April 19th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Ox Baker 1934
Sam Bass 1935
Happy Birthday:
None
RIP Memorial: We stop & remember those who passed on this day in histoty and who gave themselves to the business for us, the fans. We salute you and thank you:
Dr Benjamin Roller 4-19-1933 at the age of 33
Silo Sam\Little John 4-19-2005 at the age of 52
Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling Match Flashbacks:
60-Year Historical Flashback 4-19-1965: The Fabulous Moolah and Penny Banner went to a 20-minute time limit draw at the Old Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina
*Tony Note: Penny Banner may be my favorite female wrestler of all time. I wish I could have seen her during the 1960s but there is very little video of her available in the 60s. She held the NWA World Women’s Tag Titles with Lorraine Johnson (my favorite women’s tag team of all time), the NWA Women’s Southern Title, the NWA Texas Women’s Title and the AWA World Women’s Title but never the coveted NWA World Women’s Title. She had several big and hot matches with June Byers, the NWA champ but never beat her for the strap. Banner was so marketable and she drew money and should have had a run with the title in my humble opinion. Banner was living in Charlotte at this time and Moolah’s place was in South Carolina, so this was a short mileage match from these two accomplished travelers.
50-Year Championship Change Flashback: Bobo Brazil defeated Abdullah the Butcher (CH) to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan
*Tony Note: Later in his career, it was rare for Abdullah to hold a title, but in the 1970s, he was put over as champion several times. He held the Detroit version of the NWA United States Championship here in 1975 for almost three months losing it back to homesteader Bobo Brazil. He also held the NWA World Tag Team Championship here in The Sheik's territory with Killer Tim Brooks, but this was his only singles title here. He was also working in Georgia during this time period also.
50-Year Flashback: 4-19-1975: Bobby Duncum vs Gorilla Monsoon ended as a DDQ at the Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*Tony Note: Bobby Duncum was being pushed as one of the two top heels for Bruno's championship during this period in 1975, the other being Spiros Arion. Duncum was having a series of Texas Death Matches with Sammartino with Monsoon being the special referee assigned by the WWWF officials. Working in a singles match during this program due to Duncum and his complaints about Monsoon's referee skills and favoring Sammartino.
50-Year Flashback 4-19-1975: Superstar Billy Graham & Dusty Rhodes defeated Jimmy Valiant & Horst Hoffmann at the Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois
*Tony Note: After Dusty's babyface turn and huge run in Florida during 1974, this was one of his first travels outside the southern territories and the beginnings of his long relationship with Superstar Graham. They often also were joined by Andre the Giant to make their team a 6-man taking on the evil foreigners, Baron Von Raschke, Horst Hoffman and Boris Breznikoff. Valiant, who was one half of the WWWF Tag Team Champions with Johnny Valiant, was in for this one shot in Chicago, This AWA match is a great time capsule to show how much the territories cooperated and traded talent with each other.
45-Year Flashback 4-19-1980: Ric Flair defeated Jimmy Snuka to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Title at the Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina
39-Year Flashback 4-19-1986: The Road Warriors defeated Ron Garvin and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Magnum T.A. in the finals of the Jim Crockett Sr. tag team tournament at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
*Tony Note: I was a raving, enthusiastic fan of JCP in 1986. After the amazing year of 1985, JCP would have their most successful revenue year in the 1980s and were very close to their apex here after being on Superstation WTBS for a solid year. This was the first of the three Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup tournaments and the reason I was so excited was the opportunity to see so many tag teams you didn't normally get to see. I was tape trading at this time, but I didn't have a source to get tapes from Japan, so having Giant Baba and Tiger Mask on a card was amazing as well as teams from Mid-South, Florida, Tennessee and others. I still remember being on a business trip the weekend the show aired of the "press conference" that included the announcement with Bill Watts the tournament would be held at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hindsight being 20/20, this show should have been a yellow light to Crockett Jr and Dusty that buying the UWF a year later was not a good move. At that point, Jimmy and Virgil had so much "hubris of success" they thought everything they touched turned to gold, but the oil bust of the mid-80s had already started to affect the "oil towns" as this show did not draw well even though it was super loaded.
40-Year Flashback: 4-19-1985: Rick Martel (CH) defeated King Tonga (Haku) to retain the AWA World Heavyweight Title at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey
*Tony Note: Martel's reign as AWA World Champion lasted a little over a year and a half and had the 3rd longest title reign in AWA history and the longest title reign of any champion in the decade of the 1980s.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Dr Benjamin Roller played pro football (such as it existed at the time in the early 1900s) for the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the Philadelphia Athletic Club and was a player-coach for the Philadelphia Phillies of the first National Football League.
Thank You for Reading
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 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 career retrospective on Dory Funk, Sr, a multi-part flashback on the Tennessee Territory in April 1975 including all the recorded cards for the month, some special audio and video interviews and more.