Good morning!
It's Wednesday which means a new Time Tunnel podcast episode and a community update plus a new Evolution of Pro Wrestling article coming soon. All the details are in today's Daily Chronicle just as soon as we kick off the day with our regular pro wrestler tributes.
July 23rd in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Louis Tillet 1934
Jay Clayton 1941
Perro Aguayo Ramirez\Perro Aguayo, Jr 1979
Happy Birthday:
Al Perez (68)
Sonny Siaki (51)
Peter Rosenberg (46)
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.
Herb Abrams 7-23-1996 at the age of 41
Tor Komata\Mr. Moto 7-23-2007 at the age of 70
George Allen "Buddy" Hack 7-23-2013 at the age of 83
Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Community Update:
Our Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Community is growing by leaps and bounds.
It's happening from a lot of different sources of connection.
One of those is the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw Show, the five shows I have done with Gerry and John have generated so much great interest and feedback for their show and for our community here.
The one extended show we did on Dory Funk Sr and the Amarillo Territory last year and then the Four-Part Series we did on The Life and Time of Jim Barnett this year have just generated so much great feedback. When I was in Waterloo last week, the amount of people who mentioned how much they loved those shows was too much for me to even keep up with and if I start naming names on people who said something to me, I will leave someone out.
I'll just say this, so many people in the wrestling business and also people who love the wrestling business have heard of Jim Barnett, some of them for many, many years, but they didn't know Jim Barnett. I think the greatest compliment for me, Gerry and John is that people said after the listened to our shows, they felt they really knew Jim Barnett, and that was my goal when starting the project.
The second question I got was, "what is going to be next?"
We have several ideas and all of them are really good, too.
But we've settled on one and I have already started the research project for it and hopefully I will let you know soon what our next subject is going to be. We have targeted November for a time frame to do the next series of shows together, so that gives me a couple of weeks to move, then about six weeks of research before we do our next shows together.
The opportunity that Gerry and John have given me to not only be connected as a friend, but also to work with them on their show has been a great way to grow our Time Tunnel Community and so many people in Iowa said that's how they found this special community of wrestling history enthusiasts.
And that is what we are!
We are enthusiastic about pro wrestling history.
I write about it every single day and your feedback and response help keep driving me forward in this work I'm doing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your feedback and your subscriptions to this channel and group, your investment of time and money is helping to keep this work going.
This move I am making back home to Kentucky is part of my overall life change to semi-retirement and spending less time doing executive coaching and advisory work and more time writing, recording and researching this historical content that we all value so highly.
I appreciate your support in making that happen.
We have another new podcast episode this morning and a return of one of our most popular historians!
Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Presents: Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings Episode 15: East Texas in the Summer of 1975
This morning be sure and catch the latest episode of my podcast in the Time Tunnel as I welcome back to the show, our East Texas historian and expert, Greg Klein and we take a tour of the East Texas loop.
As far as personalities go, John Tolos, Mad Dog Vachon, Jos LeDuc, Jose Lothario, The Baron, The Funks and much more. In our Buildings category, we discuss the Astro Arena in Houston, the building adjacent to the Astrodome and the lengths Paul Boesch and his team went to try and draw fans to this nice, new building on the Friday nights the Sam Houston Coliseum was not available.
And the Towns, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, as mentioned Houston and of course, the hub of it all, Dallas and the Sportatorium. Lots of great matches and a super card we discuss in Corpus Christi.
You don't want to miss this great show on East Texas 1975.
The new episode 15 of my show should be in your inbox this morning as a subscriber. I hope you catch this show, and I always appreciate your investment in my work!
Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Presents: The Evolution of Pro Wrestling Series
Coming up, I am working on an article about Sam Muchnick that details the facts about him having had a very tough and stressful July of 1955.
In my Evolution of Pro Wrestling Series, I have a deep dive on Sam's month of July, 70 years ago this month and the things that were causing a tremendous amount of pressure to be on his shoulders as leader of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Be on the lookout for this to be available to our Time Tunnel Paid Subscribers very soon.
Annual Subscriptions are only $5.00 a month and save $10.00 annually if you get an annual subscription for just $50.00 at tonyrichards4@Substack.com
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Louis Tillet’s career really took off in the South during the decade of the 1960s. He held the NWA Southern Tag Team Titles with Gypsy Joe in 1960. Then, he got over big time in Texas with several runs with the Texas Brass Knucks Championship in 1963 before moving to Florida to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title in 1967. Tillet would homestead quite a bit in the Florida Office working with Eddie Graham and Buddy Fuller as an assistant booker and later, the head booker of the office.
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 Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel for Paid Subscribers.