Good morning, July is gone, and August has begun!
We have a lot of great pro wrestling history to cover this month in the Daily Chronicle and here in the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Substack Channel.
As always, let’s start today with our daily pro wrestler tributes:
August 1st in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
George Hackenschmidt 1877
Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith 1931
Ib Solvang Hansen\Eric the Red 1934
Happy Birthday:
Jimmy Golden (75)
Michael Hayner\Prince Iaukea (61)
Mike Chioda (59)
Devon Dudley (53)
Yoshitatsu Tatsu (48)
Prince Nana Osei Bandoh (46)
Carmelo Hayes (31)
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.
Ray Gunkel 8-1-1972 at the age of 48
Don Owen 8-1-2002 at the age of 90
Ken Timbs 8-1-2004 at the age of 53
Harley Race 8-1-2019 at the age of 76
53 Year Flashback
8-1-1972: Ray Gunkel defeated Ox Baker at the Civic Center in Savannah, Georgia.
Later that night after the match in the locker room, Gunkel suffered a heart attack and died. Gunkel was terribly out of shape and overweight and had not been wrestling on a full-time basis but had recently decided to get back in the ring. He had stopped off at a Georgia roadhouse before the event and eaten a very large buffet meal before wrestling.
Reports suggested that an autopsy had been done which had shown when Baker hit Gunkel with his "heart punch" blow to the chest that it had dislodged a blood clot which caused Gunkel's death.
Ray Gunkel died on this date, the day after his wife, Ann Gunkel's 38th birthday.
Gunkel's death set off a chain of events which created the Georgia Wrestling War over the Atlanta ABC Booking Office which Gunkel was in partnership with Buddy Fuller, Lester Welch and Eddie Graham. Fuller, Welch and Graham shut down ABC Booking thereby liquidating Ann's shares in the company. They formed a new company called Mid-South Sports, while Ann developed a new wrestling company for her holding company, Gunkel Enterprises. The name of the new company was All South Wrestling.
This all set the stage for Jim Barnett to return to Atlanta from Australia by buying our Lester Welch's 38% of Mid-South Sports.
This is all covered in the 4-Part series "The Life & Legacy of Jim Barnett" on the "Stories with Brisco & Bradshaw" Show on YouTube.
Episode Links:
5/29/2025: Stories With Brisco & Bradshaw with Tony Richards Jim Barnett Episode #1
6/5/2025: Stories With Brisco & Bradshaw with Tony Richards Jim Barnett Episode #2
6/12/2025: Stories With Brisco & Bradshaw with Tony Richards Jim Barnett Episode #3
6/18/2025: Stories With Brisco & Bradshaw with Tony Richards Jim Barnett Episode #4
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Don Owen's father Herb Owen was a pro wrestling and boxing promoter in Eugene, Oregon. Don and his brother, Elton started working in their father's promotion in the mid-1920s. They sold popcorn and drinks. Early on, the two Owen brothers stepped into the ring on occasion to box or wrestle. In time, Don moved more and more to the promotion side, eventually taking over the company after if father died in 1951. His career as a promoter spanned over 60 years through the era of territory wrestling. Owen was an early member of the National Wrestling Alliance
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!