June 13th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Janet Wolfe 1933
Otto Wanz 1943
Robert Aebi\Count Drummer\The Mummy 1949
Chris Taylor 1950
Antonio Pena 1951
Michael Jones\Virgil 1951
Happy Birthday:
Jacques Rougeau (65)
Glenn Ruth\Headbanger Thrasher (56)
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.
The High Chief Peter Maivia 6-13-1982 at the age of 45
Mitsuharu Misawa 6-13-2009 at the age of 46
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match Flashbacks
50-Year Flashback: 1975
6-11-1975: Bobby Jaggers wins the 4-Man Tournament at the Fair Park Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas to win the vacant NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship
A few issues back we discussed Dory Funk Jr discovering Bobby Jaggers while working in the Kansas City Territory and giving him the cowboy gimmick and inviting him to come to Amarillo to work for a stretch here in 1975. Jaggers arrived earlier in the year and was put into a program with another young tough worker named Scott Casey. Jaggers and Casey went around the loop 4 or 5 times doing bloody gimmick matches like Chain matches and Texas Bullrope Matches finally culminating in a match for the Texas Brass Knuckles Title. Now that program having run its course and needing something new for Jaggers, the Amarillo office starts angles pushing him toward the NWA Western States Championship.
Pictured: Bobby Jaggers, NWA Western States Heavyweight Champion
The Amarillo Territory has long had a tradition of having tournaments for vacant titles in Lubbock. Throughout its history, Lubbock was either it's biggest or second biggest drawing town at the Fair Park Coliseum and in most cases, when a title issue would need to be solved with a tournament, it would be held in Lubbock and in a few cases, Amarillo. One of the things I like about what they do here is they keep the tournament field small with only the top 4 guys not named Funk. So, in storyline, Terry Funk, the most recent champion failed to defend the title within the NWA-required 30-day rule, so the championship was declared vacant.
The office then proposed a tournament, which was also approved by the Alliance Championship Committee, who put forth the top four names for the tournament. The Alaskan, Ricky Romero, Nick Kozak and Bobby Jaggers. There would be a singles match and a tag match on the undercard. In the first tournament match, Bobby Jaggers defeated Ricky Romero and in the second match, Nick Kozak defeated The Alaskan. After the Interns defeated Ray Candy and Hurricane Hernandez, the heel Jaggers came out on top to defeat the babyface Kozak in the finals to become the new NWA Western States Heavyweight Champion.
6-12-1975: Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) & Mr. Wrestling 2 (Johnny Walker) defeated Abdullah the Butcher & Professor Toru Tanaka at the Memorial Gymnasium in Rome, Georgia
Pictured: Mr Wrestling (Woods) and Mr Wrestling 2 (Walker)
We discussed the creation of Mr. Wrestling 2 in 1973 on one of our episodes of "The Life & Legacy of Jim Barnett" series recently. Jerry Jarrett coming in to take over for Bill Watts as booker of the Georgia office approached Tim Woods about being his lead babyface in Georgia for the NWA side against Ann Gunkel's All South Wrestling Alliance. Woods, thinking he was going to go into semi-retirement at the time turned Jarrett down. Jerry, having a brainstorm comes to the idea he can create "another Mr. Wrestling" and instructs Johnny Walker to obtain a white outfit similar to the one worn by Woods for the new character.
Walker's wife, Olivia, a master seamstress and also the lady who would make all of the beautiful Ric Flair robes for his NWA Title runs, goes to work. Crafting a white mask with a black outline to distinguish Two from the original Mr. Wrestling, at the time she never considered she was making something so iconic in Southern professional wrestling. Walker had been known as Johnny "Rubberman" Walker, a mid-card babyface, who had done some great work for Jarrett in Tennessee, had proven himself to be reliable, but without the facial attributes of a huge drawing card babyface. But, with the mask and some loosening of his personality behind the hood, Mr. Wrestling 2 was born.
Tim Woods (George Burell Woodin) won two Big 10 wrestling titles in 1958 and 1959 while wrestling for Michigan State. He had two runner-up finishes to the National Championships in the NCAA Wrestling Tournament making him a two-time Collegiate All-American. He made his pro debut in 1963 and was put on top for Joe Dusek right away being booked out of the Omaha, Nebraska office and winning their version of the AWA World Title in 1964. He had a run in Amarillo and was given a great program with Gene Kiniski when Kiniski was the NWA World Champion. Next, he hit Georgia for Ray Gunkel & Buddy Fuller where he really took off as Mr. Wrestling. Some estimates are that in 1968, he was making over $100,000 in Georgia which was colossal money at the time.
He went on to Florida, Dallas and the Carolinas, but he was biggest in Georgia during this 1968 run, where he did the "challenge a fan from the crowd" gimmick. Several tough collegiate wrestlers did this, including Dick Hutton and Bob Roop. Hutton would tape a $100 bill to his chest and challenge anyone to "come and get it". Woods, doing the gimmick one night in Columbus, Georgia, they went to set up the gimmick and Woods covered the guy's mouth and nose while putting the submission hold on.
The guy got frustrated with Woods and trying to free himself, bit Woods' finger off. They then went at it and the wrestlers emptied the dressing rooms to try to separate them. Later during his run, he would have an NWA World Title program with Kiniski in Georgia, where his finger started bleeding and that stopped the match. This all played a part in setting up the Mr. Wrestling iconic legend in Georgia. Once Woods continued to work full time in the business after 1973 and the Mr. Wrestling 2 character became so hot, they often teamed up as they did here in this 1975 match against two of the biggest monster heels of the 1970s.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
The High Chief Peter Maivia was born in Samoa, but he was brought up in New Zealand, where he trained and made his professional wrestling debut in 1960.
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 some special issues including a multi-part deep dives on wrestling territories, wrestler bios and championship title histories, special audio and video interviews on territory pro wrestling and more available in The Vault of the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel for Paid Subscribers.