August 20th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Ken Lucas 1940
Happy Birthday:
Irma Gonzalez (89)
Rip Morgan (68)
Bob Cook (62)
Duke Droese (59)
Byron Saxton (44)
Walter Hahn\Gunther (38)
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.
Jerry London 8-20-1970 at the age of 41
Marv Westenberg 8-20-1978 at the age of 68
Sonny "Roughhouse" Fargo 8-20-2009 at the age of 80
Pro Wrestling Debut
8-20-1953: Irma Gonzalez made her pro wrestling debut on her 17th birthday.
71 Year Flashback
8-20-1954: June Byers defeated Mildred Burke to win the NWA World Women's Championship in the City Auditorium in Atlanta, Georgia
The infamous "shoot match" was the result of over a year's worth of negotiation back and forth to get the match in the ring.
Byers won the first fall in 16 minutes. Newspaper accounts then report that wrestling commissioners stopped the match and awarded the win to Byers. The second fall lasted around 30 minutes. One newspaper account listed the match as a no contest.
Burke, believing she had not lost two falls, left the ring feeling the match was stopped on a DQ and the title was still hers. The National Wrestling Alliance recognized Byers as the new champion and led to Burke starting a competing women's organization, the WWWA.
The match significantly altered the landscape of women's wrestling in the United States, with Burke and Byers going in separate directions and shaping the future of the sport in different ways.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
June Byers, from Houston, Texas made her professional wrestling debut in 1944.
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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