May 6 in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Pat O'Dowdy 1908
Ronnie Etchison 1920
Ted Lewin 1935
Happy Birthday:
Brian Knobbs (61)
Colt Cabana (45)
Cheree Crowley\Dakota Kai (37)
Kimberly Benson\Piper Niven (34)
Amir Jordan (28)
Anriel Howard\Lash Legend (28)
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.
Wee Willie Wilson 5-6-1993 at the age of 45
Pepper Gomez 5-6-2004 at the age of 77
Billy Wicks 5-6-2016 at the age of 84
Select Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling Match Flashbacks:
50 Year Flashback: Florida Territory
5-6-1975: Dory Funk Jr defeated Jack Brisco (CH) by DQ for the NWA World Heavyweight Title at the Auditorium in Miami Beach, Florida
*Tony Note:
50 years ago, these two had this match in Phoenix, Arizona for the Amarillo Office as featured in yesterday's newsletter. The next night, they are booked here in a rare scheduling switch for the Eddie Graham Tampa, Florida office. For years now, Miami Beach was the weekly Wednesday night town for the territory, but in very rare occasions, it would be moved if there was a conflict with the building, this is one such occurrence. The home base of Tampa was the A-town show on Tuesday nights and Fort Meyers was the B-Show, Miami was the only Wednesday night show most weeks. Due to the scheduling conflict, the office ended up with two A-Shows on this night, so the booker at the time, Harley Race put the Brisco-Funk, Jr title match in Miami.
What's ironic about this, knowing what we know, is that Harley thought he was getting the NWA World Title back when Brisco's run was over. Brisco had the title since 1973 after beating Race in Houston and almost two years later, Brisco was wearing down. Whether he expressed that to Race or not is not known, but he almost assuredly said something to his mentor, Eddie Graham. Harley knew the schedule well and knew the time was coming when the title would be changing. I don't think he thought at the time that Terry Funk might be a viable candidate for it but booking this match in Miami Beach certainly stoked up the Brisco-Funk rivalry setting the long-term story of the Brisco title defense in December against Funk Jr where Terry will take Dory's place in the title match.
5-6-1975: Harley Race vs Terry Funk ended in a DDQ at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida
*Tony Note: Harley booked himself into a weekly program with the younger Funk brother, Terry for the homebase Tuesday night town in Tampa at the Armory. This is one thing I really miss about having the regional booking office and the territories. Bookers a couple of focuses. One was television. The Florida television by this time was set up in the hub and spoke "bicycle fashion". Eddie Graham and his minority partners owned a building in Tampa the had converted into a television studio/business office/storage facility. The weekly loop had Tampa on Tuesday night, then on Wednesday morning, they taped television at "The Sportatorium", located at 106 North Albany. The building seated forty or fifty fans, had a wrestling ring and television lights. Then, after television was taped and the fans left the building, wrestlers did interviews for the other towns to promote their matches and storylines, then those interviews would be inserted into commercial break times and the tape was sent to the television station in that market for next week's show. So, while that show would air this weekend, wrestlers would leave for the Miami House Show that night which was based on the previous week's television, as was Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. The new show would air on Saturday, so those matches and interviews would kick in for Monday in Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tampa and Fort Myers, then a new tape would be done, and it would all start again. The booker had to schedule matches for all that, the interviews and track the tapes and where they were to remind the wrestlers what they were doing. Some bookers had the wrestlers accountable for that, so they had to keep logbooks of their own.
Second, the booker had to book the weekly towns with matches and programs that would draw people and sell tickets in that town. So, Harley Race, in our example today had the NWA World champion available for these dates, so he booked that match into Miami, while booking himself with Terry in Tampa. The Miami match was a one-time thing for Miami this week, but when the regular schedule resumes next week, Harley and Terry will have their match back in Tampa on Tuesday night for round 2 and in Miami on Wednesday night for round 1, as the people in Miami will be seeing the Race/Terry Funk angle for the first time on television this weekend. And as already mentioned, Florida had two shows on Monday, two on Tuesday and two on Friday, so the booker had to rotate the matches in such a way so that you had matches and return matches in all the towns that made sense for that town. That's one reason why bookers created the tag team championship and secondary singles titles was to have something important to feature on those B-show towns. Territories like Tennessee and the Carolinas had multiple tag titles for that purpose. In Tennessee, for example, they had the Southern Tag Titles in Memphis and the Tennessee Tag Titles in Knoxville and the Southeastern Tag Titles in Birmingham. Florida had the Southern Heavyweight Title, the Florida Heavyweight Title, the Florida Television Title, the Florida Brass Knuckles Title and the Florida Tag Team Titles to serve this purpose. The Television Title was mainly used on television, but Jim (JJ) Dillon was such a good performer and drew such good heat, Harley started using Dillon and the title to headline towns.
At this point in 1975, the Florida territory was still growing. Eddie Graham had energized the state with wrestling, utilizing so many things he had learned from his time in Tennessee, Amarillo, Washington, DC and New York City. Things are hot and thriving in Florida at this time.
40 Year Flashback: Montreal Territory
5-6-1985: The Road Warriors defeated Jos LeDuc & Dino Bravo at the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*Tony Note:
This is the first time I have had a chance to write about anything involving Montreal in the newsletter. Seeing this match as a possible 40-year flashback candidate, I chose it for today, so we could have some Montreal discussion. Just as it had in regions all across the United States, wrestling in Quebec started in farms, fields and little settlements back at least 400 years among Native Americans, Vikings and European settlers. After exploding in population in the 1800s and into the middle of the century, as the populations grew, so did the need for entertainment. This was provided in county or province fairs, festivals, traveling carnivals and circuses. Men would challenge the traveling "champion" and put his money where his mouth was. If he lost, he would lose his money, if he happened to beat the champion, he received the jackpot. The carnival show wrestler had to be good and tough, as the owner didn't like paying out jackpots, so some didn't last long in the profession. From time to time, the owner would have "plants" in the crowd beat the "champion" so local townspeople thought there was a chance of victory, so they would step up and bet more money for their chance to win. Across North America, it would be the 1920s before wrestling evolved into anything closely resembling what we see today and as the newsletter progresses, we will have a chance to delve into more Montreal history.
The Verdun Auditorium is probably the arena with the most matches for professional wrestling in the Montreal territory. By this time in the 1980s, it's time as the primary venue had passed and now the majority of events were being held at the Paul-Sauve' Arena, with the Verdun being used very sparingly.1 Even so, this arena had seen its share of stars, and the International Wrestling office booked on this night a mix of two Canadian legends against the hottest tag team in the world. Dino Bravo had a tremendous career in professional wrestling, not only in Canada but in many other places as well. His life was filled with controversy, including his rumored ties to organized crime. He had a few public skirmishes as well with people who took him to court, and he was tossed from some sports events besides wrestling that put him in the newspapers. The most tragic part of his life was after his retirement in 1992 as he left the WWF at only 43 years old and in March of the following year, his wife found him dead on the couch when she returned home. Cartridges and casings were found in the house near the body, leading authorities to believe he had been murdered. Bravo was one of the biggest babyfaces ever in Canadian wrestling.
Jos LeDuc was not only a star in Canada but wrestled on top everywhere in the Southern United States from Texas to Georgia, Florida, Carolinas and Tennessee. His most famous angle in Tennessee wrestling was the "lumberjack blood oath" he did on live television at WMC-TV5 one Saturday morning. Involving a program with Jerry Lawler, LeDuc the heel promised to do away with Lawler the lumberjack way and proceeded to cut himself with a small axe he had carried to the interview area. If you watch this interview on YouTube, pay attention if you can to Lance Russell's face. Russell, who had been doing play-by-play of wrestling matches since 1955, said this was the most outrageous and crazy thing he ever saw in his career holding the microphone for some of these craziest people. That is taking in some territory. Jos LeDuc and Maurice Vachon was a huge program in Quebec, breaking attendance records in many towns and cities. LeDuc was a naturally strong man and another thing you can see on YouTube are his strength gimmicks like pulling a bus or holding back a car with his legs. One of the tag teams, Jos was involved with many fans today have either forgotten or never known was the team he formed in the AWA with Larry Hennig. Henning's nickname was "the axe" and so their team was called "The Ax and the Double Ax" and they had a hot feud with the Valiant Brothers, Jimmy and Johnny.
Needless to say, based on the reputations in Montreal of these two in 1985, this match was huge in Montreal. Even so, the Canadian legends put the Warriors over. Everyone did in 1985. The Road Warriors, also known as The Legion of Doom, were the most dominant tag team in a long time in 1985. The Legion of Doom was a stable managed by Paul Ellering in Georgia consisting at various times of Hawk, Animal, Jake Roberts, Buzz Sawyer, The Iron Sheik, Arn Anderson, The Spoiler and King Kong Bundy. They were on WTBS, the Superstation every Saturday in 1983 and '84, before the moving to Gagne's AWA and becoming World Tag Team Champions. They would also start doing guest shots in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985, before eventually making Crockett their home in 1986 along with Japan tours. They emerged victorious in the first Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Tournament winning the prized Cup trophy in the finals. The Warriors were "on loan" here to International Wrestling from the American Wrestling Association.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
It's not really something I learned, but rather an insight that came to me. Stan Hansen had such a rebellious nature and attitude, particularly demonstrated in his exit from the American Wrestling Association. Yet, in spite of the behavioral reputation, Hansen seemed to have a very close and agreeable relationship with Giant Baba, both McMahons, Bill Watts, Dory Funk Sr, Ole Anderson and other promoters. Another example of the kayfabe personality and the shoot one being different.
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!
Remember, paid subscribers get access to exclusive and special content such as to commemorate his induction to the WWE Hall of Fame, I'll be publishing some special issues including a multi-part flashback on the Georgia Championship Wrestling Territory in May 1975 including all the recorded cards for the month, some special audio and video interviews on territory pro wrestling and more.
Pat Laprade and Bertrand Herbert, Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs