August 16th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Jack Adkisson\Fritz Von Erich 1929
Frank Hester\Masked Domino #2 1936
Stan Frazier 1937
Buck Ramstead 1943
Dick Murdoch 1946
Tarzan Goto 1963
Happy Birthday:
Colin Cassidy\Big Bill (34)
Cedric Alexander (36)
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.
Sorakichi Matsuda 8-16-1891 at the age of 32
Pat O'Connor 8-16-1990 at the age of 65
Dewey Robertson\The Missing Link 8-16-2007 at the age of 68
John Bedoya, Jr\Xavier 8-16-2020 at the age of 42
Arthur Afa Anoa'i 8-16-2024 at the age of 82
65-Year Flashback:
8-16-1960: Verne Gagne is awarded the AWA World Heavyweight Championship after NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor fails to show up for the challenge match.
Up until May of 1960, what would become the AWA Territory was the Minneapolis Territory of the National Wrestling Alliance. Gagne had defeated Eduoard Carpentier in 1957 and therefore, Gagne had claimed the NWA Title, but Sam Muchnick and the NWA board never recognized Gagne's claim to the title. For the entire time, Gagne complained on television and challenged the NWA Champion to a match to settle the issue.
In May of 1960, Promoter Wally Karbo and Gagne had proposed leaving the NWA and forming a new group and the NWA was agreeable to the idea. It would help keep the DOJ satisfied that the NWA was not a monopoly and there were other professional wrestling organizations in the United States. In order to create the angle for the split, Gagne and Karbo issued a challenge to current NWA World Champion, Pat O'Connor to a match within 90 days or forfeit the claim to the title.
Of course, O'Connor was not going to show up for the match, and therefore the new AWA World Championship was presented to Verne Gagne. The Minneapolis Territory was no longer connected to the NWA office in St. Louis but rather headquartered in Minnesota and independent to manage its own World Championship.
50 Year Flashback:
8-16-1975: Dick The Bruiser & The Crusher defeated Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens (ch) to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship at the Chicago, Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois.
It was Bruiser and Crusher's 5th AWA Tag Title as Gagne had decided it was time to move Bockwinkel into the singles picture and eventually, by year's end, put the World Championship on Nick. This would end one of the most spectacular tag teams and tag team runs in professional wrestling history. Ray Stevens had bought into the Amarillo booking office at the end of 1974, as he and Ricky Romero bought out Terry Funk's percentage of the business. Stevens had been working both the AWA Tag Team schedule and also on the West Texas booking team, while working some dates as well. Now that the straps had been passed to Bruiser and Crusher and Nick going on his solo run, Stevens would be picking up his own singles run in West Texas as well for the second half of 1975, having won the West Texas version of the Brass Knucks Title just a few days before in Lubbock.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Verne Gagne held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship 10 times between 1960 and 1980.
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!
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