August 19th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Treach Phillips 1929
Toni Adams 1964
Happy Birthday:
Tim Horner (66)
Lillian Garcia (59)
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.
Jim Londos 8-19-1975 at the age of 78
Ann LaVerne 8-19-1999 at the age of 77
Tony Parisi 8-19-2000 at the age of 59
Jim Wehba\Skandor Akbar 8-19-2010 at the age of 75
Ted Allen 8-19-2010 at the age of 54
David Novak 8-19-2016 at the age of ?
40 Year Flashback
8-16-1985: The AWA ran a "Star Wars" show at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey
Over the weekend, 40 years ago, as a somewhat futile attempt to "fight back" against the aggressive WWF, Verne Gagne's organization ran a show in the northeast in the backyard of the Titan Sports stronghold.
I have spent almost 40 years selling and leveraging my business acumen and strategic expertise to successful businesses. I never would have recommended this strategy. In this scenario, it spotlights the lack of business expertise of the remaining promotion owners in this era. When you have an aggressor into your space, you pull back, fortify and defend your territory, you do not, under any circumstances go into the teeth of the enemy. In order to survive an attack such as the WWF was staging, you have to suspend your emotions. Your emotions will inform your behavior that you should fight back, and your unhealthy ego amplifies it into thinking you are showing force.
When an aggressor is already into your space, the last thing you want to do is abandon your space and go into their strength. Very much like when a python has you in its grip, the more you struggle and fight, the faster you die. You waste and drain your valuable resources in a futile effort.
This card was good, with two World Championship matches on the card and great performers as champions. Slaughter's abilities were waning at this point, and he was a bit of a styles-clash with Flair. Martel and Zbyszko probably was okay, but Curt Hennig was available and so was Terry Gordy as options. Any mix of Flair, Martel, Gordy and Hennig would have been better. Hayes and Roberts against the Road Warriors in a straight up tag team match would have been better than the 6-man.
This would have been better to have been presented in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Denver or Omaha to solidify the AWA territory, or they could have run this show in all of those markets like a Star Wars tour, much like Jim Crockett did the Great American Bash at this time. Crockett partnered with Jerry Jarrett and did the Bash tour in both Memphis and Lexington and drew huge crowds. It’s possible Flair wouldn't have been able to do all those dates for Verne, but still it would have been better that going up to New Jersey. The show drew 7,000 fans but it was incredibly short term and was not something they could repeat or build upon.
When you have an invading promotional force coming into your area, the object in a wrestling war is not to fight back. The object is to survive it and eventually win by keeping your territory going. No promoter in this area employed this thinking, therefore, they all lost the war. That's why my view is that Vince McMahon didn't put the territories out of business. It's thinking and moves like this that put them out of business.
The Card for Star Wars 8-16-1985 in New Jersey:
Baron Von Raschke defeated Davey G (I Don’t know who this is?)
Brad Rheingans defeated Boris Zhukov by DQ
The angle to come with Zhukov disrupting the world title match with Flair to build to a series between Slaughter and Zhukov, but he can't beat the guy in the second match? He couldn't get heel heat by the evil communist Russian doing something terrible to the US Olympian? I don't understand this booking.
Steve Regal (ch) defeated Buck Zumhofe to retain the AWA World Light Heavyweight Title
Regal got the pin on Zumhofe
Greg Gagne & Curt Hennig defeated Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens
Gagne pinned Bockwinkel
Rick Martel (ch) defeated Larry Zbyszko to retain the AWA World Heavyweight Title
Sgt Slaughter defeated Ric Flair (ch) by DQ for the NWA World Heavyweight Title
Zhukov attacked Slaughter at around the 34-minute mark as the Sgt had Flair in the Cobra Clutch, after the DQ, Zhukov threw the referee down and continued to beat on Slaughter, Flair joined in to double team the Sergeant. Hennig, Rheingans, Zumhofe and Tom Zenk made the save. Who wanted to see Slaughter and Zhukov after this?
The Road Warriors & Paul Ellering defeated The Fabulous Freebirds by DQ
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Rick Martel is a universally underrated AWA World Champion. He won the title on May 13th, 1984, beating Jumbo Tsuruta in St. Paul, Minnesota. He held the championship a remarkable 595 days until almost the end of 1985, losing to Stan Hansen on December 29th, 1985. That is an amazing title run, yet he is hardly ever mentioned when discussing great and competent world champions.
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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