It’s the end of the second quarter of 2025, we are halfway finished with the year if you can believe it. It’s been a great first three months for the Daily Chronicle. I have some things to say to you, but first, let’s get started with our salutes for today.
June 30th in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Ed "Strangler" Lewis 1891
Man, Mountain Dean 1891
Rusher Kimura 1941
Terry Funk 1944
Happy Birthday:
Nightmare Danny Davis (73)
Mike Tyson (59)
David Harwood\Dax Harwood (41)
Cody Runnels\Cody Rhodes (40)
Victoria Crawford\Alicia Fox (39)
Vannarah Riggs\Su Yung (36)
This is the biggest list of RIP Salutes we have ever done. We have 10 names of wonderful people who spent a lot of their lives entertaining us.
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.
Michel Martel 6-30-1978 at the age of 33
Chris Taylor 6-30-1979 at the age of 29
Al Szasz 6-30-1989 at the age of 76
Duke Keomuka 6-30-1991 at the age of 70
Larry O'Dea 6-30-1997 at the age of 53
Virgil "Speedy" Hatfield 6-30-2002 at the age of 94
Sandor Kovacs 6-30-2004 at the age of 84
Killer Tim Brooks 6-30-2020 at the age of 72
Del Wilkes\The Patriot 6-30-2021 at the age of 59
Darren Drozdov\Droz 6-30-2023 at the age of 54
Thank You and Appreciation
One of the things I made a commitment about when I launched the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel was that I would never fail to appreciate and thank the people who support my wrestling history work by subscribing to the Daily Chronicle and the Personalities, Territories, Towns and Buildings Show.
I committed to, in addition to doing some kind of research every day, to also commit to writing and publishing every day, which produced the Daily Chronicle. We launched at the start of April, and I never missed a day of writing and publishing an issue the entire quarter.
Some days, especially when I was traveling for my coaching practice or I was traveling to the St Louis Hall of Fame, it was difficult, sometimes staying up late in my hotel room to get an issue together or getting up extra early the next morning, but regardless of what it took, the motivation was you, the reader. Every time I would hear that sound on my computer, my tablet or my phone that we had a new subscriber, my energy was boosted to do whatever it took to achieve my goal of writing and publishing every day.
So, thank you.
Because you subscribed, you did your part to help support my work to preserve professional wrestling history. As always, I appreciate you and your interest in my work!
You did your part to help spur me on to complete and win my 13-week sprint and all its goals.
I set a goat to write daily and to draw 100 subscribers to the Daily Chronicle. We have 125 subs and some of those are wonderful people who stepped up to a paid subscription.
Let me talk to you for just a second.
You mean so much to me because not only have I invested my time and energy to gather and study all this wrestling history with you in mind, but I made a financial commitment to it as well. You realize and know how much fuel and food costs these days. The trip I will make this month in July to Waterloo will not be cheap. And don't get me wrong, I will enjoy every single second of it, even the drive north from Columbia, MO to Waterloo, IA will be fun. I have been making a list of podcasts to listen to and also the many interviews I have done for my Dory Funk Sr book. There's always stuff to review and remind myself of all the stories I have for the book. So, I won’t be bored on the trip. But with your paid subscription, you are helping send me there.
So, a special thank you for your investment in me and the work.
I have a lot of things I am working on for you. The Territory Tour, The Treasure Chest, The History of Wrestling in West Texas, The History of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title, a Month by Month and Year by Year History of the NWA World Title and more.
It's coming and being worked on exclusively because of your paid subscription and to show you how much I value you.
Tomorrow, we start a new 13-week sprint to September 30th.
And…a new set of objectives for the Time Tunnel.
I want you to come on this ride with me and I want you to enjoy reliving your memories and perhaps learning some things and imagining what it must have been like in those magic days gone by when some classic pro wrestling matches and events were taking place.
Thank you for making the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel possible.
I appreciate and value you.
Tony
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match and Event Flashbacks
50-Year Flashback: 1975
6-29-1975: Wahoo McDaniel defeated Johnny Valentine (CH) in a NO DQ & No Count Out Match to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship at the Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina
Pictured: Johnny Valentine, NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
The long reign of "The Champ" finally came to an end on this day in Asheville as the big monthly Jim Crockett Mid-Atlantic Show on a Sunday in 1975. He was defeated by his longtime rival the ultra-popular Big Chief, Wahoo McDaniel. Fans had been waiting and hoping for Valentine, the ultra, egocentric, confident heel who had put up 1,000 Silver Dollars for anyone who could beat him, to finally get his comeuppance.
All the popular babyfaces, Tiger Conway, Jr, Sonny King, Paul Jones and Wahoo had faced him plenty of times but to no avail as "The Champ" always seemed to somehow escape, either by breaking a rule and being disqualified or going the length of the match time limit. But here, in Asheville, McDaniel had secured a math with the Mid-Atlantic officials to have a No Disqualifications and No Count Out Match. Valentine's options on escaping had been extremely limited. If he was going to hang on the title, now Valentine was in a position where he had to beat McDaniel or go the one-hour limit to the match.
Valentine had come to Jim Crockett Promotions at the end of 1973, a major piece of John Ringley and George Scott's plan to transform the Carolinas from its formulaic tag team type of territory to a more singles-based philosophy. Ringley and Scott had changed the generic "Championship Wrestling" Show to "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" basically giving the Territory its own brand name, then creating a singles title named the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship, which had basically been in the hands of Valentine since its inception in January of 1974.
It had formerly been the NWA Eastern States Heavyweight Title, having holders such as Pat O'Connor, Jack & Jerry Brisco and Ole Anderson. It had a rich, four-year run as the top title, but Ringley and Scott wanted a full-scale change and a recognizable brand, which they put the accountability for in the hands of Johnny Valentine.
He performed brilliantly with the belt and the title, getting it over, as I mentioned, to the point, many fans thought he'd retire with it someday. Paul Jones proved Valentine was vulnerable by beating him for the title on March 9th earlier in '75. Valentine did not take it well and cranked up his resolved to regain the title, which he did in 10 days, recapturing it from Jones on March 19th. Now it was almost three months later and there were no indications Valentine would ever lose it again.
Pictured: Wahoo McDaniel, NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
Wahoo came into the territory slowly at first, doing television in June 1974, then facing Valentine between bouncing back and forth with the AWA. Their first match was in Greenville, South Carolina on July 15th, 1974, where the Chief defeated Valentine cleanly in a non-title match.
This lit the fuse.
After McDaniel fulfilled his AWA commitments, he came into the Territory full time in August, having a program with Chuck O'Connor (later Big John Studd) and also tag matches with a partner against Valentine and a partner, either Super Destroyer, Art Nelson or Ric Flair.
So, for almost a year McDaniel had been chasing Valentine for the Mid-Atlantic Title, then on this night in Asheville, just when fans thought the bell was going to sound for a one hour time limit draw, McDaniel quickly covered Valentine and two seconds after the referee's hand slapped the three count on the mat, the bell rang signifying a brand new Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion.
A more perfect finish could not have been done between two excellent professional wrestlers, the third man in the ring and the official timekeeper who announced the time cues and rang the bell after the ref counted three and pointed just before the time limit expired. The absolute perfect way to cap off a tough, heated feud.
On television the following Wednesday in Raleigh, Valentine would complain that his recent travels into Florida to face Jack Brisco for the World Title and his trips to Houston for the National Wrestling Alliance were all carefully scheduled and calculated to wear him down and make him vulnerable for McDaniel to beat him. All the tough matches and airline travel are the reason he was tired at the end of the one-hour match and under normal circumstances he would still be the champion.
All the great excuses a wonderful heel would say because they lost a match.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Chris Taylor was a leading amateur wrestler at Iowa State University and a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association wrestling champion in the early 1970s. He won the bronze medal in wrestling at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. He turned pro in wrestling in 1973.
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.