The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 512

(ED. NOTE -- The articles in this issue are courtesy of Mr. Duff Goodman and Mr. Scott Teal. Our thanks, per usual, for their sharing materials for the reading pleasure of WAWLI Paper subscribers.)

MAT PROGRAM SET FOR MONDAY

(Detroit Times, Saturday, January 4, 1947)

For the first wrestling show of the New Year at Arena Gardens, Monday night, Promoter Harry Light has paired Flash Gordon with the Great Mephisto; Pat Flanagan with Miguel Torres; Ivan Kalmikoff with Don Kindred and Bill Konke with Pierre DeGlane.

When the scene shifts to Fairview Gardens, Tuesday night, a battle royal will be presented by Promoter Jack Giroux.

Principals already named for the eight-man event are Louis Klein, Bert Rubi, Lou Savoldi, Joe Christie and Sockeye McDonald.

BREAKS TO DECIDE MAT WINNER

(Detroit Times, Saturday, February 22, 1947)

Wrestling fans who can't decide to pick Louis Klein or "Flash" Gordon, present titleholder, as the winner in Monday night's junior heavy bout at the Arena Gardens are agreed on one thing -- the "breaks" will decide the winner.

It is unlikely any two grapplers who have contested for the MWA belt in the eight-year history of the junior heavy division are more evenly matched. The winner must take two falls in an hour and a half.

Watching the bout will be a contingent of Detroit Times carriers.

Other matches are: Walter Roxy vs. Joe Christie, Tommy Tucker vs. Don Kindred and Joe Campbell vs. Dale Wayne.

A TALE OF NIPPER, SLIPPER & RIPPER

(Windsor Star?, circa 1947)

By Ken Fathers

Blood is sure to flow and tempers are bound to run extra high next Thursday night at the Windsor Market when Pierre DeGlane, Quebec junior heavyweight wrestling champion, and Joe Christie, the Unmasked Marvel, clash in the main event special challenge re-match of Blake Robertson's weekly grunt-and-groan show.

The bout is likely to have no time limit and there will be a $1,000 side bet on the outcome of the match besides a double purse. "I'll wrestle or box that yellow skunk," DeGlane screamed last night in the dressing room after Referee Joe Lauzon had disqualified both DeGlane and Christie in one half of a double main event, "and if he wants to bet any amount of money, I'll cover him."

Last night's brawl was one in the true sense of the word, ending with Referee Lauzon taking punches from both DeGlane and Christie and going up and down oftener than an elevator in an office building at noon hour.

The bout was lively, with DeGlane taking the first fall at 15:49 after Christie had become distracted when a kid near the ringside took a swipe at him with a shoe while he was along the ropes in the corner. Christie was, as usual, very dirty, and had DeGlane out of the ring twice in the opening minutes with a strangle-hold. DeGlane came charging back, however, slugging and nailed Christie after a barrage of punches.

Christie scored the second fall at 1:58, kicking DeGlane in the groin three times before flopping him for the count. This fall was recored much to the disapproval of the fans who threatened to clean up on Christie while he was on his way to the dressing room.

It was quite a slugfest as the pair came out for the third fall, and it ended with everyone in an uproar. DeGlane and Christie started to slug it out in the centre of the ring, and when Lauzon tried to break it up he was jumped upon by both wrestlers. He took it from both sides only so long, and then threw up his hands in disgust and cried:

"I'm through. It's no contest. You're both disqualified."

That set the stage for the big rematch next week.

The other half of the main event was won by Flash Gordon over Tony Vagnone, the former Red Ace.

Gordon scored the first fall at the 14-second mark, catching his foe off guard after Vagnone also had tried for a quick fall.

They came out for the second fall, and while Gordon and Vagnone were in a heap near the ropes, the same little urchin who attacked Christie in the other bout came back and walloped Vagnone over the head with a steel-cleated shoe. The blow, a very hard one, opened up a two-inch gash in Vagnone's head, but it also got his temper up, and in the melee which followed, Gordon was floored for the count.

Vagnone returned for the third and deciding fall still bleeding freely, and Gordon took advantage of this to win. He continuously slugged Vagnone over the head with his fist until the intense pain of the wound forced him to cry "uncle."

In the two preliminary tilts, Irish Jim Cahey floored Michael Salvador at 18:28 of a 20-minute match, and Eddie Lee stopped Johnny Gates at 18:05 of a 30-minute match.

'KILLER' WENT FROM COCKSHUTT TO FAME

(Brantford Expositor, circa 1986-87)

By Ed O'Leary

In Detroit, he was the Masked Marvel.

In Buffalo, he was tagged as Joe (Killer) Christie.

More than a million miles later, he was The Destroyer from Parts Unknown.

Now, he's Joe Kayorie, retired. Joe, 70, and his wife, Helen, have been married for 47 years. Helen's appearance today brings one to believe she must have been about three years old when they tied the knot.

Joe was born in Buffalo but when he was two years old, the Kayorie family moved to Brantford. Joe grew into a man standing six-foot-three and weighing 235 pounds. He took a job at Cockshutt's and did some amateur boxing.

In 1948, Joe met wrestling promoter Frank Tunney.

"He said, 'Joe, why don't you take up wrestling,' recalls Joe, who decided to give it a try and went to Hamilton to learn the craft. 'I'll tell you, I was ready to quit every day. They'd slam me, really work me over but I stuck with it."

Joe's glad he did.

"One day, they said, 'Hey, we need a wrestler in Detroit.' I said the only way I'd go down there would be if I wore a mask. I went and started off as the Masked Marvel. I never did go back to Cockshutt's. I went on the road."

Joe was in the grunt and groan game for 23 years and, although Brantford was his home base, he "rassled" mostly in Texas and Montreal.

"Texas was the best for me," he says. "Texas, I'd go there in the winter and in the summer, I'd be in Montreal."

Even now, when Joe talks about Texas, his eyes widen.

"I made the most money there and the people were friendly. We lived in Houston and when we'd go down to the pool, we wouldn't have to introduce ourselves. They knew who you were because of TV. It would always be, 'Hi, neighbour.'"

Joe, noting that he was "always the bad guy," recalls one of his bouts in Waco, Texas. He had just destroyed a Mexican wrestler and some of the locals were not too happy about it.

"Five Mexicans come into the ring with switchblades," he says, now chuckling at an incident that wasn't a laughing matter at the time. "Well, I had a pretty good right hand (hand punch). I knocked one guy cold . . . I had to defend myself. I hit another guy but when I hit him, the knife got me right here (he rolls up his right sleeve and points to a three-inch scar on his forearm). Then I hit another guy but when he was going down, he cut me here (he points to his left hip).

"They took me to the hospital and sewed me up but they took those five guys, too."

Aside from the stab wounds, Joe, who has cauliflowered ears (a hazard of the game back in the '50s and '60s), also suffered broken fingers, ribs and a leg.

"They used to hurt you but I'd hurt them, too," he remembers.

Kayorie became known as Joe (Killer) Christie thanks to a promoter in Buffalo.

A couple of brothers known as Ted and Vic Christie were regulars on the cards in Buffalo. However, when they were unable to make an appearance on one of the cards, the Buffalo promoter phoned Kayorie and asked him if he'd appear under the nom d'plume of Joe Christie.

"I said 'sure.' It was the first time I was ever in Buffalo."

Kayorie was free to wrestle where and when he wanted throughout his career. He never allowed himself to be tied down with one promoter.

"A lot of guys who have managers and would have to stay in one place for three or four months. I never had one (manager). I could go any place I wanted."

Cuba was one of the stops on Kayorie's schedule. He was there with another wrestler who went by the name of Sandor Kovacs. It wasn't an enjoyable trip.

"They said 'all Canadians get on the airplane and get out. Castro's on the outskirts of Havana.' On the way to the airport, we got stopped three times and they said 'open your bags.' We finally got on the airplane and flew direct to Montreal."

Plenty of traveling is one of the occupational hazards of wrestling.

"I bought all my cars at Kett Motors. I used to buy a new car every year. You put 80,000 to 100,000 miles a year on (traveling from show to show). One time I got a call and they asked me to be in Chicago. I had just bought a new car and I told them down at Kett's that I needed it in a hurry. They said, 'Joe, drive it easy until you get it broke in.' I drove 100 miles an hour and made it to the show. You know, that was the best car I ever had.

"I used to travel alone. Guys would say, 'Joe, just wait an hour.' I'd say, 'You go the way you want to go and I'll go the way I want to go.'

"If I was doing it now, I think I'd buy one of those vans. We used to pack a lot of things in those little cars."

Helen traveled with Joe to many of the cards. However, she seldom went into the arena to watch the matches.

"I was nervous," she recalls. "Most of the time I would just wait in the car."

Joe doesn't like to talk much about the money he earned. However, he does admit to receiving $2,700 for a match in "about 1956" in Montreal.

"We made good money," he says. "Back in those days, I could travel all around Texas for $25. I think a gallon of gas was 18 cents and you could get a real good motel room for $5."

How does Joe feel about today's wrestling?

"All those guys that are wrestling today. I used to wrestle their fathers. It's a different kind of wrestling nowadays. It's more acrobatic, you don't see them with cauliflower ears. But you can't take it away from these guys . . . Hogan, Orndorff, Piper. They're good."

However, it's doubtful if any member of the current set ever defeated a bear.

"I'm still the only one that ever beat a bear in Tyler, Texas," Joe says. "They put this bear in and he came to me. Well, I just mvoed out of the way and the bear went over the ropes. I told the ref 'count him out, count him.' He had no other choice and he counted the bear out. They even gave me a trophy for it. See, here it is. How about that?"

Not bad, Joe, not bad at all.

OBITUARY FOR KILLER JOE CHRISTIE

(Brantford Expositor, January 8, 1999)

KAYORIE, Joseph Steven (Killer Joe Christie) -- Passed away suddenly at the Brantford General Hospital on Wednesday, January 6, 1999, in his 83rd year; beloved husband of Helen (nee Simon) for 59 years; loving father of Donna Tymchyk and her husband Stephen of Brantford. Joe will be sadly missed by sisters Julianne Angel of Brantford, Mary Hoel of Dorchester, Eva Grabia and her husband Heinz of Omaha, Nebraska, and his brother John Kayorie and his wife May of Agincourt; predeceased by sisters Helen Lockson and Susan Tothe; dear grandpa of Ronald, Lori Ann and Richard; many nieces and nephews will miss their Uncle Joe. Joe retired from the Sonoco Paper Products Company in 1981. Prior to his employment at Sonoco, Joe was a well known professional wrestler for over 20 years, beginning his wrestling career in 1946 and wrestling throughout Canada, U.S.A. and other countries. His wrestling name was "Killer Joe Christie" and he held the World Junior Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1951. Also prior to his career in wrestling, Joe was a boxer and factory worker. The family will receive friends at the THORPE BROTHERS FUNERAL HOME, 96 West Street, from Saturday, 7 to 9 p.m. and Sunday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A prayer service will be held in the Thorpe Chapel on Monday at 11 a.m. Reverend Father James Mihm Celebrant, Interment Mount Hope Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in Joe's memory may be made to a charity of your choice.

GENTLE 'KILLER' JOE KAYORIE, 82

(Brantford Expositor, January 8, 1999)

By Ted Beare

Many years ago, an Expositor deskman noticed a story on the Canadian Press wire reporting the death of Joe Kayorie in Cambridge.

Jumping to the conclusion that this was the famous wrestler from Brantford, the deskman rewrote the story to inform his readers that the onetime Masked Marvel had died.

It might have been an excellent piece of journalism, proof that editors are ever on the alert and have a keen nose for news. Unfortunately, that particular editor had forgotten the newspaperman's code: Get it first, but first get it right.

Later that day a sportswriter friend of Joe Kayorie was at home when the phone rang. "This is Joe," chuckled the voice on the other end of the line. "You know, Killer Joe. I just wanted to let you know that, like Mark Twin, the report of my death has been greatly exaggerated."

A man with a sharp wit and an ever-present sense of humor, Kayorie was not offended by The Expositor's error, nor did he demand a retraction. "Just wanted you to know I'm still very much alive."

Joe had many years to enjoy that story. Today there's another story of his death and, unfortunately, this one is accurate.

The man who traveled the length and breadth of North America, tangling in the ring with some of the biggest names in professional wrestling, died Wednesday at the Brantford General Hospital in his 83rd year.

Born in Buffalo, Joe moved to Brantford at the age of two and resided here ever since -- except, of course, for those many nights he spent in hotel rooms from the Canadian border to Cuba.

Beginning in 1946, his ring career lasted 23 years. In 1951 he won the world junior (in this case, junior was a weight division rather than an age class) heavyweight wrestling championship.

Mostly, he played the role of a bad guy who would try to twist his opponent into a pretzel and, for good measure, stomp on whatever part of the man's anatomy that happened to be lying unprotected on the mat.

But this was the show-business side of Joe Kayorie, the side that wrestling fans loved to hate. The real Joe Kayorie was a gentle giant (six-three and 235 pounds in his prime) who always had a warm smile and an outstretched hand to greet even the most casual acquaintance.

One day the sportswriter had stopped to talk to a friend in the supermarket when Kayorie came down the aisle, pushing a cartload of groceries. They stopped to chat for a few minutes.

After Kayorie left, the sportswriter asked his friend: "What do you think that man did for a living before he retired?"

"He's big enough to have been a football player," the friend replied. "But he doesn't seem to be mean enough."

Inside the ring, however, Joe was a mean dude. One night a promoter in Buffalo asked him to wrestle there under the pseudonym of Joe Christie and for the rest of his career he became known as Killer Joe Christie.

At times, the fans didn't know -- or weren't supposed to know -- who he was. That was when he would appear as the Masked Marvel. According to the promotion, if he were to lose, he'd have to take off the mask in the ring.

He liked to recall a bout in Waco, Tex., where he beat up on a Mexican wrestler who was a favorite with the local fans. As soon as the bout ended, five of the locals jumped into the ring, brandishing switchblades and seeking to avenge their hero's beating.

Joe would point out that he knocked one man cold with a single punch and managed to subdue all five, while suffering a couple of knife wounds in the scuffle.

"They took me to a hospital and sewed me up but they took those five guys, too," he said.
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 513

WHEN BURT RAY GAVE UP WRESTLING

(Rasslin' Results, Vol. 1, No. 1, Nov., 1968)

To All Members of MATMANIA:

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have been forced to give up my work in wrestling and wrestling fan clubs. This is because of a wide variety of factors, and I will not bore you with the full details. I've thoroughly enjoyed the past four years of MATMANIA, and I will miss it a great deal; also, I've enjoyed hearing from my many friends that I have met through wrestling, and I will also miss this field of my past endeavors.

Jim Melby, the vice president (one of several), has graciously volunteered to take over the running of the club, and he will continue the full reporting of the wrestling news from around the world, including the full reporting of results. The dues money received by me has been passed on to Jim, and he will be sending the full number of issues to each of you.

This first issue may not be the full size of future issues put out by Jim and his lovely wife, but once he gets in full swing, he will be including far more pictures and general info from all parts of the world of wrestling. This first issue includes the life record of Bobby Shane, which I had prepared at the request of Diane Devine and others of Bobby's many fans. Future issues will include life records on the Bruiser, the Crusher, Wild Red Berry, Hans Schmidt and many, many others. In short, the work and the interest will continue for everyone.

Those people who have helped me in times past, especially in current and old results, will probably be asked to continue helping Jim. I have given him the full info as to who has helped me in life records, old results, and in the current result collections, and he will be getting in touch directly with most of you for the continuance of this help. I would appreciate it, as will Jim and all the other members and readers appreciate the help given him.

If, in the event that you do not want to continue membership in the club as run by Jim Melby, get in touch with me directly at my current address, 1405 Yale Place, here in Minneapolis, and I will refund your dues.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone for the very interesting and hard-working four years I spent in MATMANIA and wrestling in general. I again apologize for the problems that I have had this past year, and I know that Jim will do everything in his power to ensure everyone enjoying all future issues of the bulletins. Thank you and farewell.

Burt Ray

JOE (FLASH) GORDON'S SCRAPBOOK

By J Michael Kenyon

A couple of recent WAWLI Paper issues (and some future ones, as well) have been/will be enhanced via a discovery made by a man to whom I owe an apology. About the worst thing one can do in the course of journalistic effort is to get somebody's name wrong. And, the other day, er, night, when I tried to credit this fine fellow, I printed the wrong name.

His real name is Duff Johnson and he's the fellow who discovered the Flash Gordon scrapbook. Here, in his own words, is a little about his interest in pro wrestling and how he came upon this small treasure trove:

"I, a fourth-generation Sacramentan, and my father, a prominent dentist, attended the local matches in the fifties (this stretches my 50-year-old memory), then with great regularity through the sixties until I went off to college in 1966 to become respectable and allow social pressures to dictate my interests. Still, with great courage, I rallied a few true friends who, willing to humor their strange pal, accompanied me to the matches through the seventies.

"Pete Visser (a 1920s-era wrestler) was a friend of my father, although this was before my memory. As I recall, they worked out and wrestled together at the gymnasium in the basement of the Elks Lodge #6, a very nice gym for its time . . . around here he's referred to as "Doc" Visser. Not sure, but I think he, too, may have been a dentist. I do distinctly remember dad mentioning that Visser would not wrestle with most of the men in the gym because their fingernails were too long and he got scratched. But he made dad an exception since he, like wrestlers, kept his nails closely trimmed for his profession. Dad was also a good guy and a good athlete . . .

"The Visser years were before my time. But I'm just breaking surface on Sacramento WAWLI history--haven't even hit the newspaper archives yet. I will keep you posted. Here's a serendipitous coincidence: an old-timer (and I mean OLD), who helps out at the shop where I bought the scrapbook, attended boxing and wrestling shows in those halcyon days. He told me that he knew Doc Visser when Visser promoted the shows at the old sports auditorium on "L" Street. Again, that auditorium was long gone in my youth, having been replaced by the (recently re-opened) Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on "J" Street. BTW, there's been some good "National Wrestling Conference" shows there since they re-opened, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

"As to the source of the scrapbook, I know nothing. The owner of the collectables shop where I discovered it works the estate sales, attics and basements. I'll ask him if he knows which basement in particular it came from. All I can say is I did not discover it sitting at home, drinking beer, eating junk food and watching TV. On this particular occasion I took a break from those noble pastimes and got out to an area of town known for its collectibles shops. Just asked around and had a great time. Untill I had to pay up. Talk about a mark. Someday I'll learn how to beat those guys at their own game, eh?

"Last week I got off my can and ran a classified ad in the local paper asking for wrestling memorabilia. Got three calls including one particularly good lead which I hope pans out. If so, I'll have to quit my job and become a monk to sort through it all. But one never knows: after that damn "Antiques Road Show" hit the air everyone thinks they have a fortune in their garage. So they'll ask too much for it, I'll let it go, and it ends up in the dumpster. Maybe not. One caller, who I hope to meet this weekend, told me that's what happened to all of Louie Miller's records. The fella said Miller (longtime Sacramento promoter) had two sons who didn't care for the material so it was discarded. I hope he's wrong and someone like us gets to rediscover it."

As you may note, Mr. Johnson (not Goodman, as I mistakenly printed his name, through one of the mental lapses which are becoming more frequent in my dotage) is brimming with enthusiasm for the pursuit of professional wrestling history. It's a difficult quest, but a great deal of fun, as he discovered -- and as I hope many of you who read these newsletters will discover, too.

REMEMBERING SAM MUCHNICK

(http://www.1wrestling.com)

By Jess McGrath

To modern fans of pro wrestling, many of whom truly discovered the sport less than ten years ago, Sam Muchnick is remembered as some old guy who appeared at legends functions and had done something important but nobody seemed to know what. The truth of it is that Muchnick is easily among the five most influential men in the history of pro wrestling worldwide, and certainly could be called the most important promoter ever without much question. Yes, even more so than Vince McMahon.

Muchnick passed away on December 30, 1998, in St. Louis, the city out of which his wrestling empire grew. He was 93. Initially a postal clerk, he left that position in 1926 to join the sports staff of the St. Louis Times, earning $20 a week to cover the Cardinals. When the paper merged with the St. Louis Star six years later, Muchnick was offered a position there but declined it, reportedly because it would have meant a good friend of his would have lost his job.

After a stint in the Army from 1942 to 1945, Sam returned home to enter the pro wrestling business as a promoter.

There was no National Wrestling Alliance, but there was a National Wrestling Association. This group was much looser than the NWA which would follow it and essentially restricted to the Midwest. The coalition had survived the wrestling drought of the 1930s, becoming the only office to draw money at a time where the business, and the entire country for that matter, was starving.

Tom Packs, one of the promoters in the Association who controlled its world title with Billy Sandow, was the guy running St. Louis. Starting out in the business in 1922, he made a killing both in promoting his hometown and in "selling" the world title, which was a common practice in those days. For a fee, Packs’ wrestler would drop the belt to a wrestler from another territory. It was a win-win situation, as Packs got cash and the other promoter got a credibility boost among the fans. If worse came to worse, the title could just be stripped from the other guy’s wrestler, since he retained control over the belt (that happened more than once, notably with Steve Casey when he left the country in 1938).

Prior to the war, Muchnick had gotten involved in Packs’ office following the newspaper merger. When the war came to a conclusion, Sam returned home and promptly opened an office in opposition to Packs.

Early on, Packs slaughtered Muchnick. Packs used his connections across the country to prevent any big names from working for Muchnick and to give him as little coverage as possible. Even though Sam was a former reporter, Packs was in tight with the local writers, and it was tough to find a break. Shut out from using the top stars, Muchnick brought in older guys who were past their prime, including Casey (who I’d imagine was not exactly going to be welcomed back by Packs) and Ed Lewis, who had won his first world title twenty-five years earlier. The best comparison of Packs vs. Muchnick would be something like WWF vs. AWF.

Muchnick’s guys were the old, slow veterans living off their reps (AWF), while Packs had the high-flying, brawling stars of the day (WWF). It was no contest at the gate; Packs was the king. But fortunately for Muchnick, he got two lucky breaks.

The first was Packs’ personal misfortune, as he went bankrupt in the stock market and was forced to sell his office and control of the World title for $360,000 to an ownership group comprised of Lou Thesz, Eddie Quinn, Frank Tunney, Bobby Managoff, and world champ Bill Longson. The second, though, was the break that not only saved him, but also changed the face of the business forever. Muchnick went to several promoters in the Midwest and shared with them the problems he was having with competition in his own territory (now from the Thesz group as opposed to Packs). He then suggested forming some kind of an alliance to combat this.

Five others thought it was a good idea, and on July 14, 1948, the group formed the National Wrestling Alliance in Waterloo, Iowa. The original six promoters were Muchnick (St. Louis), Al Haft (Columbus, Ohio, which was a huge money territory at the time), Max Clayton (Omaha), Pinky George (Des Moines), and Orville Brown (Kansas City, Kansas). Haft and Brown had been having some success with their own Midwest Wrestling Association, of which Brown was the champion. So when the two joined the NWA, Brown became its first world champ.

The agreement between the promoters was that they would share talent with each other but not with promoters in competition with an Alliance member, and would also blacklist any wrestler who hurt the business in any way. This would come back to bite them in the mid-1950s, as the government explored the NWA’s possible violation of anti-trust laws. Thanks to Muchnick’s connections to a powerful House member, the suit disappeared quietly, with the Alliance agreeing to drop those clauses on paper but not in practice.

Buoyed by the new venture, Muchnick immediately put it to use by bringing in Buddy Rogers from Haft in November 1948. Rogers was over in the city from a previous stint with Packs, and he was a huge box-office draw. Rogers’ run closed the gap between Sam and the Thesz group, but fears of a drop in business once Rogers left for another territory led Muchnick to meet with Thesz about merging their offices. The two would agree to a deal in 1949 that made them equal partners in a new, unified St. Louis office.

Since the National Wrestling Association had pretty much crumbled by that time, the new NWA’s world title would become the top belt. Thesz, the Association champion, was to face Brown, with the winner getting both titles, but Brown was in a car accident two weeks before the match that essentially ended his career (he would try a comeback briefly but it didn’t last). Thesz ended up being declared the new world champion by forfeit, beginning a seven-year run with the belt that would be as profitable for Muchnick as it was for Thesz himself.

Sam had become NWA president in 1950 (taking over for George) and thus the booker of the champion. He commanded a 3% fee for every date he arranged for the champ. That brought him about $40,000 in after-tax profit each year, which of course is aside from the profits of his own territory.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Muchnick. St. Louis aside, being the NWA president was as political a job as one could get. Instead of balancing the needs of a small crew of wrestlers against the desires of a promotion’s booker or show coordinator, here Muchnick had to deal with over three dozen promoters, each of whom were looking to further their own office and, despite the agreement they had signed, really couldn’t care less about any other promoter.

Thesz was a thorn in Muchnick’s side on numerous occasions, as he was very picky about where he wrestled, how much he was paid, and who he would put over. Some of the battles Muchnick won -- for example, he got Thesz to wrestle on an Al Haft show featuring a women’s match despite the Alliance’s agreement not to have their world champion wrestle on the same card as women or midgets -- but he also lost some as well.

He was unable to get Thesz to drop the belt in 1957 to Buddy Rogers, as Thesz and Rogers had a lot of heat with each other and there was no way Thesz was going to do business with him. It ended up with Thesz putting over Dick Hutton, a good worker but lacking in charisma and never a big draw.

The Alliance went through a good deal of backstage turmoil in the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of which was Muchnick’s doing. He had given up the presidency in 1960, with Frank Tunney taking over, but that didn’t mean he was out of power. Far from it. Muchnick was always a big fan of Buddy Rogers, but when the belt was finally put on him in 1961, things backfired.

Toots Mondt and Vince McMahon Sr., who ran the Capital Wrestling Corporation, the Northeast territory from Washington, D.C. to New York, took over control of Rogers’ bookings and refused to allow him to work weekends anywhere but in their own territory. He was only able to be booked in other territories a few days every month. Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with the other promoters, so Muchnick called Thesz, still his silent partner in the St. Louis office, to save the day.

Rogers kept cancelling out of matches where he was to drop the belt until Sam said he would donate the $25,000 performance bond posted by Rogers (and every NWA champion) to charity. Buddy finally showed up and dropped the belt to Thesz on January 24, 1963. The title change was never recognized in the Northeast; Rogers kept right on being called champion, although it was no longer of the NWA but now of the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

Muchnick, once again named president in 1963, was always a firm believer in the principles of an alliance of promoters, so he sought to lure McMahon and Mondt back into the fold. The New York promoters arranged a meeting in Chicago in 1965 with Tunney, Muchnick, and then-NWA champion Thesz, where they tried to negotiate a title vs. title match between Thesz and the WWWF champion, Bruno Sammartino, in New York. Vince and Toots felt they could make a killing off closed-circuit throughout the country, as well as netting around $200,000 at the gate alone (an unheard-of figure for the time period).

The idea was for Thesz to drop the belt to Bruno for $50,000 (half going to Muchnick and half to Thesz) with a rematch a year later where Thesz would regain the title. Muchnick thought it was a great idea, since it would bring one of the "outlaws" back into the alliance, and a powerful one at that. There was no dismissing the fact that New York was the big money territory at the time.

Thesz, who had a strong dislike for Mondt, didn’t want to do it unless he got $100,000 and ten percent of the MSG gate. Muchnick tried to order Thesz into taking the original deal, but when Lou said he would do a shoot if he was paid anything less, the deal fell apart. Needless to say, Thesz also fell out of grace with the NWA over the deal, and he dropped the belt to Gene Kiniski in January 1966.

Muchnick remained as NWA president through 1975, presiding over the glory years of the title. Dory Funk Jr. would beat Kiniski in February 1969 to become champion, and it was during his reign that the title had reached a high point in terms of prestige and drawing power. Lots of territories had guys who were hot that people wanted to see take the title, so Funk was able to draw huge crowds, which kept everybody happy.

St. Louis, which was now owned outright by Muchnick (Thesz sold his share in the office), was doing great business and was recognized by the fans as the place where the best workers of the era performed. As a result, the fans’ standards for wrestlers were high, and guys had to be great workers to get over. Just take a look at some of the guys who held the Missouri title in the 1970s: Harley Race, Johnny Valentine, Terry Funk, Gene Kiniski, Dory Funk Jr., Bob Backlund, Jack Brisco, Dick Slater, Ted DiBiase, and Dick Murdoch. Of those guys, only Backlund would not be called a great worker, and he was able to get over because of his amateur background, which translated into "great wrestling ability" in the fans’ eyes. Of course, there were exceptions (Dick the Bruiser).

Muchnick gave up the NWA presidency for good in 1975. Jack Adkisson took over, and it spelled the end of the clean finish era for the world title. During Muchnick’s run, even if there were screwjobs in the beginning of a program involving the champ, the titleholder always had to come out on top via clean finish in the end. Once Adkission took over, that disappeared, and the prestige of the title in various territories took a dive.

Sam finally left the business in late1981, with his retirement show on January 1, 1982, at the Checkerdome in St. Louis (strangely not at the Kiel Auditorium, which had become most associated with Muchnick). Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. proclaimed the day as Sam Muchnick Day, and the show drew a huge gate for matches that included Dick the Bruiser winning the Missouri title from Ken Patera. The St. Louis territory continued, as Muchnick sold his interest to Verne Gagne, Larry Matysik, and Bob Geigel, though business never was as good as under Muchnick.

In fairness to the new ownership group, though, the business had changed, and the territory system was on the way out. Jim Crockett ended up buying a piece of the office and shutting it down in 1986, bringing an end to over fifty years of wrestling.

Muchnick remained a revered treasure from wrestling’s glorious past until his death. At every opportunity he was honored, on the surface as a guy who did something for wrestling a long time ago, but underneath, as the glue that bound the Alliance for over thirty years.
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 514

THE MOTIVATIONS FOR THE LAWSUIT

(Boston Globe, Friday, May 26, 1999)

By Hermione Malone

CAMBRIDGE - A defense attorney yesterday tried to poke holes in the story of a teenage wrestler who went to Wonderland Greyhound Park expecting a choreographed match against two dwarfs and instead says he was viciously beaten in the ring.

Attorney James Merberg suggested Erich Kulas, 19, of Cranston, R.I., filed a criminal complaint against Jerome ''New Jack'' Young of Philadelphia because he plans to file a civil lawsuit over the alleged attack.

Kulas admitted contacting a lawyer for a possible suit against Extreme Championship Wrestling, sponsors of the 1996 event.

But prosecutors say the attack on him -- in front of 1,000 spectators at the park -- was savage and criminal. They say Kulas was struck with a wooden crutch, an electric toaster, a guitar, and a steel chair, and stabbed with a fork and slashed with a sharp blade. He received 50 stitches on his head, they said.

They have charged Young with assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon, the blade.

Jurors at Chelsea District Court yesterday viewed a violent and sometimes gruesome 4 1/2-minute videotape of the match.

On the tape, Young, 36, repeatedly whacks Kulas with the crutch, guitar, and toaster. Then, Young pulls Kulas off the floor by his hair and cuts him with a blade.

Blood spills onto the ring mat and onto Kulas's costume, a bus driver's uniform. Kulas appears in wrestling matches as Ralph ''Mass Transit'' Kramden.

Merberg alleged Kulas knew he was going to get cut, or ''colored'' in wrestling lingo, because he tightly pressed his lips together and puffed out his cheeks. Merberg said that maneuver is commonly done by wrestlers to make their blood spray farther when cut.

''Whatever my face movements were when I was getting stabbed was pain,'' Kulas said.

Kulas, who weighs more than 370 pounds, had wrestled in some amateur matches before the event, and said he dreamed of following in the footsteps of his hero, ''Hulk Hogan.''

Kulas said he was at the Revere match at the invitation of another wrestler he had appeared with before. Kulas thought if he did fight that night, it would be with that wrestler and his brother, both dwarfs, with whom he had a choreographed routine.

The case has focused attention on ''extreme wrestling,'' a competition in which opponents clobber one another with furniture and other props.

THE DREAM TURNED TOO REAL

(Boston Globe, Thursday, May 27, 1999)

By Hermione Malone

It was Erich Kulas's dream: Climb into a wrestling ring in front of 1,000 people, take fake body blows and head butts while the crowd goes crazy.

But when he finally got his chance, Kulas says he was beaten for real -- whacked on his back with a wooden crutch, clobbered on the head with an acoustic guitar, a toaster, and a steel chair, and, most painfully of all, sliced across the forehead with a steel blade.

Prosecutors yesterday charged wrestler Jerome Young, 36, of Philadelphia, known professionally as New Jack, with two counts of criminal assault.

They say Kulas was a starry-eyed teenager who arrived at Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere to break into big-time wrestling, and left with his dreams in tatters and 50 stitches across his brow.

He was ''used as a sacrificial lamb to appease hormonal men's thirst for blood,'' said Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Michael Murphy.

The case, which opened in Chelsea District Court yesterday, offers a rare glimpse into the world of ''extreme wrestling,'' where few rules apply.

And unlike collegiate or more mainstream wrestling, combatants who weigh as much as 300 pounds can take on foes half as big.

The case comes on the heels of Sunday's death of World Wrestling Federation star Owen Hart, who plunged 70 feet to his death when a stunt went wrong.

Young's lawyer, James Merberg, said his client never intended to hurt Kulas, and said Kulas never tried to stop the fight.

''Look for any evidence that Mr. Kulas tried to get out of the ring, or turn his back on his combatants,'' Merberg said during opening arguments.

The night began when Kulas, then 17, got a call on Nov. 23, 1996, from a wrestling team of two brothers, both of them dwarfs, who asked him for a ride to the event.

So, Kulas, who had wrestled with the pair in staged amateur matches before, agreed to go.

Kulas, who uses the name Ralph ''Mass Transit'' Kramden, showed up with his bus driver costume, including hat, tie, and boots. Once backstage in the locker room, Kulas said he was approached by the event's booker, who asked him: ''Do you want to wrestle for ECW [Extreme Championship Wrestling], kid?''

Kulas excitedly said yes.

While he was changing, Kulas said he talked over the moves for the match with the two brothers he thought he would be wrestling.

But when he got into the ring and started to rile up the crowd, a different, much bigger tag-team came out: Jerome Young and his partner, a.k.a. Mustafa.

From there, Kulas said he didn't know what was going on. He took a few fake blows from Young's partner and fell down.

Next, Kulas said he was hit in the head with a guitar by Young's partner, took some soft hits, then looked to his left.

''I saw Mr. Young wielding a crutch,'' Kulas said. The crutch came down on Kulas's back twice, according to testimony.

''Why didn't you just leave the ring?'' asked Murphy.

''Where was I to go?'' Kulas asked. ''I didn't know what was going on.''

So the mayhem continued, Kulas said, and he was picked up by the back of his shirt and his hair and thrown into Young, who hit him across the head with a toaster.

''I was laying on my belly and Mr. Young came up from behind and pulled me up by my hair,'' Kulas said, adding that Young had an object that appeared to have ''some sort of razor at the end.''

According to Kulas, everything was a blur until he felt the blade break his skin. ''Then I knew ... that I was getting my face cut open.''

In the crowd, Kulas said he heard his father frantically scream, ''That's enough! That's enough!''

But Kulas said the match continued. He said he was stabbed in the head with a fork, hit in the face with a rubber trash can, and hit in the head with a steel chair.

That was the last of the fight that he remembers.

The trial, which will include a viewing of a videotape of the fight, is to continue today.

WRESTLER ACQUITTED OF CHARGES

(Boston Globe, Friday, June 4, 1999)

In the world of professional wrestling, things are often not what they seem. In a court case bizarre for both its accusations and the characters involved -- ''New Jack'' vs. ''Ralph "Mass Transit' Kramden'' -- one side saw assault, the other a scripted match.

The ulimate referees -- six jurors -- sided with Jerome Young, a.k.a. New Jack, and acquitted him yesterday of two charges: assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Erich Kulas, who fights under the Kramden moniker, accused Young, 36, of viciously attacking him during a November 1996 Extreme Championship Wrestling match in Revere.

Kulas, 19, testified he was struck over the back twice with a wooden crutch, hit with an acoustic guitar and electric toaster, had his forehead sliced eight centimeters with a blade, and continued to be assaulted with a chair and rubber garbage can.

Everything from the props to the blood was all choreographed and Kulas was a willing participant, argued Young's attorney James Merberg.

''This was absolutely not a staged assault on an innocent young man, but rather a choreographed, planned match,'' Merberg said. Young left the state after the trial and couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

Nearly every witness in the case was involved in wrestling, making it difficult for the jury to penetrate the shell of illusion, said Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Michael Murphy.

''I think they believed that the alleged victim was a willing participant in the event and that maybe the defendant made a mistake or that it was an accident that he hurt him so bad, but that it was part of the routine,'' Murphy said.

Kulas, of Rhode Island, expressed his disappointment with the verdict in a written statement through his attorney.

''It is ... inconceivable to us that the jury could have so disregarded the evidence and returned such a verdict. We will continue to exercise all of our rights and will pursue ultimate justice in a civil form.''

On the stand, Kulas said he no longer had the desire -- or physical ability -- to wrestle. He said he had hoped the Revere match would have catapulted him into the professional wrestling world.

Extreme Championship Wrestling, a start-up organization, is similar to both the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. But competitors in ECW routinely use props to pummel their opponents and often cut their heads with blades, called ''blading'' or ''juicing.''

During Kulas' testimony, Merberg repeatedly asked him why he didn't try to defend himself. Jurors viewed a three-and-a-half-minute videotape of the fight in which Kulas never lifted his hands in defense or attempted to exit the ring.

''I wasn't safe in the ring and I wasn't safe out of the ring,'' Kulas testified last week. ''Where was I to go? I didn't know what was going on.''

But Merberg challenged Kulas, saying every move, every hit had been practiced backstage before the fight at the facilities of the Wonderland Greyhound Park.

''If you see the videotape, you could see the sequences,'' he said.

Though he acknowledges Young is scripted to be the ''bad guy'' -- named after the bloody-gangland style film ''New Jack City'' -- Merberg said the image is only a script and the match with Kulas was a part of that script.

MANKIND BACK TO WHERE HE STARTED

(Clarksburg, W.Va., Exponent, May 28, 1999)

By Wendy Glover

Ladies and gentlemen. Children of all ages. Returning to the area at 287 pounds and accompanied by his friend, Socko -- it’s World Wrestling Federation superstar, MANKIND!

Area residents got up close and personal with one of wrestling’s most popular characters recently when Mick Foley -- alias the WWF’s Mankind -- made and appearance in Fairmont.

Mankind returned to West Virginia -- where he kick-started his career 13 years ago -- as part of a local radio station’s promotions program.

Approximately 300 V.I.P. winners filled the Middletown Meeting and Banquet Center to have a personal meeting with the professional wrestler before he made a public appearance in front of 3,000 fans at Middletown Mall.

Foley, using the name "Cactus Jack," made his professional wrestling debut at the Nathan Goff Armory here on June 24, 1986 -- his first of many visits to the area. During that time, he visited Cactus Jack’s Tex Mex Restaurant on Route 19 where he was presented a T-shirt.

"I remember it was black and orange and I wore it until I outgrew it. I thought about going for a burrito today to see if they would give me another one," he said.

This time around, the West Virginia State Police presented him with a tie displaying police symbols, which he promised to wear on Monday Night Raw in front of a national television audience.

Foley entered the banquet room wearing the leather mask that signals his transformation into Mankind. He sported his usual white business shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and completed the outfit with sweat pants and the trooper tie.

The heat in the crowded room prompted him to remove his mask, revealing a mass of tangled brown hair. He then faced his fans as a ragged Mick Foley.

While signing autographs and posing for pictures, Foley continuously took questions from the V.I.P. winners and made jokes about his commercial endorsement of Chef Boy-ardee Ravioli, giving the audience a hearty "mmmmmmm Beefy!"

But he also took a serious stance, defending his job. By choosing a career in professional wrestling, he said he went through the same process as a fireman, policeman or anyone else would.

"I chose a career that I thought I would be good in," he said. "I was a fan for years and felt it was something I could do, but I never imagined this."

And about all those hits he suffers while wrestling, Foley told fans he simply doesn’t remember most of them.

"At the request of my doctors, I made a vow to quit getting hit for six months," he said. "But as you all probably saw, I took a hit with a chair only four months after that promise."

Foley alluded to rumors that the World Wrestling Federation follows a storyline and stages its matches, which has resulted in it being termed "sports entertainment."

"I’m looking to buy some of those fake chairs that everyone believes we use," he said. "Is there anywhere around here I could get some?"

Foley was accompanied during the appearance by Socko, his sweat-sock friend who helps him complete his finishing move, the mandible claw.

A professional wrestler hanging around with a sock puppet? What’s that all about?

Foley was quick with the explanation:

Mankind was looking for a way to comfort WWF owner Vince McMahon during a stay in the hospital and decided on a clown and a sock puppet. During a wrestling event in Michigan the next night, hundreds of fans’ signs displayed the name, Socko. That was over a year ago and Socko has stuck.

Sitting at the front of the banquet room separated from his fans by only a table, Foley spoke of his friendships with other wrestlers. For instance, he has known Stone Cold Steve Austin, another WWF superstar, for 10 years and let the audience in on a side of Stone Cold they never see.

"One time Steve and I went to a bar and he ordered a white wine spritzer with a twist," he recalled with a slight smirk. "I guess it goes well with the watercrest sandwiches he likes."

While visiting, Foley also promoted an autobiography he is currently writing. It will contain a chapter dedicated to his first visit to Clarksburg, plus many chapters describing his relationships with other wrestlers, as well as McMahon.

A father of two, Foley’s thoughts are never far from his family. He said he allows his children to watch him at work and the kids think their father is the best, he admitted.

Prior to his visit with the V.I.P. winners, Foley made a stop at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown where he donned his leather mask and visited with a 10 year-old boy who is dying of lung cancer.

"Mick put on the mask and signed some autographs for him," said Hunter Scott, the morning disc jockey for radio station WKKW. "The reason he was late for the mall appearance was because he played a wrestling video game with the boy -- and Mankind lost to Stone Cold Steve Austin."

"What gets me about Mick Foley is how down to earth he is and what a family man he is," said Scott.

"Mick Foley the man isn’t Mick Foley the character," he said.
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 515

MUNN SORRY SIGHT IN RING

(Associated Press, December 23, 1925)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Wayne "Big" Munn, heavyweight wrestler and former University of Nebraska football star, essaying for the second time a ring career, was knocked out here tonight in the first round of a scheduled 10-round bout by Andre Andersen, of Chicago. Munn lasted only two minutes.

Munn's previous venture with the gloves ended similarly. He was knocked out by Jack Clifford several years ago, shortly after leaving the university.

Andersen, a trial horse in the heavyweight division for years, poked a few short jabs to Munn's chin and the 250-pound wrestler hit the canvas. He rose ponderously, on the count of nine with blood streaming from his mouth, and Andersen shot two more short ones to the chin. Munn crashed down and was out.

Munn presented a ludicrous performance as he came out from his corner for the fray. He held his head far back, and he was wide open.

Not more than two dozen blows were exchanged. Only once did Munn connect for a solid blow. This, a right to the side of the head, was delivered just before Andersen opened up with the jabs that sent Munn down the first time. Andersen weighed 239 pounds.

Munn at one time claimed the heavyweight wrestling championship, having defeated the then champion, Ed (Strangler) Lewis, in a disputed match in Kansas City.

The crowd booed Munn's showing tonight.

BERLENBACH EYES RETURN TO MAT

(Associated Press, January 1, 1926)

NEW YORK -- Paul Berlenbach, world's lightheavyweight champion, will go back to the headlock and scissors when the punch leaves his powerful left hand.

Originally a wrestler and an Olympic mat champion in 1920, Paul has never lost his interest in the grappling sport, despite his unusual success with the gloves.

"When I quit the ring," he said, "I surely will go back to wrestling. The beauty of that sport is a man is never too old to wrestle and a good man can earn more money wrestling than fighting."

STECHER WILLING TO MEET LEWIS

(Associated Press, January 10, 1926)

DENVER, Colo. -- Ralph Mondt, matchmaker for the Denver American Legion Athletic Association, announced yesterday that he would bid $30,000 for a match between Joe Stecher and Ed "Strangler" Lewis to be held here next summer. Mondt proposes to stage the match in the University of Denver's new athletic stadium, which seats 30,000 persons.

'GET STRANGLER TO SIGN & SO WILL JOE'

(Associated Press, January 10, 1926)

DODGE, Nebr. -- Anton Stecher, brother-manager of Joe Stecher, heavyweight wrestler, when advised tonight of the desire of matchmaker Ralph Mondt of Denver for a match between Stecher and Ed "Strangler" Lewis, said that as soon as Mondt can sign Lewis, Joe will sign.

MISTER AND MISSUS BLIMP LEVY

(Indianapolis Sports Week, July 26, 1949)

Yep! There's a Mrs. Blimp, too! And she's certainly a sharp contrast to her hulking husband, who is sitting on two chairs to support his 642 pounds as he bounces "Mamma" on his knee.

Mrs. Levy is nineteen years old, and weighs just 90 pounds. She's the former Miss Charlotte Jones of Denver, Colo.

This fellow Martin Levy astounds everyone wherever he appears. Sports writers invariably are incredulous when they discover that Levy can get around with incredible ease. He can do many things that they themselves long have given up or never could accomplish in the first place.

Most youngsters can kick above their heads, but how many men past the age of 30 can do it? See what we mean. In the ring, the 642-pounder has great balance and it's a Herculean job to get him off his feet.

Punches to his midriff, or flying tackles don't make him so much as bat an eye. Ed Soovola, the Indianapolis Times feature writer, told us he was amazed when the Blimp invited him to punch away at his huge stomach.

"I sent two or three of my 'Sunday' wallops his way with all the force I could muster. It was like sinking my fists into a big feather bed," Ed said, with awe dripping from every word. "This guy is terrific!"

A smart business man, the Blimp is preparing for the future. He owns several thriving businesses in Boston, his home town, and will be "well fixed" when his wrestling days are over.

He loves to play cards and never misses an opportunity to sit in, be it stud poker, gin rummy, or what have you?

The Blimp is an expert swimmer and spends as much time in the water as his strenuous schedule will permit. People who have seen him swim say he's really well above the average.

And wouldn't you know it, he can float, too!

A WRESTLING TOUR TO PERU

(Miami Herald, May 27, 1999)

Worldwide Pro Wrestling -- under the auspicious of the Future of Wrestling, a South Florida independent group -- traveled to Lima, Peru May 17 to 25.

"The eight days we spent in Peru was an experience that will be talked about by those involved forever,'' said Hardcore Hero Bobby Rogers. "The crew I brought there was by far the most professional and the best bunch of talent I have ever worked with in my nine years in the business.

"I want to thank everyone who worked the tour, those who helped set it up, the great effort by our 24-hour security and especially the fans and people of Peru who gave us all an overwhelming response and made everyone a star.''

On Tuesday, May 18, some of the wrestlers appeared on a Peru talk show, equivalent to Saturday Night Live. The actors did a spoof on the wrestlers, mimicking Bobby Rogers, Yuel Lovett, Mike Monroe, Marshall Law, The Postman and Lovett's valet Montana.

On Wednesday, May 19, Bobby Rogers, Yuel Lovett, Mike Monroe, Marshall Law, The Postman, Lovett's valet Montana, Cyborg, Phi DeKapp U and Samurai Kid Billy Fives were guests on a day time talk show, The Monica Show, Peru's Oprah.

They are planning a return trip in July. The WPW/FOW continues to seek talent. For information, call 954-748-5555 or 954-269-5555.

• Here are the results:

• Thurs., May 20: Amauta Coliseo: Attendance: 2,731

Samurai Kid Billy Fives, fresh off his tryout match for the World Wrestling Federation at the National Car Rental Center on may 11, defeated J-Dawg; Rusty Brooks and Dennis Allen double countout; Postman and Martial Law defeated Mike Monroe and Rusty Brooks; Prince Ali Khan defeated Hardcore Hero Bobby Rogers; Cyborg defeated Anthony Adonis; The Exterminators defeated Phi De Cappa U Twins for the tag team titles.

• Fri., May 21: Amauta Coliseo: Attendance: 6,152

Anthony Adonis defeated Samurai Kid Billy Fives; J-Dawg defeated Prince Ali Khan and Bobby Rogers in a 3-way dance; The Exterminators defeated Rusty Brooks and Mike Monroe; Phi De Cappa U's Mike Shane defeated Martial Law; Postman defeated Phi De Cappa U's Todd Shane by countout; Cyborg defeated Dennis Allen.

• Sat., May 22: Amauta Coliseo: Attendance: 8,571 (broadcast live throughout South America)

Samurai Kid Billy Fives defeated Anthony Adonis; J-Dawg defeated Mike Monroe; Rusty Brooks defeated Dennis Allen; Bobby Rogers defeated Prince Ali Khan in a Hardcore match; Yuel Lovett with Montana defeated Martial Law; Cyborg defeated Postman; Richard "Hollywood'' Hogan defeated Fabulous Frank; Phi De Cappa U Twins defeated the Exterminators to regain the tag team titles.

• Sun., May 23: Amauta Coliseo: Attendance: 10,009

Samurai Kid Billy Fives defeated J-Dawg; Dennis Allen defeated Mike Monroe; Fabulous Frank defeated Mike Monroe; Phi De Cappa U's Todd Shane defeated Anthony Adonis; Postman defeated Yuel Lovett; Rusty Brooks and Exterminator Dead Bug double DQ; Bobby Rogers defeated Prince Ali Khan in a No Boundaries match; Phi De Cappa U's Mike Shane defeated Exterminator Pesticide Pete; Cyborg defeated Martial Law; Samurai Kid Billy Fives won a 16-man Battle Royale.

SOME SOBER THOUGHTS AFTER HART DEATH

(Rocky Mountain News, Friday, May 28, 1999)

By Alex Marvez

Bruce Hart hopes the in-ring death of his brother prompts wrestling fans to reconsider what they're watching.

Owen Hart died during the Over the Edge pay-per-view telecast May 23, falling 70 feet into the ring while being lowered from the ceiling at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Police are still investigating what went wrong, with the focus on why a release mechanism connecting Hart to a cable was activated prematurely.

But to Bruce Hart, there was no reason why his 34-year-old brother ever should have been placed in such a position. Bruce Hart believes Owen's death was the result of the World Wrestling Federation's shift from traditional pro wrestling to the wild soap opera the sport has become.

"Owen deplored the whole direction of the business and the so-called hard-core elements of the thing," said Bruce, a former pro wrestler who now runs his family's legendary wrestling school in Calgary. "He didn't want to be part of that. He was upset at how stupid it had become, with people busting tables and coming off the tops of cages.

"He was a wrestler, not a stuntman. He didn't want to partake in any of that. They should have just let him wrestle."

Hart said his brother's death shows the industry has gone too far with the stunts and risque storylines most of today's performers participate in.

"'Wrestling' is not even a phrase I would use to describe what's going on today," said Hart, who is also disgusted by some of the angles on WWF rival World Championship Wrestling. "It seems to be a sign of all the messed up things in society right now that Vince McMahon is almost a poster child of."

McMahon, the WWF's owner, has drawn sharp criticism from the Hart family for his handling of the incident, especially for the decision to continue the pay-per-view show after the accident and what some relatives believe was a self-serving tribute to Owen on this week's "Monday Night Raw" telecast.

Bruce Hart said he was sickened when he learned that McMahon allowed himself to be placed in an ambulance for an "ankle injury" on Over the Edge just minutes after his brother's accident. The WWF also aired pre-taped footage of Triple H pounding a casket containing The Rock after Hart's death was announced to viewers. (Fans at Kemper Arena were never updated on Hart's condition.)

Making the situation even more painful, the Hart family was well aware that Owen hated the ceiling stunt and the Blue Blazer gimmick he was wrestling under. Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, said Hart was asked by WWF officials to become the masked Blazer again after refusing to partake in a storyline with a female performer out of respect for his marriage.

Bruce Hart said he spoke with McMahon after his brother's death.

"It sounded like he was cutting a promo," Hart said. "He almost gave me the same BS speech he gave at the news conference (about the accident).

"I just tore into him. I said, 'This is all on your head, Vince. Your insatiable quest to make money and get (television) ratings needlessly put a guy's life at risk."'

Bret Hart had just arrived in Los Angeles for a Monday appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show" when he learned of Owen's death. Hart, who was slated to wrestle Kevin Nash in a match on the "Tonight Show" that would have been heavily promoted beforehand on "WCW Monday Nitro," returned home to Calgary. The event has not been rescheduled.

Questions and answers

QUESTION: Was the tragic death of Owen Hart the first ring accident that has resulted in death for a professional wrestler? Tracy Nunnally, Greeley, Colo.

ANSWER: While several Japanese performers have died because of in-ring accidents, the last prominent wrestler to suffer such a fate in North America was Mike DiBiase, who suffered a heart attack during a 1969 match in Lubbock, Texas. DiBiase's son, Ted, was a WWF headliner in the late 1980s who has since retired.

MAT PAST GIVES PRESENT NO FUTURE

(Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, May 30, 1999)

By Bob Molinaro

During a pro wrestling career that spanned six decades and at least as many continents, Norfolk's Lou Thesz figures he must have suffered 200 fractures.

Accidents happen, he'll tell you. Lou just shook off those broken bones.

In the '30s, he started out on wrestling's backroads, not always knowing where his next meal would come from. There were days when he and his partners pulled to the side of the road, hopped a fence and foraged a farmer's field for the kind of corn they feed horses.

Hunger? Thesz shook it off.

Last week, Thesz learned that Owen hart, 33, was dead after suffering a 70-foot fall while being lowered in a harness from the ceiling of a Kansas City arena during one of those breathtakingly absurd pay-per-view wrassling shos.

Lou cannot shake this off. The warhorse of wrestling is confused and angry, in part because Hart's death was personal. As a teenager, Thesz wrestled with Hart's father, Stu. He's remained friends with the family. A few years ago, he even trained Owen Hart.

No one in the world is more serious about professional wrestling or more at a loss to explain what has happened to his beloved sport than the 83-year-old Thesz.

"I don't think I have ever felt as old or as out of touch as I do today."

So began the most recent commentary on The Lou Thesz Press, an Internet feature that can be found on scoopscentral.com, a wrestling website.

In the piece that followed Hart's death, Thesz expressed personal remorse for ignoring the current state of wrassling. His stomach just couldn't take the cartoon nonsense the WWF has been pumping out for the get-a-life shut-ins who have made ring burlesque a TV bonanza.

"I don't mean to be unkind," Thesz said Friday from his Ocean View home, "but I don't have to tell you about the audience. They're not too bright."

Thesz tuned out long ago, but went real easy on his public criticism of the product. "I have told myself," he wrote on the website, "they were just making a living and giving the crowd what they wanted."

Thesz understands the importance of a good show; he wrestled Gorgeous George in the '50s. Wrassling without blowhards, villaisn and campy storylines is gym class. But what Thesz cannot abide is "the language, vulgarity, stupidity and futility of it all." Can anyone blame him?

He wrote: "It has taken the death of a friend's son to make me admit how sick the industry I devoted my life to has become."

In conversation, Thesz calls today's ring theatrics "choreographed tumbling." He says, "You can watch professional wrestling for five minutes or five hours and you won't see one wrestling move."

He recalls a conversation he had a year or so ago with Vince McMahon, demagogue of the vulgarity currently in vogue.

"He said, 'Lou, I think you're going to like this; we're going back to wrestling.'" Thesz said. "Well, it got worse. He just tells you what you want to hear. Anything to make a buck."

Before, Lou could shake it off. The buffoonery, he'd tell himself, was none of his business. "But it is my business," he now writes, anger and frustration bubbling to the surface, "the only business I have ever loved."
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 516

A SPORT IS SEEN DEGENERATING

(Boston Globe, May 27, 1999)

By Colin Nickerson

CALGARY, Alberta -- Owen Hart came to the mat as a birthright, the baby boy of the legendary ''first family'' of professional wrestling. The ascent of Canada's Hart dynasty stretches over much of the century and the modern history of a sweaty contest that has devolved from sport to freakish entertainment worth billions of dollars.

But the tale took a tragic twist Sunday when Hart, 34, died in a 60-foot plunge as he prepared to swoop down on the wrestling ring on a cable-and-hook contrivance suspended from the ceiling of a sports arena in Missouri. The flying entrance had been meant to wow the bellowing audience at a sold-out ''Over the Edge'' World Wrestling Federation event in Kansas City.

Death was an unnerving deviation from the hyperviolent spectacle called professional wrestling - whose theatric duels offer fans lots of thrills, but few surprises.

Never mind the looniness of the stunt that killed Owen Hart. Most shocking in the minds of many was that he was the good guy, fighting under the moniker ''Blue Blazer,'' the clear-eyed champ who before bouts sternly enjoined kids to ''say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and never ever swear.''

Said Martha Hart, his high school sweetie and wife of 10 years: ''Owen really lived like that, as clean as they come. He loved his family, he loved our children. We had a storybook life. ... He was not a reckless person.''

In the costume pageant of professional wrestling, good guys seldom come to bad endings. And, if lose they occasionally must, they most surely aren't supposed to be brought low so pointlessly, slammed to the mat by mere gravity instead of a masked supervillain.

Moreover, the Blue Blazer was a Hart, and the Harts are winners fabled across the wrestling world. ''Harts are supposed to be invincible,'' said Paul Jay, the producer of a documentary film, ''Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows,'' about Owen's older brother, Bret. ''The family is a living legend.''

Bret ''Hitman'' Hart remains the most famous of eight brothers and four sisters, all of whom followed their domineering dad, Stu, now 84 but still presiding over the Calgary-based family empire, into the tawdry realm of pro wrestling, either as fighters, trainers, referees, or spouses of wrestlers.

Owen was the plucky baby brother, the come-from-behind kid who, after years in the ring, had finally wrassled out a low-key reputation in his own right. He was the stolid, stubborn strongman, never quite at ease with the flamboyant stagecraft of a career he followed mainly because his father had told him there could be no other for a Hart.

''I wanted to be a phys ed teacher. I wrestled only to appease my father,'' he told the magazine Saturday Night in a 1993 interview. ''I was compelled to get into the ring. Once I started, there was the pressure of my family name.''

There's no business quite like pro wrestling.

It's a sport that is not a sport but a series of performances stretching contest to contest, season to season, into a long drama - albeit one with plot lines simple enough to put comic books in a league with Shakespeare.

The bad guys sneer, curse, and strut villainously while employing cruel kicks, hellish holds, and sneaky jabs. They also give the middle finger, fondle their crotches, and pretend to urinate on their opponents or ringside fans.

Referees gaze blankly into the middle distance as female accomplices of the wrestlers suggestively straddle ropes and flaunt their breasts to distract their guy's opponent. The good fellows, meanwhile, seem not to have a clue - but cheerfully wreak vicious mayhem as they grapple with their sinister foes.

It's all show, and some critics say it's a sick show. But if professional wrestling is condemned, dismissed, or ridiculed by many, it is also followed by millions of passionate fans across North America and beyond.

''Laugh all you want, but lots of people love this sport,'' said Calgary sportscaster and family friend Ed Whelan. ''And they love the Hart family.''

That was plain this week as thousands of fans descended on Calgary in an outpouring of grief.

''I just wanted to show the Hart family how deeply we're going to miss Owen,'' said Bethany Gill, 27, of Taunton, Mass., who with her boyfriend and sister drove nonstop across the continent to place flowers near Hart House, the family's landmark residence in this oil boomtown on Canada's western prairie.

Beneath Hart House lies ''The Dungeon,'' where older Harts trained younger Harts in the arcane arts of legholds and headlocks. The school became notorious for its emphasis on ''submission'' wrestling, in which the idea is not just to defeat an opponent through greater strength or dexterity but to inflict pain. The Harts' academy turned out many of the top grapplers of recent decades.

The family's ascent to wrestling's sweat-soaked stratosphere started with Stu Hart, born in 1915 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. An all-around athlete, the patriarch-to-be played pro football with Alberta's Edmonton Eskimos in the 1930s, but really shined as an amateur wrestler, becoming Canada's national champion in 1940.

He was considered a contender for an Olympic gold medal, but World War II forced cancellation of the games. After the war, Stu Hart headed for New York, where he wrestled professionally and, in 1947, also found a bride, Helen Smith, daughter of track star Henry J. Smith.

They returned to Canada, settling in Calgary, where the senior Hart launched a career as sports promoter by creating ''Stampede Wrestling,'' a hugely popular road show that staged bouts across Western Canada from the late 1940s until 1988. Stampede Wrestling made the leap to television in 1957, a time when pro wrestling still had vestiges of real sport.

Ironically, Helen despised wrestling from the start, according to family friends. But she had a flair for numbers, and she shrewdly handled the financial side of the business while her husband stuck to flashier stuff.

Stu Hart mercilessly drilled his eight boys in wrestling technique, while the girls were encouraged to date wrestlers or bodybuilders. The father hoped his sons would become amateurs of Olympic caliber, but the money was on the pro side - and that's where they all drifted with varying degrees of renown.

''He wanted every one of those kids to follow in his footsteps,'' recalled Whelan, the family friend who served as announcer for Stampede Wrestling events.

Owen was thrust into the ring at age 4 and never found his way out. ''He was definitely getting concerned about safety, and planned to retire in two years,'' said Martha, who said her husband doted on their two children, Oje, 7, and Athena, 3. ''We were planning to move to a dream home in Elbow Valley.''

Despite the theatrics dominating professional wrestling, the Hart boys were trained to be serious athletes and bodybuilders, not just grandstanders. If Owen was happy enough to dress up in silly suits and mug for TV cameras, he also possessed genuine skills. ''He grew up with a certain style of wrestling, the art form of wrestling,'' Dave Meltzer, editor of Wrestling Observer magazine, told Canada's National Post newspaper. ''He recognized that wrestling was a business and more popular than ever.''

According to a study by Frank Ashley, professor of sports at Texas A&M University, televised professional wrestling captures a weekly worldwide audience of 40 million people. More than 70 percent are adults over age 18, and 30 percent have middle-class incomes of more than $40,000 a year.

The wrestling industry brings in $1.1 billion a year, much of it generated through TV pay-for-view. There were about 18,000 people sitting in the stands at Kansas City's Kemper Arena on the night Owen Hart was killed, but nearly 1 million were watching on cable television.

''We compete with Hollywood for entertainment,'' Vince McMahon, president of the World Wrestling Federation, told the Associated Press.

More significantly, the World Wrestling Federation competes ferociously with archrival World Championship Wrestling, owned by media mogul Ted Turner. That competition has engendered a drive for increasingly outlandish stunts.

Stunts like the one that killed Owen Hart.

His sister, Ellie Hart, attributes the tragedy to the scramble for audience share.

''He died performing a dumb circus act that shouldn't have been part of wrestling,'' she said. ''My poor brother was sacrificed for the TV ratings.''

Brother Bret also blames the audience's lust for blood.

''Wrestling fans have become like wild dogs,'' said the Hitman. ''They just clamor for more and more.''

DEATH IN THE RING

(Newsweek, June 7, 1999)

By T. Trent Gegax and Jerry Adler

If there is any small consolation to be taken from the death last week of World Wrestling Federation star Owen Hart, who fell from the rafters of Kansas City, Mo.'s Kemper Arena in an aborted stunt, it is that he died like a true wrestler: pissed off at the world. "I know he hated dying this way," his brother Bret--also a wrestler, like the six other Hart brothers and their four brothers-in-law--told NEWSWEEK.

"I'm sure when he was 30 feet from the mat he was thinking, Here I am falling in this stupid outfit, in front of all these fans that don't give a s--t about me or my family, and this is the way I'm going to go. It's just so cruel." He probably wouldn't have been surprised, either, that his demise in front of 16,300 fans failed to stop the show.

According to WWF spokesman Jim Byrne, "The performers wanted to continue the show. It was the highest tribute they could have paid Owen." But Bret Hart's explanation is simpler: "Pay-per-view comes first." To cancel the remaining matches might have entailed giving people their money back.

Hart's death, at the age of 33, presented a rare opportunity for the world of pro wrestling to reflect on its values, message and contribution to society, which it seemed only too happy to pass up. At a lachrymose tribute on the following night's "Raw Is War" broadcast, reigning superstar Stone Cold Steve Austin gave the crowd the finger in Hart's honor, then movingly smashed together a couple of beer cans.

The WWF Web site solicited fans for contributions to Hart's favorite charity--a children's hospital in his native Calgary--but Byrne said he didn't know if the organization itself would make a donation, and refused to comment on whether the federation provides wrestlers with life insurance. He also said it was premature to consider a suggestion by wrestler turned governor Jesse Ventura that the WWF performers should enlist in the stuntman's union, which would give them leverage in improving safety. "We just want to make sure that appropriate tribute is given to Owen this week," Byrne said.

The accident occurred as the debris from the previous match was still being swept from the ring, in preparation for Hart's match against "The Godfather," a burly, corn-rowed figure who poses as a pimp and surrounds himself with an entourage of "ho's."

Hart, 5 feet 11 and a muscular 227 pounds, was in his Blue Blazer costume-mask, cape and sky-blue feathers-a character meant to be sinister and enigmatic. Few spectators were even aware of him dangling high above the ring, hanging from a catwalk by a cable and harness. Suddenly, according to police, a stagehand on the catwalk heard the "ping" of the mechanism that was supposed to release the cable once Hart reached the ground. A second later, he tumbled 90 feet to the ring, striking a turnbuckle with his head and landing on his back.

Since this was the WWF, "a lot of people thought it was a stunt," says Alan Schmelzle, the arena's general manager. "There was kind of a buzz in the crowd. They thought the show had started again." Then came a sobering announcement by WWF emcee Jim Ross: "Folks, we've got a problem here."

The police say they have found no signs of tampering or foul play, and speculate that Hart might have triggered the release accidentally, perhaps by catching part of his costume in it. His family, though, wonders why Owen had to trust his life to a single cable.

"Where's the backup?" asked his oldest brother, Smith Hart. "You should have two or three backups. Even circus performers have safety nets." The WWF's Byrne counters that there was nothing especially risky in the stunt Hart was attempting when he died; it's done all the time on the stage.

Hart was the youngest of his parents' 12 children, and the only one still up on that stage, although Bret, a.k.a. The Hitman, has not formally retired. His father, Stu, was Canadian amateur wrestling champion in 1940 and later a promoter in the western United States and Canada, before the WWF bought out most of the regional circuits. Owen, who learned his trade in Stu's legendary basement gym, also became a top-ranked amateur wrestler. But there's no career in wrestling as a sport, of course. As a professional, Owen was a proficient acrobat with plausibly bulging biceps, handsome enough to be a hero but willing to take the heat of being a villain if that's what the script demanded. He worked up a ferocious--although phony--rivalry with his brother, which their mother was happy to promote by sobbing for the cameras.

"This is a vicious, backstabbing, ass-kissing industry on its best day," said one person close to the WWF's rival league, World Championship Wrestling. "But nobody ever said a bad thing about Owen Hart."

Along the way, his brother says, Owen developed a deep loathing for the WWF and its president, Vince McMahon Jr. This is an attitude McMahon, who likes to insert himself as a character in the ongoing drama of his cast, has been known to encourage. Feuds make good box office. But Bret insists his brother was genuinely horrified at the WWF's descent from the blithe, goofy mayhem of Hulk Hogan, its 1980s-era hero, to the volcanic, 360-degree hostility emanating from Austin.

"Almost overnight," says Hart, himself a five-time WWF champion, "Vince turned it into strippers and this rabid-dog mentality, like 'Let's see who can hit the other guy harder with a metal chair'." Suddenly, wrestlers began acknowledging their fans by pointing at their crotches and bellowing "suck it." When it came to his own children--a boy, 7, and a girl, 3--Owen refused to let them watch the WWF.

But the money was good--high six figures for a mid-card performer like Hart--and, after all, someone whose expertise is in flinging himself around a ring in a blue feathered cape doesn't exactly have a lot of career options. When the WWF says jump, wrestlers jump, even if it's 90 feet to the ground.

"We were just two guys who wanted to pay off our houses and come home," Bret says. In fact, last Friday was the day Owen and his wife, Martha, were set to move into their long-anticipated Calgary dream house, and he was looking ahead a couple of years to when he could hang up his spangles and sequins for good. "It's really very sad," says Bret. "He was in the home stretch."

HOW LOW CAN VINCE McMAHON GO?

(New York Post, Friday, June 4, 1999)

By Phil Mushnick

How low can Vince McMahon go for the entertainment pleasure of our desensitized young? Well, rather than trying to minimize the incidence of death among his pro wrestlers, the WWF boss continues to exploit their deaths to sustain huge ratings for his USA Network TV shows.

Monday night's show included footage of pro wrestlers outside a Calgary funeral home, where services were conducted for Owen Hart, killed eight days earlier while performing a stunt during a WWF pay-per-view show.

Hart's widow says she insisted that the WWF not air footage from the funeral. "Not only did they disrespect me," she told the Calgary Sun, "they didn't care."

Martha Hart has been critical of the WWF both for its increasingly vulgar content and its dangerous stunts. "Owen was not a tacky, sleazy wrestler," she said, "and I didn't want the footage [from his funeral] aired on a WWF show."

Not only did the pay-per-view show continue after Hart died, minutes after he was rushed from the Kemper Arena in an ambulance to be pronounced dead on arrival, the show saw McMahon rushed from the arena in an ambulance as part of an act.

The next night, McMahon neither postponed nor canceled his USA show in order to allow his wrestlers to grieve in private. Instead, he had them grieve on national TV as the improvised theme of a show that already had sold out the 20,000-seat Kiel Center in St. Louis.

Among those who appeared to pay tribute to Hart was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the WWF's biggest draw. Although Hart was popular among his colleagues, Hart and Austin did not get along. But McMahon saved Austin for the end of the two-hour "Owen Hart Tribute" in order to keep his audience in place, thus maximizing the ratings.

SABLE SUES WWF FOR $110 MILLION

(Associated Press, Friday, June 4, 1999)

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut -- Pro wrestling champion Sable is suing the World Wrestling Federation for $110 million, complaining it wanted her to participate in a lesbian storyline, expose her breasts on TV and appear in sexually degrading photos.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court, charges that professional wrestling has become increasingly "obscene, titillating, vulgar and unsafe.''

Known for her waist-length hair and scanty outfits, Sable, whose real name is Rena Mero, said the WWF stripped her of her championship belt by scripting her defeat in a televised "Monday Night Raw'' match three weeks ago.

Her downfall, she claims, came after she repeatedly refused to have her gown torn off on national television, exposing her breasts.

"I am surprised by all of the actions,'' said Ed Kaufman, a senior vice president and general counsel for Stamford-based Titan Sports, the parent company of the WWF. He said Titan Sports has been in contact with Mrs. Mero's lawyer in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

During her nearly three years with the WWF, Mrs. Mero went from valet for her real-life wrestling husband, Marc Mero, to the WWF women's champion. She recently was featured on a Playboy cover and in a photo spread, and has been getting guest roles on television.

In an upcoming TV Guide cover story, she said there is a difference between posing for Playboy and exposing herself on television.

"In the middle of a wrestling arena where they're serving alcohol and there are screaming fans -- including children -- in the front row, I don't feel like that is the proper place to be exposed,'' she said. "Posing for Playboy for me was a classy and tasteful thing to do.''

The lawsuit claims negligence, breach of contract, unfair trade practices and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 517

KINISKI PUTS TITLE ON LINE

(Tampa Times, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1969)

Dory Funk, Jr. of Amarillo, Tex., will challenge Gene Kiniski for the world heavyweight wrestling championship in one of seven title matches on tonight's big Gasparilla card at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.

Funk is one of the outstanding young wrestlers in the mat sport today. Dory made a quick, but very successful tour of Florida last December. His home base is Amarillo. He is a graduate of West Texas State University.

Two teams of blue-masked Infernos will vie for the world tag team championship tonight. The team currently in possession of the belts is managed by J.C. Dykes; the challenging team has been seen more frequently in the Tampa area of late.

The Missouri Mauler will put the Southern heavyweight championship on the line against Jack Brisco, a former national collegiate champion from Oakland State University.

Nick Kozak will challenge the Great Malenko for the brass knuckles trophy, indicative of pro wrestling's ruggedest individual. The use of the fist is not only permitted, but emphasized in brass knuckles competition.

Joe Scarpa and the Gladiator will attempt to take the Florida tag team championship from the Medics. Tarzan Tyler will challenge Hans Mortier for the Florida heavyweight title.

Sherri Lee will try for the world women's title as she challenges Fabulous Moolah. Match time is 8:30.

FUNK NEW MAT WORLD RULER

(Tampa Times, February 12, 1969)

Dory Funk Jr. of Amarillo, Tex., defeated Gene Kiniski for the world heavyweight wrestling championship last night at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.

A packed house of 6,000 cheered wildly as Funk, a 27-year-old graduate of West Texas State University, took the measure of Kiniski with a spinning toe hold after 27 minutes of action.

Dory Funk Sr., the new champion's father, was on hand to congratulate his son on a fine victory. Dory Sr., still an active wrestler himself, perfected the spinning toe hold many years ago.

Kiniski won the title from Lou Thesz in St. Louis in January of 1966, and defended it in Florida on numerous occasions.

Asked how he felt about winning the championship, Funk said, "It's great! This is what every wrestler dreams about -- what he works hard in hopes of achieving all his life."

Funk will now be obliged to assume all contractual obligations for title matches which had been signed by Kiniski, meaning the new champ will have little time to call his own for awhile. Kiniski was one of the sport's most active champions and Funk Jr. says he will be no less so.

The world tag team championship changed hands as the challengers, the masked Infernos, defeated J.C. Dykes' Inferno twosome, the former champs. Dykes had called his team's opponents "imposters" and other, even less complimentary names, and had predicted an easy win.

Young Jack Brisco of Blackwell, Okla., won the Southern heavyweight champion by defeating the Missouri Mauler. Brisco, a former national collegiate champion, spotted the Mauler some 50 pounds, but outmaneuvered his massive opponent. Jack used a hold known as a "small package" to defeat the Missourian.

The Great Malenko defeated Nick Kozak to retain the brass knuckles title. Kozak won three consecutive falls, but was unable to answer the bell after dropping the fourth to Malenko.

The brass knuckles match was the only even of more than one fall duration, due to the special rules governing this type of match. Other title bouts were scheduled for one fall, with one hour time limits, by special permission of the National Wrestling Alliance.

The Gladiator and Joe Scarpa made an impressive, though unsuccessful, attempt to take the Florida tag team belts from the masked Medics. Joe was counted out while applying a sleeper hold to Dr. Ken Ramey outside the ring. Ramey had to be carried to his dressing room.

A real battle of the giants saw Florida heavyweight champion Hans Mortier prevail over Tarzan Tyler, the challenger. Each man weighed in at somewhere in the neighborhood of 265 pounds.

Fabulous Moolah, the world women's titleholder, is still champion after putting down a game challenge by Sherri Lee in the opening event.

STU HART: AN ACE OF A PROMOTER

(Ring Wrestling, November 1978)

By Tom Burke

The sport of professional wrestling has many fine promoters in its ranks. The current crop today consists of many second generation matchmakers that continue on the family tradition by promoting wrestling in their respective areas.

Stu Hart is not a man that was a recipient of his wrestling territory via the passing of a family member. His wrestling territory began after the end of World War Two and has flourished from one to two provinces and one state. This area and his fine wrestling promoting talents have given him the name as the "Wrestling Czar of Canada."

Before Hart took command of being the famous wrestling promoter that he is, the Edmonton native was a very good athlete. He was undefeated in the amateur ranks as a wrestler and won the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Championship. He was also a member of the famed Edmonton Eskimo football team and did very well on the gridiron. However, he was not satisfied with being a member of the football team. He wanted more.

He went to New York City and was taken under the wing of the late, great Joe "Toots" Mondt. It was while in the Big Apple that he became proficient as a professional wrestler. He learned his trade well and started to get semi and main events in the many arenas in and around New York City.

It was at the same time that television was becoming a part of the way of American life. TV matches were presented live in those early years and it so happened that Stu Hart and a lady wrestling fan would become part of the annals of professional wrestling. The place was the Winter Garden Arena in Bronx, New York, in the late 1940s.

Stu Hart was wrestling in the semi-main event against another well established star of that era. The whole wrestling card was being televised with Dennis James as the commentator for live action and interviews. During the course of the match, Stu Hart landed on the floor of the arena.

As he got up and proceeded to lift himself up to the ring apron a woman from ringside got out of her chair and jabbed Hart on his rump. The TV cameras had picked it up and millions of wrestling fans saw the debut of "Hatpin Mary" at the expense of Stu Hart.

Hart recalls those days with great fondness. He remembers wrestling against such stars as: Baron Michele Leone, the famous Dusek and Zaharias brothers, the late Bibber McCoy, Lou Thesz, Rebel Bob Russell, Dutch Hefner, Gino Garibaldi, Buddy Rogers, Bobby Stewart, Tony Lanza, The Angel and many other great mat men.

During those years in the New York City area he held great respect for Toots Mondt, the famous wrestling promoter for the East Coast. It was under the Mondt eye and teaching that Hart learned the promoting trade. Little by little the matches became less and less for Stu. He began to work in the office with Toots and in 1948 he packed his bags and returned to his native Canada.

It was 1948 when Stu Hart opened up his wrestling office in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The war was over and the economy was good and wrestling was just right for the area. The sport went over like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. Soon Hart added other towns to his wrestling office. In a span of a few years, Stu had opened up all the major cities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. A few years after that was accomplished he was invited to promote in a number of cities in Montana, where he continues to promote.

In those early years as a promoter the life line of the office was made up of established talent and a stable of newcomers. As the promotion became a success and the name of the promotion became Foothills Athletic Club, the reputation of the office of giving that much-needed break to youngsters was getting around. The Hart promotion has no doubt started more wrestling talent than any other office since its start and continues to give that break to many.

Some of the boys that go their start with the Foothills Athletic Club are: Stan Stasiak, Joe Blanchard, Bearcat Wright, Dale Roberts, Nikolai Volkoff, the late Luther Lindsay, Bulldog Brower, Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie, Reggie Parks, Roy Shire (now an NWA promoter in San Francisco), Greg Valentine, Leo and Bobby Burke, Larry Lane, Larry Hennig and, most recently, Stu Hart's own sons, Smith, Bruce and Keith. These are only a handful of the boys that were given that important break in professional wrestling that is needed.

The Hart organization has had very close ties with Joint Promotions of England as well as other well known international wrestling bodies. The Foothills Athletic Club Promotions have brought over such top rated talent for exclusive debut appearances in North America as: Lord Al Hayes, Kendo Nagasaki, Black Angus, Les Thornton, Steve Wright, Dave Morgan and Billy Robinson. All these great British wrestling imports made their North American debut on a Stu Hart promotion. Robinson has made a great impression since he made his debut here in 1969.

Promoter Stu Hart recently informed this writer that he believes that the best from the United Kingdom is currently wrestling in his territory. He is Tommy Billington, an 18-year-old that has done very well in his two years as a professional wrestler. He won the British and European lightweight championships in 1977. Stu says that Tommy, better known as the Dynamite Kid, will go right to the top in the coming years.

Another organization that the Hart group works with is that of the International Wrestling Enterprises of Japan. Former wrestler Tokyo Joe is the talent agent and lives in Calgary, the home base of the Foothills promotions. Thus, there is a trickle of talent from Japan throughout the year in Calgary. Many of the top stars from Japan stop by and say hello to Tokyo Joe and thus will get booked on the weekly Friday nite card in Calgary.

A promoter has to be wise and attuned to the times. Promoter Hart is just that. He has brought in such novelty events as wrestling bears, female and male midgets, Indian rubbermen, strong men like the late Hercules Romero, Great Antonio, Doug Hepburn, the Baillargeon brothers, the two famous wrestling hypnotists, Dr. Jerry Graham and Timmy Geohagen. Probably the most unusual event that has ever been on any wrestling card is a wrestling tiger that was on the circuit for awhile.

Nearly every former world heavyweight boxing champion has graced the Hart circuit as a special referee at one time or another. Some of the third men that held the boxing crown: Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Jack Sharkey, Ezzard Charles and Max Baer. Other notable boxing personalities that have refereed for Hart have been Barney Ross and Yvon Durelle.

In July of every year promoter Hart puts on his best talents and puts on a wrestling card in association with the famous Calgary Stampede. This event has been going on for over a dozen years. Thse cards are filled with talent from around the world. The highlight of the card is the appearance of the National Wrestling Alliance champion. Some of the title matches that have been held in Calgary during the Stampede have been: Dory Funk Jr. vs. Billy Robinson in 1969, Archie Gouldie vs. Terry Funk in 1978.

Like all wrestling promotions, there is a recognized championship belt that is defended in the territory. In 1968, Promoter Stu Hart held an open invitation tournament to any and all wrestlers for a championship belt to be representing the heavyweight championship of North America. The tournament brought in many great wrestling stars and was won by The Stomper when he beat Pat O'Connor in the finals in February, 1968.

The belt has been worn by many men since and some of the former champions have been: The Stomper, Gilles "The Fish" Poisson, Mad Dog Martel, Leo Burke, Gene Kiniski, Pierre Martel, Tor Kamata and a host of others. The list is long and impressive and to list all the titleholders would take a full page.

The Hart organization was built with a lot of hard work and love to become one of the strongest wrestling booking offices in the North American continent. Thus it is no question when the name Stu Hart comes up and he is called the "Wrestling Czar of Canada.

THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

(Rocky Mountain News, June 4, 1999)

Without Zane Bresloff, there might not be a wrestling war today.

When World Championship Wrestling was trying to change its perception as a minor-league promotion in 1994, the group targeted two key members of the World Wrestling Federation: Hulk Hogan and Bresloff, a Littleton resident who shared the WWF's arena booking responsibilities through his Cherry Creek-based Awesome Promotions.

Hogan and other WWF defectors -- notably Randy Savage, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall -- provided the star power WCW was sorely lacking, while Bresloff helped the promotion gain access to arenas and markets that were previously unavailable because of WWF strangleholds. For the first time, WCW could book the best buildings in such major markets as New York City (Nassau Coliseum in Long Island), Chicago (Rosemont Horizon) and Boston (Fleet Center).

While momentum in the rivalry between the promotions has swung both ways over the past five years, there's no question WCW has gained the inroads it sought with Bresloff's hiring. WCW generated a promotion-record $34 million in attendance revenue last year and could match that figure in 1999.

"In 1994, WCW was drawing about 1,500 to 2000 people paid per show, with the strength being in the South and nothing everywhere else," Bresloff said. "We reached our heights last year, but we've still got a goal to set for this year even though the late spring was rough for various reasons."

Bresloff, 51, was the first WWF promoter in the Denver area, helping the group gain a foothold against the now-defunct American Wrestling Association. Bresloff promoted the local closed-circuit showing of Wrestlemania I in 1985 and the first WWF show at the Denver Coliseum, drawing 3,000 fans for a card headlined by Barry Windham-Mike Rotunda vs. The Iron Sheik-Nicolai Volkoff.

As the WWF increased in popularity, so did Bresloff's role. Bresloff was flown to Pontiac, Mich. to promote Wrestlemania III, which became the largest indoor crowd (93,000-plus fans) ever to witness a pro wrestling show in the U.S.

But on the heels of various scandals that rocked the WWF in 1992, Bresloff was given fewer shows to promote. When the WWF dramatically reduced the number of its live shows to less than 10 a month, Bresloff decided to jump to WCW.

"I didn't see any upside staying in the WWF," said Bresloff, who promoted sports and concerts in Chicago before moving to Denver in the early 1980s. "WCW came to me with an offer where I would not only have arena rights to the entire country but also the world-wide rights. It was a challenge, but I've always liked a challenge."

Bresloff knows he now faces another one with WCW badly slumping and the WWF regaining prominence as the nation's top promotion.

"We know what our mistakes are, which are not Awesome (Promotions) mistakes but WCW mistakes," Bresloff said. "They're doing everything to correct it. It's the storylines and the misuse of talent.

"They need to start pushing the younger guys. It's like with any sport. If the Denver Broncos are 4-12 with a bunch of 10-year veterans, you've got to start trading them and get the rookies playing. With wrestling, it's no different."

But even with WCW's problems, Bresloff doesn't see his business falling into a sleeper hold. Bresloff edged the WWF for exclusive promoting rights for the new Pepsi Center in Denver (a Nov. 29 debut date for WCW is scheduled) and is hoping for a massive crowd Dec. 27 for a show at the Houston Astrodome billed as the final WCW event of the century.

"The kids are into the new elements of wrestling," Bresloff said. "The females, the music and, to an extent, the violence. They're all into the storylines. They are watching."

Questions and answers

Q: A few months ago on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, WCW's Bill Goldberg challenged the WWF's Steve Austin. Is that match ever going to happen? -- Garrett Duman and Josh Dorsey, Englewood, Col.

A: Only if Goldberg jumps to the WWF or Austin defects to WCW. Goldberg was told to make the grandstand challenge by WCW matchmaker Kevin Nash.
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The New WAWLI Papers (Wrestling As We Liked It) No. 518

WASHBURN HELPS SHIKAT IN TRAINING

(Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, May 27, 1930)

By Matt Ring

A week behind schedule, Dick Shikat settled down to serious training yesterday for the defense of his title against Jim Londos June 6 and wrestled for an hour with George Tragos and Jack Washburn in a newly pitched ring at Belmont Mansion in Fairmount Park.

An effort to patch up the champion's differences with "Toots" Mondt, his manager, was being made by Promoter Ray Fabiani while Shikat was going through his first workout.

Mondt was reached by telephone in New York and said he would come here today to talk things over with the promoter, who plans to take him out to Shikat's "camp."

The champion and his manager parted company last Friday night at Richmond, Va., after a row over a proposed match in New York. Shikat, having wrestled in four places during the week, refused to go to New York, after having been "booked" there by Mondt, and came to Philadelphia instead.

"Toots" has a three-year contract with Dick and is credited with having steered his 220-pound German charge to his present position at the top of the heavyweight wrestling field. Although yesterday's workout was held without his knowledge, he is responsible for the choice of Shikat's sparring partners.

Tragos, a Greek, is supposed to be an expert on Londos' style of grappling, having engaged in many tumbling sessions with his more famous compatriot. Washburn, a Chicago burly who has performed often before in preliminary matches of Arena mat shows, was chief sparring partner for Londos when Jim was training for his disastrous battle with Shikat last August.

Both are big and strong enough to stand the gaff of daily tussles with the champion.

Shikat showed signs of his arduous campaign last week when he climbed into the ring yesterday, but plans to do a lot of resting between workouts and expects to be at top condition on June 6.

Londos, whose drills on the Riviera fairgrounds at East Falls, bordering Fairmount Park's East River Drive, have attracted crowds of 2,000 and 3,000 during the last few days, has John Maxos, a fellow Greek, as sparring partner and masseur. After each session on the mat, Jim takes a rubdown lasting from forty-five minutes to an hour in his dressing room. He is more attentive to his person than a Directoire coquette.

WRESTLING ON TAP TONIGHT AT ARMORY

(Hagerstown Herald-Mail, June 9, 1961)

Vittorio (Argentine) Apollo returns to Hagerstown for a second appearance on a State Armory wrestling show scheduled tonight.

Apollo, who hails from Argentina, takes on Bob (Big O) Orton of Cayota, Kan., in the feature bout on a five-match card.

Apollo and Orton will wrestle one fall to a finish. There'll be a time limit of one hour.

Another one-fall bout will send The Angel against the Mexico City grappler, Miguel Torres.

An Australian tag team encounter finds Taro Sakuro and Haruo Sasaki of Japan facing Mark Lewin and Don Curtis of Buffalo, N.Y. This will be a best two-of-three falls affair.

Thirty-minute prelims call for Larry Simon to meet Arnold Skaaland and Red Grupe to battle Bill Zbyszko. Grupe is a German and Zbyszko hails from Poland. First bout is at 8:30.

BIG CROWD ON HAND FOR MATCHES

(Hagerstown Herald-Mail, June 10, 1961)

A capacity crowd was on hand last night at the Hagerstown Armory as professional wrestling returned in a blaze of action.

The heat was on as the action-packed card exploded in an exciting evening of grappling fireworks which had the fans on their feet most of the time.

The sensational, undefeated Vittorio "Argentine" Apollo met Bob "Big O" Orton in the main event and with a dazzling, lightning attack won over the blond ruffian from kansas in 14 minutes when referee Ed Blake disqualified Orton after he was on the receiving end of several rabbit punches in a wild and frantic match.

The co-feature unveiled a "new look" in the grappling wars as the once-scientific team of Mark Lewin and Don Curtis turned villain with a vicious and savage attack against the Japanese team of Taro Sakuro and Haruo Sasaki. Don Curtis gained the first fall in 15 minutes with a body press on Sasaki. Lewin came back in 10 additional minutes with a fall over Sasaki to gai