in Greensboro going back into the 1960s that they just re-branded to Starrcade and Bill Watts had done SuperShows at the Superdome in New Orleans going back to 1976.
Which makes Watts attempt at a SuperShow show interesting that he would do it in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Granted, it was the home base for the promotion, and perhaps Watts was already seeing the economic decline in New Orleans. Certainly, when the combo Crockett Cup took place 9 months later, it also did not draw, even though it had the biggest stars in the country that were not in the WWF. They did draw 11,000 fans to the Superdome, while trying to draw 30,000 and pricing their tickets as low as 5.00 and having Muhammed Ali on the show. So, while 11,000 is respectable for a house show at this point in 1985 if you are not JCP or WWF, compared to 30,000 you were shooting for, at least to make you think you are in the game, it had to be disappointing.
With Watts and support staff having national expansion on their mind at this point and while the brand has not changed yet, to UWF Watts is smart enough to see the business paradigm changing. At this point in 1985, the WWF had done WrestleMania, Crockett had done the first Great American Bash just a few weeks earlier, as had World Class put on the second David Von Erich Parade of Champions. Watts would normally run the Convention Center in Tulsa since he took over as a full partner with LeRoy McGuirk in 1975, so to test the waters on running his own "stadium show", he opted for the 40,000 seat Skelly Stadium at the University of Tulsa. The test pretty much failed. While their expectations may not have been to sell 40,000 tickets, selling only 5,000 tickets with a main event that is not yours had to be a reality check for the current wrestling environment in the Mid-South Territory.
It’s an indication the Mid-South is still in the fight, still could do "good" business, if not great business and they had a loyal core of fans who would still buy tickets to their shows. They still had the non-densely populated geography to deal with and no cable television exposure like some of the other competitors had.
Mid-South WrestleFest
Sunday 7-28-1985
Main Event: Dusty Rhodes vs Ric Flair for the NWA World Title
Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Dick Murdoch & Bill Watts defeated Kamala, Kareem Muhammad & Skandor Akbar
Butch Reed defeated Dutch Mantell
Jake Roberts defeated Ted DiBiase
**Tony Notes: I have already mentioned that the main event was not their money match, it was JCP's money match and not only that, but it was a leftover match from Starrcade 1984. Dusty was coming off his program with Tully Blanchard and was in between programs at the moment, but was mainly wrestling Buddy Landel in JCP now, as was Flair. Flair was wrestling Nikita Koloff from the Bash event, Magnum TA and Buddy Landel in the Carolinas. Watts and Dundee would have probably been better off booking Flair as the NWA World Champion against one of their Mid-South guys. They never booked a big match between Flair and DiBiase, which would have drawn just as well and been a better match. Dusty and Flair will not hit their second stage until the end of September as a push for Starrcade 1985, so there's no real push for their matches on WTBS and Crockett's syndication is not yet penetrating Tulsa.
Mantell and Reed is a really good match as Butch is back from a failed AWA attempt and the DiBiase\Roberts is really good as well with Roberts as a babyface. The six-man match was good for what it was as the babyface side were all brawlers and the heel side were monsters and Akbar, who actually is still one of the best workers in the match. Murdoch, Watts and Akbar were all in the main programs 10 years earlier in 1975 and they are obviously the best performers in this match. Duggan and Kamala are in the middle of a nice summer program here and it might have been better to just had a singles match or a gimmick match of some kind with those two rather than the six-man tag.
You can read through the booking results and cards and see the condition of the remaining territories on some of their strongest towns and nights of the week during this time period. Interestingly, there is a title change on most of the cards on this night in pro wrestling history.
WWF
Monday 7-29-1985:
A-Show: Catholic Youth Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Main Event: US Express (Windham\Rotunda) (CH) defeated The Dream Team (Valentine\Beefcake) to retain the WWF World Tag Team Titles
George Steele vs The Iron Sheik ended in a DCO
Pedro Morales defeated Rene Goulet
B-Show: The Auditorium in West Palm Beach, Florida
Main Event: Andre The Giant defeated Big John Studd
Tito Santana (CH) defeated Don Muraco by DQ to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title
The Killer Bees (Blair\Brunzell) defeated The Hart Foundation (Hart\Neidhart)
JCP
Monday 7-29-1985: Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina
Main Event: The Rock & Roll Express (CH) vs The Russians (I. Koloff\Khruschev) ended in a one-hour time limit draw for the NWA World Tag Team Titles
Jimmy Valiant defeated Paul Jones
Ron Bass defeated Buddy Landel by DQ
World Class Championship Wrestling
Monday 7-29-1985: Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas
Main Event: Scott Casey defeated John Tatum
Brian Adidas defeated Gino Hernandez (CH) to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship
King Parsons defeated Scott Irwin
**Tony Note: This might be Tatum's first week in World Class as he had been a mid-card heel on JCP TV the previous week teaming with Joel Deaton and also in singles matches. The writing was on the wall that Dusty wasn't going to use him beyond the mid-card, and he can come to Dallas and be a top of the card performer, at least for a little while. No, Von Erichs in Fort Worth on this night, which is WCCW's 2nd most important town at this point. A little surprising to me.
Continental Championship Wrestling
Monday 7-29-1985: Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama
Main Event: Austin Idol defeated Adrian Street by DQ
The Flame defeated Lord Humongous (CH) to win the Continental Heavyweight Championship
Tommy Rich defeated Mr. Class in a Loser Leaves Town Match
Ron Fuller defeated Bob Armstrong in a Texas Death Match
**Tony Note: Idol and Rich are still fairly strong as draws operating mostly off their previous WTBS golden era of the early 80s and Fuller's television with Solie is pretty good. Why a Tennessee and Georgia legend are in a Texas Death Match seems out of place for me, but I suppose this is a follow up the Flair match turn of Armstrong who is a heel now. Still seems like they could have done a gimmick match more in line with who these guys were rather than a Texas Death Match, like a Falls Count Anywhere, Lights Out or something that would be a fight to the finish. I just think that would have fit better.
Championship Wrestling Association
Monday 7-29-1985: Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee
Main Event: Jerry Lawler defeated Bota the Witch Doctor (CH) to win the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship
The Sheepherders (Boyd\Morgan) vs Steve Keirn & Terry Taylor ended as a DCO
Michael Hayes defeated Tom Branch
Koko Ware defeated Phil Hickerson by DQ
**Tony Note: As I have said before, when you see a promoter who was a star in the previous decade get in the ring, you can usually bet that business is struggling. Just as Watts was on the Mid-South card, Jerry Jarrett and Tojo Yamamoto who were the biggest babyface tag team in the Tennessee Territory in the early to mid 1970s are on this show and they do an angle with another longtime 1970s-star Phil Hickerson.
The Lawler\Bota match was decent. It was a typical Lawler fighting the monster heel match, but the afterbirth had Hayes and Gordy involved which leads to a more compelling match in the following weeks between Lawler, Dundee, Hayes and Gordy who are working for Verne and on loan here to Jarrett. Terry Taylor is on loan from Crockett.
Central States
Monday 7-29-1985: Century II Auditorium in Wichita, Kansas
Main Event: Bob Brown & Marty Jannetty vs Mr. Pogo & Super Destroyer in a Cage Match
Gary Royal vs Sheik Abdullah
Edcar Thomas vs Rufus R. Jones
Dave Peterson vs Starship Coyote (Scott Hall)
**Tony Note: I'm not sure what to say about this except that after studying this territory in the 1960s and 1970s, this makes me very sad.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
The Black Panther Jim Mitchell had a significant match in pro wrestling history against Gorgeous George in 1949 at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. George's perceived unsportsmanlike behavior incited a riot.
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.