June 27th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Greg Peterson 1932
Larry Simjon/Professor Boris Malenko 1933
Cowboy Bob Kelly 1936
Bill Dromo 1937
Jose de Jesus Diaz Mendoza\Villano I 1951
Happy Birthday:
Jon Heidenreich (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.
Hans Schnabel 6-28-1980 at the age of 72
Matt Borne\Doink the Clown 6-28-2013 at the age of 55
Lynn Braxton\Big Bad Mama 6-28-2013 at the age of 61
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match and Event Flashbacks
Significant Pro Debut:
91-Year Flashback:
6-28-1934 The Debut of El Santo
Rodolpho Guzman Huerta, known as El Santo made his professional wrestling debut on this day in history. The name El Santo, which being translated into English means "The Saint" was not just a professional wrestler in the nation of Mexico, but he was, and is, a cultural icon and more than that, a national folk hero.
Pictured: El Santo
He is most like the most famous Mexican Luchadores in history and has been referred to as one of "the greatest legends on all of Mexican sports." Even though he died at a relatively young age, 66, his career spanned nearly 50 years, in which as an iconic symbol of the "common man" in wrestling rings, motion pictures and comics all telling fictionalized stories of the El Santo character. He starred in around 53 movies between 1958 and 1982.
As a general rule, many Mexican Luchadores wrestle in the Junior Heavyweight category (less than 220 lbs.) or the Light Heavyweight category (less than 210 or 205). El Santo was about 5 feet 9 inches and weighed in at 209 pounds.
Pictured: One of El Santo’s many movie performances
One of my favorite things to do in the early days in cable TV was to watch a program on USA Network on Saturdays, which was hosted by a character named Commander USA, who dressed in a superhero outfit and featured black and white Mexican wrestling and vampire films (sometimes both). Often times, these films featured El Santo, and growing up in rural Kentucky, I had seen him, although very rarely and certainly not to the extent of Mil Mascaras, I would see him in the wrestling mags, but never in a live action program or movie.
Over his career, he primarily wrestled for EMLL, where we held several singles titles and had one of the biggest tag team combinations with Gory Guerrero, early on, he worked as himself and under various masks before becoming El Santo, El Emmascarado de Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask) in 1942.
Pictured: El Santo and Gory Guerrero, The Atomic Pair Tag Team
El Santo is often viewed as a national pro wrestling figure very similarly as Rikidozan impacted Japan. Actually, while Rikidozan is a wrestling icon in Japan, El Santo impacted the nation of Mexico in a wider cultural way.
Santo passed away on February 4th, 1984, and was laid to rest in his silver mask in one of the biggest funerals in Mexican history. Each year, the Mexican wrestling promotion, EMLL honors him with the annual Leyenda de Plata (The Silver Legend) wrestling tournament and in 2019, WWE inducted him into the Hall of Fame Legacy Wing.
50-Year Flashback
6-21-1975: Terry Funk defeated Ciclon Negro (CH) for the NWA International Heavyweight Championship at the KFDA-TV 10 studios on the Championship Wrestling Television Program in Amarillo, Texas
Pictured: Ciclon Negro, NWA international Heavyweight Champion
Ciclon Nego's run in 1975 with the International Title was a good one as he traveled with the title for the months he held it, making bookings for LeRoy McGuirk in Oklahoma and Louisiana, Lee Fields in the Gulf Coast, Eddie Graham in Florida, Roy Welch & Nick Gulas in Tennessee and for Bob Geigel in Kansas City. Negro didn't keep the title restricted to the Amarillo office and had a slightly more abbreviated schedule than Ken Mantell who held the World Junior Title, and quite a bit more localized than Brisco's World Title, but at the same time, but more expanded than Dick Murdoch's reign or other title holders had been.
Terry Funk, one of the four perennial top local draws in the Amarillo promotion, along with brother Dory Jr, Ricky Romero and Dick Murdoch, was back for another home stand, Funk, no longer holding ownership the Amarillo office and making more and more frequent trips out of the area, was needed to help generate more fan interest and to help boost crowds. After having a phenomenal run all the way from Doc Sarpolis' original purchase of the office in 1955 through a great 1974, the territory was experiencing its first real down swing that was proving hard to reverse.
It was hoped that a title switch to Terry and a new program with a hot new heel in Crusher Jerry Blackwell kicking off on the night before the 4th of July, a "Holiday Spectacular" Show at the Sports Arena, along with the elevation to champions of the hated heel team of The Interns with Dr Ken Ramey, a new up cycle in crowd interest would be created.
In order to drive this point home even further, they booked the International Title change to Terry to be done on the Amarillo television program, so it could be seen all through the territory, first in Amarillo, then in Albuquerque as a video tape insert and then in El Paso, Odessa, San Angelo, Abilene and Lubbock on the bicycle tape a week later.
The Terry Funk piece of the plan is going to prove to be a short-term solution however, because in one month at the NWA Annual Convention in August, the Championship Committee will make the decision to put the NWA World Title on him, which will mean two things that will again take him out of the territory. One, he will again be obligated to tour around the NWA member offices taking losses in preparation to win the title and, secondly, as part of that, he will be winning the newly created NWA United States Championship in the highly influential Crockett Territory in the Carolinas, which both will take him out of the territory and will prevent him from being much help in drawing money for the Amarillo office and affiliated towns on the circuit.
6-26-1975: The Masked Interns defeated Ricky Romero & Dory Funk Jr for the NWA Western States Tag Team Championships at the Sports Center in Amarillo, Texas
The second part of the plan to grow attendance and ticket sales was the return of the Interns and Dr Ken Ramey. After having three weeks of wins under their belt, it was time for phase two of the plan to take place, a tag title switch from one of the most popular babyface tag teams in the territory, Dory Funk Jr and Ricky Romero. Romero had been in a blockbuster team with Junior's father throughout the 1960s and early 70s, and since the passing of Senior, Junior had taken up the mantle in the tag team.
Funk, Jr and Romero originally won the titles twice in 1974. The first occasion was on February 25th when they defeated the team of the Cormier brother team of The Beast and Leo Burke. They held the title for a little over four months before losing the belts to Karl Von Steiger & Siegfried Stanke, who only held the titles for a week before dropping them back to Funk and Romero. On their second run, which ended on this night, Funk and Romero held the tag titles for an amazing 283 days.
Fans in the area, although they had not seen the team of The Interns before, they were highly familiar with the despised Infernos, who had been in the area in 1971 with his team, with JC Dykes. They had been a part of a hot feud with Funk Sr and was marked by Funk consistently calling Dykes, "that red-headed peckerwood" on his television interviews and Ramey passing equally insulting comments Funk's way. The booking team was hoping Ramey could create the same magic Dykes and his masked team did.
The booking plan with the title switch was to elevate the young guys. Ray Candy, Johnny Starr and Scott Casey. Using combinations of mixing and matching these three young guys together, while occasionally teaming them with both Funk, Jr and Romero in a variety of teams to challenge the new heel champions could stir up fan interest in getting behind and supporting one of these teams to finally taking the hated masked Interns and Ramey down in the weeks ahead. Candy, while weak on the microphone and being a very large physical specimen, was not going to be known for his mic work or his ring work, but there was something special about the young man that did cause crowds to rally behind him. Starr was better in both, in regard to mic skills and wrestling, but the best prospect of all was Casey, who they had already gotten fans to support in his program with Jaggers. Casey would prove the be the rising star who could stay in the territory and draw some money.
The Interns won the match when the referee counted the pin with Intern #1 making the cover on Funk, Jr, when Intern #2 was actually the legal man in the match, doing the age old, swicth the look-a-like partner behind the referee’s back and all the fans yelling protests at the top of their lungs, adding to the heat created by the team’s gaining the championships under less than fair and legal means, by the only way they could ever score a win over the popular and better tag team of Funk Jr and Romero.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
One of the most impactful people in the pro wrestling business from my home state of Kentucky, particularly in the Gulf Coast territory during the late 1960s and much of the 1970s, mostly as promoter in Mississippi and booker of the western end of the territory and top babyface. Bob was a multi time NWA Mississippi State Champion and Gulf Coast Champion.
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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