June 14th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Dan McLeod 1861
Dan Kroffat 1945
"Mad Dog" "Buzz" Sawyer 1959
Happy Birthday:
Peter Hernandez\Avalon (36)
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.
Joseph Chorre, Jr\Suni War Cloud 6-14-1987 at the age of 73
"Bulldog" and “Kangaroo” Don Kent 6-14-1993 at the age of 60
Alfred Dobalo\"Al" Green\Master Blaster Blade 6-14-2013 at the age of 57
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match Flashbacks
50-Year Flashback: 1975
6-5-1975: Dick Murdoch defeated Danny Miller (CH) to win the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship at the St. Bernard Civic Auditorium in Chalmette, (New Orleans), Louisiana
It's time to once again swing the Time Tunnel through Oklahoma and check on the progress of new booker Bill Watts. If you remember, Watts returned in late February\early March after one of the most successful booking runs outside his home area in wrestling history. He was called upon in late 1972 by Buddy Fuller, Lester Welch and Eddie Graham to come help solve the Atlanta, Georgia problem after their booker, Tom Renesto left the office with all the roster except two wrestlers to go over to Ann Gunkel's All South Wrestling Alliance. Watts was given 10% of the ownership of the Atlanta office to both recruit a new roster and help manage the pipeline of talent rotated in and out of Georgia by the extensive network of NWA offices. Once that situation was stabilized, Watts left for Florida in the Fall of 1973 where he also gained some ownership points to work alongside and learn from Eddie Graham.
After stating for approximately a year and a half to early 1975, it was time to return home and work on his personal life and put some elbow grease into his home booking office in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he was a partner with LeRoy McGuirk. One of things he had going for him was all the talent that came through both Atlanta and Tampa he had booked was now in his relationship rolodex for Tulsa.
Pictured: Dick Murdoch, Tri-States NWA North American Heavyweight Champion in 1975
One of those talents was Dick Murdoch, who had worked in Florida regularly because of the relationship between Tampa and Amarillo. Watts knows he needs to juice up the territory which includes better stories and television leading to better house show cards. He wants to change up the tops of the cards and Murdoch is a major catalyst as one of biggest decisions to make is who will work with hometown hero, Watts. Who to program with himself? Murdoch.
The first step toward the Murdoch/Watts program is to put the area's top singles championship on the heel, Murdoch. But not just any heel but a heel from Texas. Just like Danny Hodge and Dory Funk, Sr or Angelo Savoldi and Dory Funk, Sr, which revolved around the Red River Rivalry of Oklahoma and Texas.
The other move Watts is going to make soon is to change the buildings around in New Orleans. Watts is going to alternate between the Chalmette suburb of The Big Easy to downtown New Orleans both at the downtown Municipal Auditorium and the massive Superdome. Watts' plan was, in the Spring of 1975 to build the strength of both the roster and the stories to the point he could bring in the NWA World Champion to headline a card strong enough to sell out the Superdome and this day was step one.
Danny Miller, Scandor Akbar, who had held the title for the previous 8-plus months for the championship in May. At first it looked as if this was another second stage of the Miller and Akbar program. In hindsight, we can see that Watts had set up Miller as the "mailman".
In wrestling vernacular, a "mailman" is a wrestler who is used to carry the championship from one place to another place, typically over less than a three-month period. So, Miller was simply the mailman to carry the title from Akbar to Murdoch, with the longer-term objective being the Murdoch\Watts program.
It will be both interesting and fun in the dally Time Tunnel Newsletter to follow Watts' progress and watch this massive creative endeavor take root and bring forth fruit for Tri-States Championship Wrestling in the months ahead into the second half of 1975.
6-13-1975: Black Gordman & Great Goliath defeated The Hollywood Blondes (Jerry Brown\Buddy Roberts) to win the NWA Americas Tag Team Championship as The Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California
It's remarkable at times the massive success some performers have in some situations, or in some towns and territories and not necessarily in others. Let me throw this out there. I believe Black Gordman and Great Goliath should be in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. They've struggled getting the votes in recent years and now, at this point, it would be fairly amazing if they were able to muster the leverage and momentum, they would need to get in.
The amount of people, such as myself who are of the generation that is most familiar with their careers are aging out. And even people of that particular generation, such as I, didn't actually experience their work, I just saw them through the magazines, because the majority of their career was in the Western United States. But I'm rooting for them, and I have hope they could get in. It's only right with the Wrestling Universe for them to be honored this way.
When The Patriots wrapped up their run as the top heel tag team in West Texas in the last one-third of 1974, Black Gordman and Goliath replaced them being booked by the Amarillo office and disturbing crowds by interrupting the ring announcer so they could insert "NEW" into "MEXICO" when they were introduced. I know it seems like a really small thing, but according to people I've talked to who attended matches at the time, it really did rile people up when they corrected the announcer to make sure people knew they were not from Old Mexico but rather New Mexico.
Pretty amazing what small things created big time heat in those days. But, to illustrate my point at the beginning of this entry, this was the second tour of duty for the team in West Texas with both runs combined from 1973 through 1975 lasting about a total of 12 months in West Texas. Those two stints resulted in only a brief Western States Tag Title run which was brief in itself, only lasting 14 days.
Pictured: Black Gordman & Great Goliath, NWA Americas Tag Team Champions 1975
The run in West Texas ended when May of '75 did and starting June back in their home territory and the region they achieved the most success, the NWA Hollywood booking office of Los Angeles and Southern California at the request of NWA Hollywood Booker, Louie Tillet. Tillet believed he could create a hot program to carry ticket sales by using Gordman and Goliath as babyfaces juxtaposed against the obnoxious heel Blondes team.
Not only that, but inside the NWA Hollywood power structure, the longtime Los Angeles icon and behind the scenes power, Jules Strongbow had died from the pancreatic cancer from which he had suffered for months. Strongbow had been the long-time promoter of pro wrestling in Bakersfield at Strelich Stadium. Strongbow had a strong relationship with the fans, often standing outside Strelich visiting with fans as they approached the ticket window to purchase their entry into that evening's cards.
Booker Louie Tillet needed some extra energy and excitement for the next week's Bakersfield matches with having someone new handing the local promotion and so as return match following the tag titles change seemed to be part of the championship switch here. On this Friday night, 50 years ago, Gordman and Goliath defeated The Hollywood Blondes to provide the Spanish duo with another run into their double-digit NWA Americas Tag Title tally.
While only winning the Western States Tag Titles one time in their two runs in Amarillo, this provided Gordman his 14th time to hold the tag title belts and Goliath his 11th. The Hollywood Blondes had been on their 3rd run with the belts.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Don Kent replaced Roy Hefferman in The Royal Kangaroos in the mid-1960s, working with partner Al Costello. At that time, they were managed by "Crybaby" George Cannon and they captured the NWA World Tag Team Championship on a few occasions in the early 1970s. He had a great run in NWA Mid-America for Gilas-Welch, holding the NWA Mid-America Championship in 1975 and 1977, with a run in other Southern Offices in between.
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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