June 12th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
George "Bunk Two-Ton" Harris 1927
Stan Vachon\Kalmikoff 1933
Jim Wilson 1942
Charles Meserole\Gary Lawler 1954
Hector Garza 1969
Happy Birthday:
Flying Fred Curry (82)
Jerry Lynn 62
Johnny "Hotbody" Weiss (62)
Mark Henry (54)
Tomoyuki Oka\Great-O-Khan (34)
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.
Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith, Sr 6-12-2010 at the age of 77
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match Flashbacks
50-Year Flashback: 1975
6-11-1975: Gene & Ole Anderson defeated Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at the WRAL TV Studio in Raleigh, North Carolina
Jim Crockett Promotions’ Booker George Scott was about to put one of the biggest tag team matches in the world of professional wrestling at the time on television, the finish of this match would make history.
Pictured: Wahoo McDaniel and Paul Jones, NWA World Tag Team Champions
As usual, the match was an intense battle, with all four giving all their energy and The Andersons taking more than their usual share of bumps, but while on offense, Gene and Ole would isolate Paul Jones on their half of the ring using their tactic of tagging each other, then blocking Jones by holding him and preventing him from tagging McDaniel, while the other Anderson would come in to resume the offensive attack. In what would become an Anderson patented move, they repeatedly slammed Jones down to the mat with his arm back in the hammerlock position and McDaniel desperately trying to urge Jones to fight for the tag.
Jones finally makes the hot tag to Wahoo, who comes in with a burst of offensive firepower sending both Andersons flying backward and forward, eventually knocking Gene Anderson outside the ring. With Gene's slumping body outside the ring and his head laying through the ropes, Ole runs Wahoo's head into Gene's, knocking both of them senseless. Wahoo, being the legal man in the ring, and falling backward on the mat, Ole covered him and the referee, Sonny Fargo counted his shoulders down with the three count for the win to the Andersons and the World Titles.
The camera then showed the prone body of Gene Anderson laying outside the ring on the floor while color commentator, David Crockett is screaming and going crazy, "He's out! He's out cold! How could Ole Anderson sacrifice his brother like that?!?!" In interviews leading up the match for the previous week or two, The Andersons would make comments about "doing anything necessary" and "we will make any sacrifice to get the World Titles back". They paid off those interviews on this television program by doing what would become legend in the Crockett Territory with this move now called "The Ultimate Sacrifice."
Pictured: Gene and Ole Anderson, NWA World Tag Team Champions
Ole has stated a few times that he either traveled alone between shows on the road or he and Gene rode together. During those car trips, Gene didn't talk much unless they talked about wrestling, so they would talk about what they could do with finishes and angles. Ole said he would have a lot of ideas and Gene would vet them, make suggestions to sharpen them or tell him they weren't any good and why. Gene didn't have a lot of ideas himself, but he was great at refining Ole’s ideas. We can probably assume this "Ultimate Sacrifice" angle was born with Ole and Gene's and perhaps George Scott refined it, but I'm certain it was Scott, the Booker, who decided to put it on the weekly television show, much as he showcased Flair and others to put more steam on them in the arena shows.
Certainly an amazing match because of the four top guys involved, but also because it was taped in the studio for broadcast on all the stations in the JCP Network at the time across North and South Carolina and Virginia, but it also kicked off the second stage of this main event tag team program between these two teams that would last the entire Summer of 1975 where the babyface team of Jones and McDaniel would seek revenge for the brutal treatment of Jones during the match and McDaniel taking the pin after "The Ultimate Sacrifice." The struggle was on through the hot months of 1975 for Jones and McDaniel to try to regain the NWA World tag Team Titles. The matches that would follow in the ensuing program would become legendary in the Crockett Territory as some of the longest and best tag team matches in the history of not only JCP but in the history of professional wrestling.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Grizzly Smith began working on top with his tag team partner, Luke Brown in a hillbilly type act, known as The Kentuckians. They wrestled in bare feet, flannel shirts and overalls. They had major runs in almost all the territories in the 1960s, their biggest drawing programs being with The Original Masked Assassins (Hamilton & Renesto).
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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