September 1st in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
"Flyboy" Rocco Rock\The Cheetah Kid 1953
Scott Charles “Bam Bam” Bigelow 1961
Happy Birthday:
Doug Durdle\Doug Williams (53)
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.
Steven Romero\Jay Youngblood 9-1-1985 at the age of 30
Larry Simon\Professor Boris Malenko 9-1-1994 at the age of 61
Richard Thomas Anderson\Tom Andrews\The Claw\The Intern 9-1-2020 at the age of 83
Shannon Sprull\Daffney 9-1-2021 at the age of 46
Debut
9-1-1972: Larry Zbyszko defeated Frank Durso in 17 seconds at the Civic Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Lawrence Whistler cut his college wrestling career at Penn State short after beginning to train for pro wrestling under Bruno Sammartino. In his debut match, on this Day in Pro Wrestling History, he was a babyface taking the name of famous wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko. He wrestled around the Pittsburgh territory in 1972, appearing on the "Studio Wrestling" television show before he was booked to go to the NWA Vancouver Territory in 1973.
Pictured: Larry Zbyszko and Bruno Sammartino
He made his debut in the WWWF in 1974 before doing some more traveling to California in 1975, he also worked some in Japan. Zbyszko returned to the WWWF in 1976 and formed a team with Tony Garea and they captured the WWWF World tag Team Championship on November 21st, 1978, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. They held on to the titles until March 6th, 1979, when they were defeated by The Valiant Brothers in Allentown.
Larry Zbyszko had programs with Bugsy McGraw, Abdullah the Butcher and Superstar Billy Graham before having a great program with Killer Kowalski and then Baron Mikel Scicluna.
As the 1970s came to a close, Zbyszko became frustrated with being Sammartino's protégé. In a classic angle, he challenged Sammartino to an exhibition wrestling match, claiming this was the only way he could step out of Sammartino's shadow. Bruno eventually agreed to the match after Larry threatened to retire if he could not be granted the match up. They faced each other in Allentown on January 22nd, 1980, with Sammartino dominating the early stages of the match. After Sammartino threw him out of the ring, an irate Zbyszko grabbed a wooden chair and struck Sammartino, leaving him a bloody mess in the middle of the ring and converting Zbyszko into a hated heel.
Pictured: Larry Zbyszko in 1980
Zbyszko then had a series of incidents where he was attacked and injured by fans after matches in various arenas. He was approached by all three of WWF top managers, but he elected to continue on by himself. The Sammartino and Zbyszko feud lasted through the majority of 1980 and Larry began referring to himself as "The New Living Legend. The program culminated in a steel cage match at "The Showdown at Shea" on August 9th, 1980, at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York, that saw Sammartino defeated Zbyszko in front of an audience of 36, 295 fans. Zbyszko left the WWF in the Spring of 1981 to do a tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Steven Romero was the son of Ricky Romero and wrestled under the name Jay Youngblood. During a wrestling tour of the South Pacific in August 1985, Jay Youngblood was having abdominal pain and went to the hospital where the discovered he had hemorrhagic pancreatitis. He started to develop abdominal sepsis and kidney failure before suffering a series of heart attacks. He was in a coma for two weeks before passing away in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. Before his death he had purchased a house in Charlottesville, Virginia in the United States. He was married at the time of his death and was survived by a son, Daniel and daughter, Ricca.
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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