November 15th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Edwin Bibby 1848
Masanobu Kirisu 1946
Randy Poffo\Randy Savage 1952
Michiyoshi Ohara 1967
Happy Birthday:
Nobuhiko Oshima\Cima (48)
Steffanie Newell\Tegan Nox (31)
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.
Willie Gilzenberg 11-15-1978 at the age of 77
Juan Galacia\Gran Markus 11-15-2007 at the age of 68
Steve Cooper 11-15-2011 at the age of 61
45 Year Special Video Flashback to 1980
Regular readers know that the Poffo ICW Promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky is one of the promotions I grew up watching on television and attending live house shows here around the area where I grew up while I attended High School and College in Western Kentucky.
Since it’s the anniversary of Randy Savage’s birthday and also the date of Steve Cooper, his original manager in ICW’s passing, I thought I would include a couple of flashback videos in this newsletter.
I remember watching on television for both of these recordings. The first one is when Randy Savage was in a program with Ronnie Garvin for the ICW World Heavyweight Title and Savage refused to come to the television studio for interviews or wrestle live on television. He taped his interviews, often with Bob Orton, Jr from an undisclosed location and sometimes featured a masked character named, “The Prophet”, who would be later revealed to be Steve Cooper. In this video, it features a recording of an angle in the studio with Cooper, Garvin and an unmasking on television that has Savage upset.
Video: Randy Savage Interview Freaking Out
The second video features a young Liz Hulett conducting interviews to update the people on the condition of Steve Cooper’s heart attack, which was a shoot. He received a new heart from a transplant conducted when a fatal auto accident happened in Lexington, and one of the crash victims was an organ donor and Cooper received the new heart which extended his life for several years until 2011. Angelo Poffo gave Cooper jobs around the promotion, such as running errands and editing the television shows and sending them out to stations to keep Cooper employed and working while recovering. Quite different from many stories that are told about Angelo over the years.
Video: ICW Update On Steve Cooper’s Condition After His Heart Attack
One Thing I Learned About Randy Savage
50 years ago in November of 1975, The Poffo Family, Angelo and Lanny were a heel tag team and Randy, as a carpenter named Jim Pride, were working the West Texas Amarillo Territory based in Amarillo, Texas. In the clips above, another young carpenter is mentioned on the television show named Jim Pride, so the Poffo Family carried that kayfabe name forward into their promotion giving it to another wrestler besides Randy in the early 1980s.
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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