June 6th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Brute Bernard 1921
Rip Hawk 1930
Larry Latham\Moondog Spot 1952
Happy Birthday:
Anthony Norris\Ahmed Johnson (62)
Jessica Kresa\ODB (47)
Jaxson Ryker (43)
Drew McIntyre (40)
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.
Dick Dunn 6-6-1995 at the age of 65
Danny Miller 6-6-2016 at the age of 84
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match Flashbacks
6-5-1975: Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel (CH) defeated Jack Brisco & Jerry Brisco to retain the NWA World Tag Team Titles Tag Team Championships at The Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina
Pictured: NWA World Tag Team Champions, Wahoo McDaniel and Paul Jones
Although this had recently happened in the Georgia Territory in May, it was still a rare occurrence for Jack and Jerry Brisco to work together as a tag team. For one reason, Jack is the NWA World Heavyweight Champion and fulfilling a schedule that crazy schedule taking him all over the world. In 1970, Australia came into the NWA and in 1972, Giant Baba's new promotion joined as an NWA affiliate. Besides, providing the NWA the opportunity to be presented as a worldwide brand and cooperative of promoters, it also demanded the presentation of the top singles title, the now actual World champion needed and was, in fact demanded to be seen by the fans in these new areas. As we documented in one of our issues last week, Jerry Brisco just won the NWA United States Junior Championship in Georgia from Bob Orton, Jr and was working that territory.
Pictured: Jerry and Jack Brisco
However, the Brisco are really over in Jim Crockett Promotions, especially in Greensboro. The last four or five big Thanksgiving shows for Crockett in Greensboro were headlined by one of the Briscos and one of the Funks or both. The other thing is, Jack is coming in later this month to defend the World Title, and his opponent will be Paul Jones, so there is a bit of "previews of coming attractions" in this tag match to foreshadow the World Title matchup between Jack Brisco and Paul Jones on June 17th. The Briscos come up short in the match, but in logical thinking, one could not imagine the Briscos defending all these titles in the Carolinas and in Georgia, while Jack still has to travel with the World belt. Fans just thought different in those days and didn't consider what would have happened with the other obligations should the Briscos have won the tag titles. One can surmise that since the crowds in Greensboro were always large, frenzied and wild, I'm sure this was a hot match, even though it was a babyface match.
We will be seeing more of Jones and McDaniel this month in the newsletter as their program with The Anderson Brothers is going to the next level here in June as The Andersons innovate a new maneuver that probably could not be done in this day and time. We'll cover it in coming weeks ahead.
6-5-1975: Ed Wiskoski (CH) defeated Jerry Oates by DQ to retain the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Missouri
Wiskoski was a "grow your own" local star in the making. He was born in St Joseph, Missouri in 1945 and was a high school football star. He was a sizable guy and had a nice frame for professional wrestling, standing six foot three and weighing two hundred thirty-five pounds, almost the perfect weight for a pro wrestler. Just before local promoter Gust Karras had planned for Wiskoski to debut in 1969, Ed was involved in a terrible auto accident. Similar to Amarillo's terrible relationship with heart attacks that plagued the territory's performers, Missouri's Kansas City territory had auto accidents. Harley Race's career was almost over before it started due to a tragic auto accident that took the life of his wife. Also, Orville Brown's NWA World Title run in 1948 and 1949 was ended because of an accident with himself and Bobby Bruns. Fortunately for Wiskoski, his car wreck was not as bad as those two, but it did result in a knee injury and a few other complications, which at any rate, delays his pro debut all the way to 1972.
Wiskoski spends the next couple of years traveling the territories in the South including Florida, Georgia, Alabama, The Carolinas and Tennessee. Wiskoski is back from all that, returning to his home territory here in 1975. Ed is booked into the middle of the cards from March through May before having a few matches with top of the card guys like Pat O'Connor and Omar Atlas before starting this program with the NWA Central States Champion, Jerry Oates. Coming up on a future Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings podcast, I will have a conversation with Oates about this series of matches with Wiskoski. The program kicked off around a month ago on May 2, 1975, in St Joseph. Jerry won the first fall with Dory Funk Sr's spinning toe hold, Wiskoski won the second fall with an abdominal stretch, which the announcers put over calling Wiskoski's version the "Python Stretch". In the third fall, Wiskoski gets DQ'd for losing his temper and hitting Oates in the head with a chair.
Pictured: Ed Wiskoski
In Kansas City, Wiskoski and Oates work together on May 22nd, they worked to a match ending where they were both DQ's. A week later at Memorial Hall in KC, Oates won the match by "rolling through" using Wiskoski's own force and momentum as he jumps off the top rope onto Oates. Wiskoski finally won the Central States Title in a television studio match that aired in the territory markets on Saturday precious to this match on May 31st. In this match, Oates has a chance for revenge and to get the title back just a few days later. I am going to get more details from Jerry, but there was blood involved with Oates bleeding excessively cause his vision to be blurred and Oates KOs the referee causing him to be disqualified and lose the match, but Ed Wiskoski retaining the championship.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Bearcat Brown (Matt Jewell), one of the most influential and important African American stars in the Southern United States in the 1960s and 1970s was raised on a farm in Oglethorpe County, Georgia. He was the 3rd of 11 sons and 1 daughter in his family. He was one of the first, if not the first to headline and racially integrate Pro Wrestling in the South by teaming with his Caucasian tag team partner, Len Rossi.
Pictured: Bearcat Brown (Matt Jewell) and Len Rossi
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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Interesting to learn here about some of the details behind the start of Ed Wiskoski's career. As a fan in the '80s, I only knew him as Colonel Debeers in the AWA and had no idea until many years later that he had already been wrestling at that point for more than a decade, but had not known prior to reading this here what area he actually started in.