June 26th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Henry Ordermann 1882
Cal Eaton 1908
Jackie Fargo 1930
Percival A. Friend 1945
"Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe 1951
Happy Birthday:
James Morrison\James J Dillon (84)
Sandra Calderon\Lady Apache (54)
Matt Stryker (51)
Mark Jindrak\Marco Corleone (48)
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.
Joe Acton 6-26-1917 at the age of 65
"Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers 6-26-1992 at the age of 71
Steve King\Chief Cherokee 6-26-1998 at the age of 46
Buck Ramstead 6-26-2019 at the age of 75
Louis Tillet 6-26-2024 at the age of 89
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match and Event Flashbacks
60-Year Flashback: 1965
6-25-1965: The Corsicans (Joe & Jean) defeated Jesse James & Greg Peterson in a tournament final to win the NWA Southern Tag Team Championships at the City Auditorium in Atlanta, Georgia
As we wind the Time Tunnel back 60 Years in Georgia, we find the Southern Tag Team tiles held up and the new champions to be decided in a tournament in Atlanta. In one of the semifinals matches, The Corsicans, who were heels, defeated Red Roberts and Chief Little Eagle to advance to the finals. In the other semi-finals match, Greg Peterson & Jesse James defeated Tony Ballageron & George "Two-Ton" Harris to advance.
Pictured: Corsica Joe and Corsica Jean
Don't be fooled by The Corsicans' pirate gimmick. These two could wrestle and were way ahead of their time in fashion sense in the mid-1960s when men did not wear rings in their ears. Even though they had known each other for a few years before the teamed up, it was while they were both in Tampa working in the Florida area in 1957 when they decided to go with the Corsican gimmick. They had immediate success, winning the NWA World Tag Team Titles in both Tennessee and Alabama four times each from 1957 to 1959, usually in programs with The Fabulous Fargos. Besides Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, Corsica Joe and Corsica Jean wrestled in Texas and the Carolina area.
The Corsicans typically wrestled as the heel team and have somewhat of a place in "firsts" of wrestling history, as they wrestled in one of the first known cage matches in a program with The Fields Brothers. The ring was actually surrounded by chicken wire. During their time in Georgia here, they mostly had been working in the middle of the card as The Mysterious Medics were typically the lead heel team in Georgia in 1965, but it's nice that the leadership saw fit to give the Corsican Brothers a run at it to see what they could do a couple of times, their first run with the titles had been an almost 3-month run from April 16th to June 4th and they must have fared pretty well since they get it back here in the tournament after the champions, Al & Mario Galento had to vacate the titles due to an injury to Al during a match in Atlanta on June 18th.
50-Year Flashback: 1975
6-25-1975: Mr. Wrestling & Mr. Wrestling 2 defeated Professor Toru Tanaka & The Assassin for the Columbus Tag Team Championship at the Municipal Auditorium in Columbus, Georgia
Our second tag team title change in Georgia to document took place ten years after the tournament we just discussed for the Southern Tag Team Titles. 10 years later in 1975, this tag title change is for the Columbus, Georgia city Tag Team Championship. As I explored on the 4-part series on the legacy of Jim Barnett on 'Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw", wrestling in Georgia during this period of time was big. The first six months after the "Georgia Wrestling War" is concluding with Tom Renesto, the former booker for the outlaw group, All South Wrestling Alliance, now booking the NWA office in Atlanta. This includes booking the towns of Columbus, Albany and Macon, which are promoted by Fred Ward Promotions, owned by Fred Ward.
Pictured: Fred Ward and Jim Carlisle on Championship Wrestling from The Sports Arena in Columbus, Georgia on WRBL-TV
Fred Ward was a legendary local promoter who controlled a swath across Central Georgia for over 30 years. His towns reached from Augusta on Georgia's Eastern border with South Carolina through the middle of the state at Macon across to the Western Border with Alabama in Columbus, which was his home base where he lived. His offices were located in a building called, The Sports Arena at 1025 Front Avenue, where the television show was held and produced live. He had two son-in-laws who helped out in the office with him, Leon Ogle and Ralph Freed. In addition to the television show in Atlanta most wrestling fans are familiar with, remember in 1975, WTCG-TV where "Georgia Championship Wrestling" aired was still only a local Atlanta television station not yet uplinked to satellite delivery, but may have had some cable broadcast capabilities in Georgia or nearby states. At any rate, Columbus and Macon had their own local television shows hosted by Jim Carlisle, who also worked in the office as a marketing and advertising guru for the promotion, as well as being a local radio guy.
The fact that it was a family business was apparent as Mr. Ward's daughters ran the ticket office and answered the phones. It was also very evident on the local wrestling show as Carlisle and Mr. Ward opened every show welcoming the audience to the show and they would preview the match line-up for the day or any special interviews that would be occurring. Carlisle would then introduce Fred as "your local promoter", Fred Ward. Ward would then deliver his classic line, "Hello to all my sick and shut-in friends". The, he would generally promote some fund raiser, bake sale, police ball or other local Columbus event. My guest on the Pro Wresting Time Tunnel podcasts covering Georgia, Bobby Simmons told me that Ward had an annual thing he would do when the Shriners' Circus was coming to Columbus, he would appear on the opening of the show wearing his Shriners' fez hat. The show aired live at 4pm every Saturday afternoon.
WRBL-TV was the local CBS Network affiliate that produced the show from the Sports Arena in Columbus. CBS had started a sports anthology show for weekend programming back in 1960 and through its lifetime had been known under various names such as CBS Sports Saturday, CBS Eye on Sports and The CBS Sports Show. During this period in 1975, CBS had moved their sports program to 4:30 on Saturday afternoons primarily to compete with the red-hot ABC show "Wide World of Sports", which aired at 5pm on Saturdays with its "thrill of victory and agony of defeat' iconic opening. In order to run the network sports show, WRBL would have to pre-empt the local wrestling show, which aired at 4pm. To illustrate how popular Fred Ward's wrestling program was at the time, Sam Heys wrote about it in his daily sports column in the Columbus Ledger on June 25, 1975:
The Assassin (technically #2, Joe Hamilton) & Professor Toru Tanaka had been champs a little over two months, having dethroned Mr. Wrestling II and Danny Little Bear on April 2nd, so this was a revenge match angle for II to bring in the original Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) to help him regain the Columbus Tag straps, which they did to an amazing crowd pop in the Municipal Auditorium.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Louis Tillet was well traveled in the wrestling business. He teamed with Gypsy Joe to win the NWA Southern Tag Team Titles in 1960. He was a multi-time holder of the Texas Brass Knuckles Title during 1963 and the NWA Florida Title in 1967. In addition to several more titles, he was the booker in several territories in the 1970s including Florida, Georgia and during 1974 and 1975, the NWA Hollywood office in Los Angeles.
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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