In the first of a new series, Will Burns takes a look at the iconic cities in the history of professional wrestling that link perfectly into our story and chronological journey. First up – Detroit.
Professional wrestling shows began running in Detroit in the 1920s but it really started to gain attention when promoter Nick Londos started booking the Detroit Olympia (pictured above) for his grappling events in 1928. Although this was relatively new to the area, it quickly became a popular staple of entertainment for the city.
By the 1930s, after starring in the ring on many Londos shows himself, local star Adam Weissmuller noticed the success wrestling was experiencing and he created his own company labelled ‘Weissmuller Wrestling Enterprises’. He forged links with other promoters, Fred Kohler of Chicago and Al Haft of Ohio, to bring the country’s best talent to the area with great success.
Weissmuller’s accomplishments had surpassed anything the city had seen previously and business was booming. However, Weissmuller suddenly passed away on 8th March 1937. Kohler and Haft, who had become very close with Weissmuller, acted as pallbearers at his funeral.
A former professional boxer with 60 bouts under his belt, Harry Light had started working with Weissmuller and his business partner Louis Markowitz shortly before Weissmuller’s death. Light moved to the area in 1919 after time in the Canadian Navy. He met Weissmuller while working as an usher at the Madison Ballroom when the promoter handed him $30 to collect some change at a local shop for the box office. He returned with the money and the friendship began.
In 1939, Light founded the Harry Light Wrestling Office and began promoting his own shows at Detroit’s Fairview Gardens under the banner of Big Time Wrestling. By 1947, tickets sales were deteriorating in Detroit and Light moved on to nearby Flint, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan to promote shows. Light had gained a television time slot on Channel 7, and once TV sets were being purchased, this gave him a major advantage over the other promoters in the state.
Come 1948, the National Wrestling Alliance was formed and Light signed up to its policies. The NWA agreed to split into regional territories and decided they would not compete with one another. With his NWA membership, Light was able to book the one true World Heavyweight Champion and improve his business further. Light held an important role in the NWA – organising schedules of the midget wrestlers for the territories.
His right-hand man Bert Ruby broke off from Light in the 1950s and created Motor City Wrestling which also became popular. Ruby was also a wrestler and a trainer, but when he promoted shows, he refrained from booking venues in Detroit to impede on Light’s business.
Meanwhile, with the TV audience snapping up tickets, Light’s NWA Detroit promotion held a stronghold in the territory, which did come under threat in 1959. Two men who could not gain membership into the Alliance were Jim Barnett and John Doyle, promoters from Indiana and New York respectively.
They created an outlaw promotion (The Barnett-Doyle Corporation) and started to run shows at Cobo Hall promoting bouts with Verne Gagne, Fritz von Erich, Bobo Brazil and Dick the Bruiser. They made great headway and drew an attendance of over 16,000 fans on their debut in April 1959 at the Olympic.
Light would combat this using his NWA contacts to book North Eastern stars Bruno Sammartino, Haystacks Calhoun and Argentina Rocca from Toots Mondt and Vincent J. McMahon, and promoted “The Greatest Card Ever Presented In Detroit” on 7th October 1961.
Harry Light (front left) signs a lease to bring his wrestling show to the new Cobo Arena (1961)
The city became a hotbed for wrestling throughout the sixties, however, the pressure impacted Harry and he got out of the business as The Corporation took over control. Nevertheless, Barnett and Doyle had cashed enough money to take their product elsewhere. So the NWA rights to Detroit and the state of Michigan were bought out by World Wide Sports for $50,000 in 1964. The company was owned by businessman Francis Fleser and his brother-in-law Ed Farhat and the deal included the TV contract that had three years remaining and a lease on Cobo Hall and the Cobo Arena.
World Wide Sports was filling houses at the Cobo Arena and broadcasting at least two of the Big Time Wrestling TV programs on Channel 7 every week with The Sheik at the top of the card. The man billed from the Syrian Desert was actually co-owner Farhat, a Michigan-born wrestler who had made a name as The Sheik in Chicago, New York and Texas since the fifties.
The Sheik returned home and became a huge draw. Due to his demented hardcore style and the use of weapons on his foes, he quickly became the most hated in the territory. Besides every great heel, there is a great babyface and the ever-popular Bobo Brazil was his counterpart. The pair feuded for decades in bloody battles over the Detroit version of the NWA United States Heavyweight belt.
Outside the ring, competition ascended from Dick the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder, who had been wrestling for Barnett and Doyle previously in the area. They looked to take advantage of the previous popularity of the grappling game. So in 1971, they created All-Star Championship Wrestling, which operated with stars from their Indianapolis-based World Wrestling Association company – until they gave up promoting in Detroit in 1975.
As the city of Detroit was changing, things started to take a bad turn in the late 1970s for Farhat and Fleser. As people were out of work, the crime rate in the city rose and the crowds started to dwindle. Consequently, The Sheik, Brazil, and others had no option but to take their expertise to other territories to earn a decent payday.
Although Vincent J. McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation sent talent to the region to try and help its diminishing attendances, Fleser and Farhat closed their doors in late of 1980. It was a sign of things to come, as the WWF landed a TV spot in the area, took over the Detroit bookings and readied itself for national expansion.
The Sheik and Brazil continued to wrestle for other territories and we will profile their historic careers closer in upcoming articles. For Harry Light, he retired in the area, was married with six children until he sadly passed away on October 29th 1971.
Detroit became an important city in the history of professional wrestling and if you were fortunate enough to live through the 1960s until mid-70s in the area, you were incredibly privileged to witness the stories unfold. The fans in the area can be thankful for the likes of Light, Barnett, Doyle, Sheik and Brazil for the memories they created and the paths they paved for the generations to come.
Second generation athlete Dory Funk Jr. holds the honour of the second-longest reign as NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, retaining onto the championship for a total of 1,563 days. Only Lou Thesz wore the title longer and with over 7,000 wrestling matches under his belt, Dory is the personification of a wrestling legend.
Dory was born Dorrance Earnest Funk on 3rd February 1941 in Amarillo, Texas. His father Dory Funk Sr. was a wrestler and promoter of the Western States Sports promotion and his own words, Dory Jr. proclaimed that: “My father was my teacher, he was my coach, he was my guidance counsellor, he was pretty much everything to me.”.
Training under his father, Dory Jr. began wrestling at age 22 after a successful college football career as a tackle at West Texas University. His father was very critical of Dory and his younger brother Terry Funk’s work, delivering very little praise to his sons. Terry stated, “if our father never said anything to us, we’d know we had a good match.”. Although this negative behaviour may have broken some, Dory and Terry felt they excelled from this treatment, although they had minimal training before stepping in between the ropes, his critique helped them improve.
His in-ring debut was a win over Don Fargo at the Amarillo Sports Arena and continued on to face Wild Bull Curry, Mike DiBiase and Harley Race in his early years. Only four years into the business Dory became promoting with his father, Dory Sr. in 1967. They both owned a 50% share of the Amarillo territory after promoter Doc Sarpolis passed away and his widow sold Doc’s asset onto Dory Jr.
In-ring, even in his rookie years, Dory showed a hard-hitting style that got people in the business talking and he would eventually move onto the Florida, Vancouver and Missouri territories and the National Wrestling Alliance board, which his father was an influential member of, chose to give one of the Funk brothers a run with the Worlds Heavyweight Championship. Dory Sr. returned home from the NWA meeting and he stated to his boys that “we can get one of you ready”, brother Terry unselfishly nominated his brother to get the title belt.
On 11th February 1969, Dory Funk Jr. defeated champion Gene Kiniski with a spinning toehold at the Armory in Tampa, Florida to begin his four-year reign. That evening, his father uncharacteristically praised him and said: “you have accomplished a hell of a lot and I’m proud of you.”.
Dory was a consummate champion and went onto to gain a huge following in Japan with his no-nonsense legitimate-looking style. He made his debut in the Land of the Rising Sun later in ‘69, working for the Japan Pro-Wrestling Association tagging with DannyHodge taking NWA International Tag Team Champions Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba to a one-hour draw. With his ability of strong-style forearm smashes, a variety of suplexes and leglocks, the Japanese fans lapped it up. This became the first of many, many of tours of Japan.
Over the four-year reign, Funk feuded with Jack Brisco in a series of one-hour draws all over the world. From the U.S. to Japan to Mexico to the Caribbean, crowds across many territories sold out for the match. The feud intensified and the brothers got involved as Jack’s brother Jerry Brisco would team up to take on Dory and Terry, again selling out many arenas across the NWA territories.
Dory was scheduled to face Jack in another NWA title defence but he suffered an unfortunate accident with a pickup truck on his father’s ranch. There was speculation through Brisco that Dory was scheduled to drop the title to Jack and the injury was fabricated. Jack states he came to this conclusion due to the history of manipulation tactics used on fellow NWA board members by Dory Sr. in the past.
Nevertheless, he was forced to drop the title in Kansas City on 24th May 1973, not to Brisco but to 30-year-old hometown hero Harley Race. Race and the Funk family were rumoured to be close friends at this point and presumed by many speculators as a reason why the title was dropped to him rather than Brisco.
Tragedy struck the Funk family just nine days later on 3rd June 1973. Terry and his father Dory Sr. were at his father ranch with fellow wrestler Les Thornton. Les and Dory Sr. started grappling in good spirits and Les claimed that Dory “couldn’t choke him out”. Les was made to eat his words moments later and tapped but Dory began to feel unwell shortly after. Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack and passed away while travelling to the hospital.
In their father’s absence, Terry joined Dory in booking the Amarillo territory to great success but their popularity in Japan brought greater triumph. They started regularly competing for Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling which saw its inception a year earlier and Dory became a veteran of the promotion. He feuded with Baba, The Destroyer, Jumbo Tsuruta, Abdullah The Butcher, The Sheik and NWA champion Harley Race. Terry joined him soon after working tag matches against teams of the crazy tandem of Abdullah and Sheik and Japanese pairing of Baba and Tsuruta.
In December 1975, Jack Brisco was NWA World Champion and a match was set in Miami Beach, Florida to face Dory for the championship. Brisco had held two reigns with the title over two years and became exhausted with the schedule the champion was expected to honour. He was ready to drop the title, but the NWA board had chosen Terry Funk as his successor. That night, they ran an angle where it was Terry would face Brisco and defeat him to become the champion. The promoter and Brisco used the excuse that Jack had prepared for Dory, not Terry.
The Funk Brothers became big box office stars in AJPW and captured many World’s Strongest Tag Determination League trophies in 1977, 1979, and 1982. On 11th December 1980, the Funks won ‘Match of the Year’ Award from Tokyo Sports for their match against Baba and Tsuruta.
Yet in AJPW, Dory’s greatest accomplishment was winning the NWA International Heavyweight Championship a total of three times. He captured his first by victory in a tournament for the vacant title defeating his brother in April 1981. After dropping the title to Butch Reed that June he went on to recapture it from Reed later that summer. On 9th October he was defeated by Bruiser Brody in Tokyo but regained it a month later, before eventually losing it back to Brody in April 1982.
Dory went onto to work for Vince McMahon’s WWF in 1986, Puerto Rico and Japan until the mid-90’s when he followed brother Terry to Philadelphia to work for Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling. They competed against the Public Enemy until the feud culminated in a brutal and bloody Barbed Wire Match in the summer of 1994.
Dory nurtures his own talent through his Funkin’ Conservatory in Ocala, Florida which he opened in 1981. Dory now 78 years old, is still active in the ring with his last match (at the time of writing) took place in November 2018 in Japan.
September has certainly been the most action-packed month of 1980 so far. Let’s get into it, starting with news of a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion…
Major happenings for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship this month as it switched hands not once but twice in Japan!
Harley Race dropped the title to All-Japan’s Giant Baba on 4th September in Saga, Japan and Harley reclaimed back off Baba on 9th September. For a full report of the title change click here. Despite losing the belt and winning it back, Harley had the busiest month of the year so far being involved in 18 title matches.
You will see a small change in our section here, both Baba and Harley had begun new reigns so we will be keeping count of all the champion’s defenses. You will see that we have added them to the match result.
DATE
EVENT
RESULT
1/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – City Gymnasium, Kanya, Kagoshima, Japan
Harley Race and Jumbo Tsuruta wrestled to a double count-out. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
2/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Municipal Gymnasium, Nakatane, Kagoshima, Japan
Harley Race and Austin Idol defeated Giant Baba and Prince Tonga 2-1 in a Best Two out of Three Falls bout.
4/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Saga Sports Center, Saga, Japan
Giant Baba pinned Harley Race to become the NEW NWA World Heavyweight Champion. This is Baba’s third reign holding the championship.
5/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Suizenji Gymnasium, Kumamoto, Japan
Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Karl von Steiger and Karl von Hess.
6/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Prefectural Gymnasium, Oita, Japan
Austin Idol and Harley Race beat Giant Baba and Rocky Hata.
7/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Community Center Hall, Shonai, Oita, Japan.
Giant Baba, Mil Mascaras and Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Austin Idol, Karl von Steiger and Harley Race by 2-1 in a Best Two out of Three Falls contest.
9/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Otsu Park Gymnasium, Otsu, Shiga, Japan
Harley Race beat Giant Baba (1st Defense) to become the NEW NWA World Heavyweight Champion. This is Race’s fifth reign holding the title.
12/9/80
All Japan Pro Wrestling – Summer Action Series II – Ichinomiya Industrial Gymnasium, Ichinomya, Aichi, Japan
Harley Race (1st Defense) and Mil Mascaras wrestled to a double count-out. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
14/9/80
St. Louis Wrestling Club – Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis MS
Harley Race (2nd Defense) defeated Spike Huber to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
15/9/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – West Palm Beach Auditorium, West Palm Beach, FL
Harley Race (3rd Defense) defeated Bobo Brazil by disqualification to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
16/9/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, Tampa, FL
Bugsy McGraw defeated Harley Race (4th Defense) via disqualification. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
17/9/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL
Harley Race (5th Defense) and Dick Murdoch wrestled to a time limit draw. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
18/9/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Jacksonville Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL
Harley Race (6th Defense) beat Dick Murdoch to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
19/9/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Forrest High School, Ocala, FL
Barry Windham defeated Harley Race (7th Defense) via disqualification. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
21/9/80
St. Louis Wrestling Club – Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis MS
Harley Race beat Jim Lang in a non-title encounter.
22/9/80
World Wrestling Federation – Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
WWF Champion Bob Backlund defeated Harley Race (8th Defense) via disqualification in a match for both championships. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title and Backlund retained the WWF belt.
24/9/80
Central States Wrestling – Topeka, KS
Harley Race (9th Defense) beat Akio Sato to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
25/9/80
Central States Wrestling – Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
Harley Race (10th Defense) and Dick the Bruiser wrestled to double disqualification. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
26/9/80
Central States Wrestling – Atchinson, KS
Harley Race (11th Defense) beat Mike George to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
27/9/80
Central States Wrestling – Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
Harley Race (12th Defense) beat Akio Sato to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
28/9/80
Big Time Wrestling – The Sportatorium, Dallas, TX
Harley Race (13th Defense) and Gino Hernandez wrestled to double disqualification. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
29/9/80
Big Time Wrestling – Fort Worth, TX
Harley Race (14th Defense) and Kerry von Erich wrestled to double count-out. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
30/9/80
Central States Wrestling – The Coliseum, Ottumwa, IA
Harley Race (15th Defense) beat Rufus R. Jones to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
ALL-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
In what could possibly be the biggest tour in the company’s history, the Summer Action Series II concluded on the 12th September playing host to two NWA World Heavyweight Championship changes.
On September 4th 1980, Giant Baba uncrowned Harley Race to become the 21st NWA World Heavyweight Champion and his third reign with the belt. However, Baba would only hold the title for five days before Race won it back in a rematch on the 9th in Otsu, Shiga, Japan. This is indeed the third time that Baba has held the belt and the third time he has lost it in a matter of days. We have a full article on this title change and the history between Race and Baba here.
Once Race had regained the title, he had to face the challenge of Mexican star Mil Mascaras the next night in Ichinomya, Aichi. Mascaras pushed Race to the limit using high-risk manoeuvres early in the bout but then dropped his style to brawl with the champ. The action spilt to the outside and Mascaras more than held his own, so much Race lost his cool and threw the timekeepers’ table into the ring. The referee let the behaviour slide as Race battered the masked man’s head into the table. The action continued back and forth and multiple near falls until the pair started brawling outside with Mascaras ramming Race’s head into the ring bell. Eventually, the referee counted both men out in what was the end of the great match as the two men continued to fight into the crowd.
BIG TIME WRESTLING (DETROIT)
Big Time promoted two shows in Canton, Ohio with WWF Champion Bob Backlund headlining against The Sheik. Both matches were wild with the first bout (10/9) ending with a double count-out. However, on the 24th, Backlund won in a Steel Cage match after leaving the cage in 21 minutes and he was awarded Sheik’s Detroit version of the United States Title by promoter Bruce Baker.
As we mentioned last month, other promotions are starting to invade the city but Ed Farhat is promoting a return to Cobo Hall (12/10) next month. The WWF is one of the promotions starting to book shows in the area but they are sending a lot of talent to the Cobo show, so it looks likely that the promotions are working together at this time. Backlund returns to the territory to defend the WWF title against Ken Patera and also confirmed for Cobo are The Wild Samoans, Andre the Giant, The Davidson Brothers, Mighty Igor and Bobo Brazil.
As a cost-cutting measure, the last Big Time Wrestling TV show of 1980 will be taped on 9th October and the remained of shows to be broadcast will show matches from Central States Wrestling.
BIG TIME WRESTLING (TEXAS)
The talented “Gorgeous” Gino Hernandez had a great opportunity to add to the list of his accomplishments in his young career as he took on NWA World Champion Harley Race at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas on 28th September. Unfortunately for The Handsome Halfbreed, the match ended in a double disqualification and Race left Dallas with the belt.
Earlier in the month (14/9), Bruiser Brody teamed with The Von Erichs, David, Kerry and Kevin to defeat Gary Young, Pak Song, Gary Hart and Gino Hernandez.
CENTRAL STATES WRESTLING
At the end of a tremendously busy month for him, Harley Race defended his NWA World Title four times at the end of September in his home state. He managed to retain the belt against Akio Sato (twice), Dick the Bruiser, Mike George and Rufus R. Jones.
A new Central States Heavyweight champion was crowned as Mike George pinned “Bulldog” Bob Brown on the 11th in Kansas City.
CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING FROM FLORIDA
Bobby Jaggers and Dusty Rhodes have been feuding across the state this past month in multiple gimmick matches with Rhodes emerging as the victor in the majority of the bouts. Dusty won both Texas Death matches in West Palm Beach (8/9) and in Orlando (14/9) while there was a no-contest decision in a Light Outs bout at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory (9/9). They also compete against each other in tag matches during the month but at a big show at the Armory in Tampa on the 16th, they were back in singles action as Rhodes beat Jaggers in a Texas Bullrope match.
In other news regarding Rhodes, Sir Oliver Humperdink has been forced to become Dusty’s valet for 30 days after Dusty defeated Ivan Koloff in Lakeview, Florida. The stipulation agreed was that Dusty would shave his head if he couldn’t beat Koloff and if Dusty won then Sir Oliver had to join Rhodes for 30 days.
On the 16th, Harley Race returned and lost to World Title challenger Bugsy McGraw, who still has the Florida Heavyweight belt, by disqualification as Les Thornton and Mike Graham battled over the NWA World Junior Heavyweight belt, but the match ended in a double pin so Thornton retained the strap.
Harley stuck around for a string of title defenses. The night before the McGraw match, he beat Bobo Brazil by disqualification at the West Palm Beach Auditorium while he went to face Dick Murdoch in two consecutive bouts later that week. On the 17th, Race and Murdoch went to a one-hour time limit draw in Miami Beach and the next night they main-evented the biggest show of the month at the Jacksonville Coliseum. Although Race pinned Murdoch in the main event, we did witness one title change.
Ivan Koloff and Nikolai Volkoff had only held the Florida Tag Team champions just over a month before losing to Bobo Brazil and Bugsy McGraw in front of packed house at the Coliseum in Jacksonville. As well as the NWA World Title defence, the fans were treated with two more title matches that night. Les Thornton and Mike Graham participate in a rematch from their bout the next before at the Armory, with the Englishman winning to retain his title. Finally, Barry Windham successfully defended his Florida TV belt against Florida Southern Heavyweight champion Dick Slater.
Speaking of Windham, the 6ft 6-inch tall youngster received a shot at Harley Race’s World Title on the 19th at Forrest High School in Ocala, Florida. This was Race’s final defense for the month in the territory and Windham won by disqualification.
EMPRESA MEXICANA DE LUCHA LIBRE
EMLL promoted their huge anniversary show ‘EMLL 47. Aniversario’ at the sold-out Arena Mexico in Mexico City on the 26th September. In the main event, El Satanico faced bitter rival Mocho Cota in a Lucha de Apuestas bout – where a competitor makes a public gamble with their adversary. Satánico won by two falls to one which forced Mocho Cota to be humiliated by being shaved bald afterwards per the stipulation of Hair vs. Hair.
The NWA World Middleweight Title was on the line as El Fantasma challenged Sangre Chicana for the belt in a Best of Two out of Three Falls match. The champion took the first fall with the challenger winning the second but the bout ended in a no-contest so Chicana remained the champion. Cien Caras also successfully defended his Mexican National Heavyweight belt winning 2-1 against TNT.
GEORGIA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
A wild month for title changes, stars moving on, stars returning and new stars debuting in Georgia. The month started off with Stan Lane defeating Kevin Sullivan to clinch the Georgia Junior Heavyweight Title on the 3rd September at the Municipal Auditorium in Columbus. A new Heavyweight champion of the territory was also crowned as Dennis Condrey pinned Steve Keirn on the 8th at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta. Out for revenge after last month’s attack, Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling II gained the ultimate retribution on The Assassins by taking the Georgia Tag Team Titles from their waists at The Omni (19/9).
Lots of new talent returned or appear in the territory for their first time. Mr. Saito is back and challenging various members of the roster to a special $5,000 Challenge Match on the Best of Championship Wrestling TV program. So far, Saito has retained his money by going to a time-limit draw with Steve Keirn, the Japanese suplex specialist then attacked Keirn afterwards but Kevin Sullivan and Mr. Wrestling II made the save. A week later, Jack Lincoln faced Saito in another $5,000 challenge with the former Olympic wrestler put the rookie away with ease.
Terry Funk has returned and joined forces with Ole Anderson and they are running amok in the promotion. On the 20/9 Georgia TV show, Funk and Anderson attacked Mike Davis and the NWA National TV Champion Terry Taylor brawled with Funk afterwards. Funk then ended up scrapping with Kevin Sullivan later in the show with Taylor again emerging from the back to fight Funk.
Two superstars have been forced to leave the territory due to recent results at the 5/9 Omni show. Ole’s brother Gene Anderson lost a ‘Loser Leaves Georgia’ bout to Bill Watts and the mysterious masked man known as Uvalde Slim. The stipulation was that whoever lost the fall would leave and Gene has now been forced to leave Georgia. Also on the show, Mr. Wrestling II sent The Masked Superstar packing as he also lost a Loser Leaves bout, however, this match was inside a steel cage.
A tag team from the Mid-South territory have arrived called The Fabulous Freebirds. The team consists of Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy – yes, three men. They say that there are introducing “a new dimension to tag team wrestling” and that opponents cannot plan their strategy as any combination of the three could wrestle in two-on-two competition. The flamboyant trio rocked up on TV wearing all pink robes while Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ was playing in the background.
The company made their debut in Columbus, Ohio on the 28th at Ohio Center with Dusty Rhodes (banned in Georgia) getting his hands on Ole Anderson in the main event.
HOUSTON WRESTLING
A big month in Houston for the Paul Boesch promotion. He put on his usual weekly shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum with the big news being that Gino Hernandez, despite the challenges of El Halcon and Mark Lewin, is still the NWA American Heavyweight Champion. After defeating El Halcon by shady tactics on the 5th, Hernandez faced “The Maniac” on the 12th in a wild encounter.
Lewin took an early advantage claiming the first fall on the champion in a three-fall bout in just over two minutes. The crowd erupted as Lewin laid out Hernandez and his manager Gary Hart with a pair of vicious chops to the head which accumulated in “Gorgeous Gino” being pinned. Gino got the equalizer after hitting a top rope elbow to a standing Lewin for the pin. Although Gino was back in the match, Lewin dominated until Hart got involved. Lewin lost his cool and beat Gary Hart merciless outside and ended up being counted out so Gino kept the title. Lewin vowed after the match that he wants another shot at Gino.
MAPLE LEAF WRESTLING
In Canada, on the 27th, Frank Tunney promoted a huge night at the Gardens with a Greg Valentine vs. Ric Flair main event for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. The champion managed to overcome Flair’s challenge in 22 minutes but the war is far from over, as the referee failed to notice that Flair’s leg was draped across the bottom rope for the pin.
Also on the show, The Great Hossein Arab defended the NWA Canadian Heavyweight belt against the blood thirsty Indian grappler Tiger Jeet Singh. Arab escaped with the title losing on a disqualification decision after he purposely struck the referee to keep the belt. Bobby Duncum made his Gardens debut against Angelo “King Kong” Mosca, in a battle of former pro footballers, but the bout ended in a double disqualification after referee John Laing was manhandled by both guys and he threw the match out.
Announcements were made that Maple Leaf Wrestling will run joint shows with Mid-Atlantic in Buffalo (18/10) and back at the Gardens (19/10) next month, we will explain all the happenings from those events next time.
MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
There has been a heavy influx of new or returning talent to the area over the past few months and it looks like more could be coming in. Ivan Koloff joined The Sheepherders, Butch Miller and Luke Williams in the territory. The Kiwis made the ultimate impact in the territory by winning the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles from Matt Borne and Buzz Sawyer at the Charlotte Coliseum at the end of the month (28/9). Miller and Williams are still undefeated so far and “The Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff has joined forces with Iron Sheik and Gene Anderson. It is understood that Roddy Piper will be joining Mid-Atlantic in October.
Sweet Ebony Diamond is hot on the trail of The Iron Sheik’s Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight title and they have torn it up across the Carolina arenas.
Speaking of Gene Anderson, he recently attacked NWA Television Champion The Masked Superstar, who is now teaming with “Number One” Paul Jones and they are in hot pursuit of Jimmy Snuka and Ray Stevens and the NWA World Tag Team Championships.
Ric Flair and Greg Valentine are still embroiled in a bloody feud over the United States Championship, a title that the “The Hammer” is still in possession of. Flair has been taking Valentine to the limit and one-hour draws across the Carolinas. Ricky Steamboat is also honing in on The Iron Sheik’s Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight belt.
NEW-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
The Bloody Fight Series dominated the whole month in Japan which concluded with a big event at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on the 30th.
On the 11th in Osaka, two great title match main events headlined the card. Tatsumi Fujinami successfully defended his WWF Junior Heavyweight strap against veteran Tony Rocco and Fujinami’s mentor Antonio Inoki fought rival Stan Hansen for the NWF Heavyweight belt.
Hansen was accompanied by “Pretty Boy” Larry Sharpe who had helped Hansen sabotage Inoki’s shot at Bob Backlund and his WWF Title. Inoki ended up winning the bout via count-out after battling outside, but before Inoki was announced the winner, Hansen hit him with a lariat from behind. This knocked Inoki out cold and it took him several minutes before he could be helped to his feet. The feud continued throughout the tour and Inoki would gain revenge on the 25th at the Hiroshima Prefectural Gymnasium. He handed Hansen another shot at the NWF Heavyweight Title and defeated the Texan in ten and a half minutes. It was a hard-hitting affair with both men showing their real hatred for each other. The finish came when Inoki ducked a lariat and hooked Hansen’s arms into a backslide for the three count.
WWF Champion Bob Backlund was less than pleased when Sharpe and Hansen interfered in the Inoki bout and he gave Hansen a chance at his WWF Title at the huge event in the sold-out Nippon Budokan on September 30th. Both men saw a decent amount of offense but Hansen’s patience was wearing thin when he was unable to put Backlund away for the pin. Hansen saw red and dragged Backlund to the floor to brawl in front of the timekeepers table and was disqualified. Backlund came around and smashed a steel chair over Hansen’s head and the two started to trade punches again before Hansen retreated. These two will meet again.
Chavo Guerrero flew in for a one-on-one encounter with NWA International Junior Heavyweight titleholder Kengo Kimura, the battled for nearly 16 minutes but the bout ended as a double count-out. Georgia-native Ron Starr who has been working for NWA Hollywood recently, made his return to the company after two years to face WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami and did more than hold his own. However, Fujinami prevailed winning in 18 minutes with a Boston Crab submission.
In the main event, Antonio Inoki fought WWF Intercontinental Champion Ken Patera for the NWF Heavyweight Title. Inoki beat the strongman in just under 15 minutes.
Next month, we see the beginning of the 24-show Toukon Series tour with plenty Gaijins joining. Guerrero and Starr return as Jim Garvin and Paul Orndorff make their first-ever appearances in the country. Steve Keirn returns as does the long-awaited reappearance of Hulk Hogan, another guy that Antonio Inoki is dying to get his hands on.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRESTLING
PNW Champion Roddy Piper and “Playboy” Buddy Rose’s long feud has finally come to an end after Piper lost a Loser Leaves match on the 27th September. However, earlier in the month (6th Sept), Piper and rookie Popovich teamed up to face Rick Oliver and Rose in a non-title title bout, although it was promoted last month to be for the vacant PNW Tag Team straps. Using shady tactics, Rose and Oliver got the win in a three-fall affair by 2-1. Following the match, Rose stated if anyone could remove his mask, he would not wear it ever again. Piper sneaked up behind Rose slapped on a sleeper and removed the Playboy’s hood and threw it into the fans.
Come the 13th, Piper defended the title against Rose in a Best of Three Falls match and Piper took fall one with a sleeperhold but before the second fall could begin, Rose’s comrade Ed Wiskowski attacked the Scotsman, ramming his head into the ring post causing a laceration on Piper’s forehead. Piper managed to pick up the second fall with a roll-up and Rose emerged with a chair. Unfortunately for the Playboy, Piper gained control and smashed him over the back. Many competitors from the locker room tried to stop the manic Scotsman and although initially they could not, numbers prevailed and finally saved Rose from serious injury. After the match, promoter Don Owens declared a ‘Loser Leaves’ match would take place between Piper and Rose on 15th September. Although Rose was fearful about fighting Piper again and he clearly stated he did not want to face Piper in this type of match. However, Piper demanded the bout and it proclaimed it would be just one fall and with two referees officiating!
The match took place in the hot and humid Portland Sports Arena with no air conditioning and the bout began a technical contest. As time went on, Rose started breaking the rules and Piper followed suit. The action spilt to the outside a few times but once back inside the ropes, the pair collided headfirst into each other and the match was halted for several minutes. The two officials pulled back the eye-lids of both men to check on their consciousness. One of the referee’s, Sandy Barr emerged from the back with a container of water and threw it on both men to revive them. The blood started flowing once Piper had gnawed at Rose’s forehead and Buddy smacked Roddy to open his wound from the previous match.
Rose went to the outside to grab a chair and Barr stopped the Playboy in his tracks, however, the pair grappled over it which Rose overpowered Barr and the chair and the referee went hurtling into an injured leg of Piper. Buddy went to work on the leg and clamped on a figure-four leglock with twenty seconds to go of the time-limit. Piper held on until the timekeeper Dutch Savage rang the bell. Rose grabbed the mic and declared himself the winner, Don Owens came down and said there was no way Buddy was going to be awarded the match. Much to the shock of the attendance, Rose attacked Owens and put the boots to him. Piper made the save and demanded Rose give him a no-time-limit rematch on the 27th.
In the rematch the next week, Piper clamped a sleeper on Rose and he was trapped and panicking. Rose’s movement caused Piper to lose his footing, Rose pressed his feet into the turnbuckle and Piper crumbled under the weight for the three count. Roddy Piper has now left Portland. Buddy Rose, Rick Oliver and Fidel Cortez joined the TV show the next week celebrating by showering each other with Champagne and Rose was sporting a “Bye Bye Piper” shirt.
New Tag Team Champions were crowned when Fidel Cortez and Rick Oliver won the belts in Grandview, Washington on 12th September. We cannot locate the official result of the match but we presume they defeated the team of Piper and Popovich for the straps.
Joe Lightfoot has arrived in the area and joined forces with Jonathan Boyd and Dutch Savage with the aim to take Buddy Rose’s army down.
ST. LOUIS WRESTLING CLUB
The Kiel Auditorium was sold out again for a big card in the territory promoted by the legendary Sam Muchnick on the 12th September. Ric Flair pinned Ted DiBiase, Rufus R. Jones tagged with David von Erich in a victory over Takachiho and Bruiser “King Kong” Brody and in the main event, Dick The Bruiser defeated Dick Murdoch in a Fence Match.
Muchnick is promoting a huge card in October at the Checkerdome in St. Louis with an NWA World Title return match headlining as Harley Race defends against David von Erich. Also announced, Ken Patera will defend his Missouri heavyweight belt against Ted DiBiase and Brody, Kevin von Erich, Dick the Bruiser, Dick Murdoch and Rufus R. Jones are all listed to appear.
WORLD WRESTLING COUNCIL
Two title changes in the WWC at the big event in Caguas, Puerto Rico on August 17th. Jose Rivera lost his WWC Caribbean Heavyweight belt to Luke Graham and Pierre Martel defeated Mr. Fuji to become the new WWC North American Heavyweight Champion.
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION
The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika have reclaimed the WWF Tag Team Titles winning the six-team tournament that was held on WWF TV over the past month. Captain Lou Albano’s men defeated Rene Goulet and Tony Garea in finals after Afa pinned Goulet following a double team bodyslam while the referee was distracted.
Last month, Gorilla Monsoon wrestled WWF Intercontinental Champion Ken Patera at the Philadelphia Spectrum and the veteran punished the Olympic Strongman before being brutalised at the end of the bout. Monsoon lost a four-minute match to Hulk Hogan at the Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts on 20th September and rumours abound that Monsoon this was his last match. It is claimed there will be a ceremony on 11th October where Gorilla will hang up his boots at the Spectrum.
The Federation presented another sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden for one of the biggest matches in WWF history. A unification match for the NWA World Heavyweight Title and the WWF Championship – we covered this entire event in our feature article here.
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
HARLEY RACE
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS
RAY STEVENS AND JIMMY SNUKA
1. Giant Baba
1. Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood
2. Antonio Inoki
2. Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta
3. Greg Valentine
3. The Sheepherders
4. Bob Backlund
4. The Wild Samoans
5. Andre the Giant
5. Mr. Wrestling/Mr. Wrestling II
6. Ric Flair
6. Fidel Cortez/Rick Oliver
7. Mil Mascaras
7. Paul Jones/The Masked Superstar
8. Jumbo Tsuruta
8. Gene and Ole Anderson
9. David Von Erich
9. The Fabulous Freebirds
10. Dick Murdoch
10. Bob Brown/Rufus R. Jones
This month we take a look at the excellent Harley Race vs. Bob Backlund – NWA vs WWF bout from Madison Square Garden on 22nd September 1980.
Detroit: The Sheik’s territory seems to be spiralling into obscurity, can it last another month?
Georgia: The Freebirds have flown into the area and are ready to add a new dimension to tag team wrestling… can they succeed?
Maple Leaf/Mid-Atlantic: The promotions relationship is going strength to strength as they book big shows in Buffalo and Toronto in October. We will have reports from both shows.
New Japan: The Toukon Series gets underway as Antonio Inoki will be looking to clash with Hulk Hogan
Portland: Now that Martel, Piper and the Sheepherders have left the Northwest, who will stop Buddy Rose and his new army?
St. Louis: The Checkerdome show card is looking stacked. Full report next time.
WWF: Will Gorilla Monsoon retire? The promotion returns to MSG and the Spectrum, we will have news from both shows.
Another action-packed month in the territories of the National Wrestling Alliance. Today we take an extensive look at the Champions Carnival tournament in All Japan Pro Wrestling, especially reviewing the wild feud between Terry Funk and Abdullah the Butcher. More titles change in many of the federations, we catch up with Buddy Rose and Roddy Piper in Portland and we look at the mystery in the NWA World Tag Team Titles change last month between Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood and Ray Stevens and Greg Valentine in Mid-Atlantic.
But first let’s look at how Harley Race, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, has got on in April 1980.
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race had another busy month on the road defending his title no less than 13 times in April 1980 and it could be argued this was his toughest month yet in our journey. With Dusty Rhodes, Tony Atlas, Tommy Rich, David Von Erich, Ric Flair and Dick Murdoch as some of his opponents, it is very impressive that Race is still our champion.
DATE
EVENT
RESULT
4/4/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
Tommy Rich defeated NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race via disqualification. Race retained the title.
6/4/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – The Omni, Atlanta, GA
Harley Race and Mr. Wrestling II battled to a 60:00 draw for the NWA World title. Dusty Rhodes, Dory Funk Jr. and Lou Thesz were all special ringside judges for the bout.
8/4/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – The Coliseum, Macon, GA
Harley Race beat Tony Atlas to retain the NWA World Heavyweight title.
9/4/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – Municipal Auditorium, Columbus, GA
Tommy Rich defeated NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race via disqualification. Race retained the title.
12/4/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Key West, FL
Harley Race retained his NWA World Championship via a DQ win against Dusty Rhodes.
13/4/80
Maple Leaf Wrestling – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Harley Race and Dewey Robertson went to a curfew draw for the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
14/4/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – Bell Auditorium, Augusta, GA
Tommy Rich defeated NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race via disqualification. Race retained the title.
16/4/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Convention Hall, Miami Beach, FL
Harley Race beat Manny Fernandez to retain the NWA Worlds title.
19/4/80
Championship Wrestling from Florida – Bayfront Center, St. Petersburg, FL
In a Steel Cage match, Dusty Rhodes beat Harley Race via DQ. Race retained the NWA Worlds Title.
23/4/80
Central States Wrestling – Veterans Auditorium, Des Moines, IA
Harley Race pinned “Bulldog” Bob Brown to retain the NWA World title.
24/4/80
Central States Wrestling – Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
Harley Race and Dick Murdoch battled to a 60:00 draw for the NWA World title.
25/4/80
St. Louis Wrestling Club – Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, MS
Harley Race defeated Ric Flair by 2-1 to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
28/4/80
Big Time Wrestling – The Sportatorium, Dallas, TX
Harley Race and David Von Erich battled to a 60:00 draw for the NWA World title.
ALL-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
One of the highlights of the wrestling calendar happened in Japan with the AJPW Champions Carnival. The 8th annual tournament’s final will take place on the 1st of May in Fukuoka with NWA United National Champion Jumbo Tsuruta faces Dick Slater with both men tied on 19 points at the top of the league table. Slater goes into the match as the favourite, already holding a win over Jumbo on the 28th of April in Oita, Japan.
NAME
POINTS
Dick Slater
19
Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA UN Champion)
19
Abdullah the Butcher
18
Terry Funk
18
Giant Baba (PWF Champion)
17
Tiger Toguchi
15
Ted DiBiase
12
Ray Candy
8
The Mysterious Assassin
6
Rocky Hata
4
The Great Kojika
4
Motoshi Okuma
2
Carl Fergie
0
The biggest news story that has come out of the tournament and the tour is the feud between Terry Funk and Abdullah the Butcher. It began with a series of attacks on Funk by Abdullah, usually using a utensil into Funk’s head and leaving him bloody. After Funk defeated Ray Candy on 28th March in his opening match of the tournament, Abby jumped Funk after the bell and started jabbing Terry with his fork.
Funk had a great match with Tsuruta on the 4th ending in a time limit draw but previous to that bout, Abdullah had faced Giant Baba in a double count-out. It was an all-out brawl which Funk caught up with the Butcher. The officials finally got the situation under control and the Funk-Tsuruta match was able to get underway.
The two rivals finally met in a tag team bout on Day 15 of the tour in Takanosu, Akita as Funk and Jumbo faced Abdullah and the Mysterious Assassin with the former coming out the winners. They finally met in the tournament (18/4) in Osaka and battled to a double count-out in a bloody wild brawl. Abdullah also got involved in a Baba-Funk match (24/4) standing at ringside near the end of the bout, the man from Sudan was teasing climbing into the ring before Dick Slater emerged and stopped him. Abdullah retaliated by throwing salt into Slater’s eyes and Funk made the save. Funk failed to return to the ring on time and was counted out. After the match, a mass brawl broke out that saw The Sheik stabbing Baba with a fork.
Funk gained revenge on his adversary after he cost Abby a match against Tsuruta moments later, tripping the Butcher up to allow Jumbo hit a flying knee for the win. Funk and Abdullah are due to clash in a tag team match on the 1st May. Funk’s partner will be Ted DiBiase and Abdullah will be tagging with Candy.
BIG TIME WRESTLING (TEXAS)
The Sportatorium was buzzing at the end of April for an NWA Worlds Title match between Harley Race and David Von Erich. Unfortunately for the packed house, David failed to defeat Race within the sixty-minute time limit and the match ended as a draw. We are sure that is this will not be David Von Erich’s last opportunity at the championship.
Bruiser Brody held the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles title for only a month as he was defeated by Toru Tanaka in Fort Worth, Texas on the 14th of this month.
CENTRAL STATES WRESTLING
A new Central States Champion was crowned as Bruiser Brody defeated “Bulldog” Bob Brown at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City (10/4). It was a really bad month for Brown as a week later in the same building, the Central States Tag Titles changed hands as Brown and Dick Murdoch lost the belts to the Asian duo of Pak Song and Takachiho.
It wasn’t the best month for Brown’s partner Murdoch either as he failed to uncrown Harley Race for the Worlds Title going to a sixty-minute draw with the champ.
CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING FROM FLORIDA
Dusty Rhodes failed to regain the Worlds Title from champion Harley Race again this month. They had a rematch from last month’s Steel Cage match at the Bayfront Center on 19th and St. Petersburg crowd were chomping for the Title switch. However, Race got himself disqualified after he was punished by the referee for repeatedly beating Dusty’s head into the cage.
At the same event, Don Muraco retained the Florida Heavyweight Title against former champion Manny Fernandez despite seeing his opponent’s hand raised by a disqualification. Muraco pinned Manny last month in Miami Beach to become the champion but “The Raging Bull” failed to claim the belt back at the Bayfront Center.
GEORGIA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
An eventful April in Georgia as the newly formed team of Tony Atlas and Kevin Sullivan managed to overcome The Russians (Ivan Koloff and Alexei Smirnoff) to win the Georgia Tag Team championships at the Omni on the 6th. Their joy was short-lived when the Russians regained the Titles on the 26/4 edition of Georgia TV.
NWA World Champion Harley Race spent the majority of the month in the territory for some Title defenses. At the 6th Omni show, He went sixty minutes with Mr. Wrestling II in a match that saw former champions Lou Thesz, Dory Funk Jr. and Dusty Rhodes as ringside judges. The match was declared a draw. He also defended against Atlas and Tommy Rich but Race left the area as the titleholder.
On the 6th, Rich came close to clinching the Georgia Heavyweight Title from champion Austin Idol, but the “Universal Heartthrob” ended up getting disqualified and walked out as the champion.
MAPLE LEAF WRESTLING
The Gardens were packed on the 13th as NWA World Champion Harley Race was in town to face local hero Dewey Robertson. The Canadian champ Robertson held Race to a curfew draw on 32 minutes.
Andre The Giant was also visiting Toronto and the Frenchman defeated Ox Baker and Angelo Mosca pinned Gene Anderson in a handicap match with Jimmy Snuka tagging with Gene. Mosca would meet Snuka again the night after in Brantford, Ontario as he tagged with Andre to face Snuka and Baker in a tag match. The good guys won.
MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
The biggest news coming out of Mid-Atlantic is that Ric Flair won the NWA United States Title for the fourth time. On the 9th April TV show, Jim Crockett Jr. declared that the title had been stripped off champion Jimmy Snuka as Flair had pinned him on the 6th at the Greensboro Coliseum. However, the official referee was knocked out and Johnny Weaver made the count. A decision was made to settle the confusion that the title was held up and Flair and Snuka would meet in a rematch at the same venue on the April 20th. Flair ended up winning the bloody battle pinning Snuka to settle any dispute. Flair was unveiled as the new champion on TV later that month and was attacked by Snuka, Iron Sheik and Gene Anderson with Flair’s pals Blackjack Mulligan and Jim Brunzell to make the save.
As promised last month, an update on the situation with new World Tag Team Champions Greg Valentine and Ray Stevens and former champs Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. The former champs asked Bob Caudle and David Crockett to play a video of the match from 29/3 at the Charlotte Coliseum where Valentine and Stevens won the belts. The champs exploded and Valentine snatched the tape and hit Crockett on the head with it. Stevens then proceeded to pull out a knife and destroy the reel of film. Steamboat and Youngblood revealed that the tape would have shown the unlawful way that Valentine and Stevens had won the match and they anticipated a rematch as soon as possible. They did not have to wait long and gained seven rematches throughout the month but by the end of the month, the heels still have possession of the belts.
The feud between Blackjack Mulligan and the Masked Superstars I and II continued. On the 9th April, the Superstars taunted Blackjack in regards to his injured hand, but Mulligan fooled the Superstars in signing contracts for matches throughout the month and then removed the cast proving that he is fit to return to the ring. He wrestled both Superstars in singles action with great success.
NEW-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
NJPW hosted a huge show as the penultimate event of their Big Fight Series 1980 tour on the 3rd of the month. Four titles were on the line as Tatsumi Fujinami successfully defended his WWF Junior Heavyweight Title against Ashura Hara. Gran Hamada defeated Baby Face to retain his UWA World Light Heavyweight championship. Riki Choshu and Seiji Sekiguchi beat the Iron Sheik and Super Destroyer to retain the NWA North American Tag straps. Finally, in the main event, Antonio Inoki defeated Stan Hansen after a suplex to win the NWF World Heavyweight Title.
On the final date of the tour (4/4), Florida native Mike Graham was defeated by Fujinami for the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship in Kawasaki City Gymnasium.
Before the month was out, the third annual MSG Series began (25/4) at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The Madison Square Garden Series is a singles tournament in a round-robin league format that will run from 25th April until the finals on 5th June 1980. We will have more news on this next month but so far, a mini preliminary tournament is underway to qualify for the tournament. The winners of the preliminaries will join Inoki, Andre the Giant and Dusty Rhodes in the ten-man league competition.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRESTLING
The match finally happened. After teasing for weeks, “Playboy” Buddy Rose met Roddy Piper in a Steel Cage Loser Gets Hair Shaved Match at the Expo Center, Portland on the 15th April. Rose held Piper up for backbreaker only for the Scotsman to cradle Rose into a small package for three count. Special referee Red Bastien and Sandy Barr shaved the “Playboy’s” head after the loss. Bastien took great joy cutting into Rose’s hair as he himself had fallen foul to a past Hair vs Hair match with Buddy. A truly bad night for the “Playboy”. The defeat to Piper meant that Roddy stayed in the territory and Rose had to also hand over the keys to his Lincoln Continental.
Once he returned back to the Sports Arena, Rose obviously embarrassed and wishing to hide his bald head, donned a mask with blonde hair attached. Later in the month (26th), he faced Rick Martel in a Best of Three Falls non-title match in front of a hot crowd. Rose was counted out during the final and third fall after Martel unmasked him and the Sheepherders ran out with a towel to cover Buddy’s head and ushered him to the back.
SOUTHEASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
After defeating Ole Anderson last month to win the vacant NWA Southeastern Heavyweight title, Killer Karl Kox is no longer the champion. At a big event in Knoxville (13/4), Ole gained revenge and defeated Kox in a Steel Cage match to claim the championship.
It was not the only title change as the NWA Southeastern Tag Titles found a new home. The team of Steve Travis and Don Diamond beat The Manchurians (Tapu and Tio Tio) to take home the gold.
ST. LOUIS WRESTLING CLUB
Sam Muchnick booked another pair of big nights at the Kiel Auditorium during April. On the 11th, the main event saw KevinVon Erich retain his NWA Missouri Title against King Kong (Bruiser) Brody. Kevin won via a DQ and Bob Backlund, the WWF Champion defended his title against Olympic strongman Ken Patera – they wrestled to a draw.
On the 25th, the NWA Worlds Champion Harley Race defended the belt against the NWA United States champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. It was a close-fought contest that ended with Race defeating Flair by two falls to one. Kevin Von Erich beat Patera in a Missouri Title bout and Backlund was back defending his WWF title against “Bulldog” Bob Brown – Backlund is still the champion.
VANCOUVER ALL STAR WRESTLING
The Rose Army’s feud with Roddy Piper ventured up to Canada again this month as Piper recruited Steve Pardee and Sal Martino to beat Buddy Rose and The Sheepherders on the 21st in Vancouver. A few weeks earlier (7/3) Piper defeated The Sheepherders with the help of Rick Martel.
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION
The WWF promoted a huge show at the Philadelphia Spectrum on the 12th April which was shown live on the PRISM Network. Bob Backlund defended his WWF Championship against “The Incredible” Hulk Hogan. Hogan took Backlund to the limit, went nearly 30 minutes and defeated the champion by count-out so Bob kept the belt. Bruno Sammartino clashed with rival Larry Zbyszko again with Bruno coming out on top in around 18 minutes. However, the big news coming out the show was that Ivan Putski and Tito Santana lost their WWF Tag Team straps to the Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika.
The Federation hit Madison Square Garden on the 21st with another title change. In just over 30 minutes Ken Patera defeated Pat Patterson to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Bruno and Larry clashed again and Zbyszko had experienced enough punishment by the 15-minute mark and left the ringside area to take a count-out loss. One-half of the newly crowned tag champs The Samoan #1 took on Backlund for the WWF Title. Backlund emerged as the victor around 17 minutes due to a roll-up into a bridge pin. Hogan beat Frenchman Rene Goulet in quick fashion as did Andre the Giant against Bobby Duncum.
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
HARLEY RACE
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS
GREG VALENTINE & RAY STEVENS
1. Dusty Rhodes
1. Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood
2. Ric Flair
2. Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta
3. David Von Erich
3. Jose Lothario/Tiger Conway Jr.
4. Bruiser Brody
4. Ivan Koloff/Alexei Smirnoff
5. Tony Atlas
5. The Sheepherders
6. Dick Slater
6. The Sheik/Abdullah the Butcher
7. Antonio Inoki
7. Mr. Hito/Mr. Sakaruda
8. Giant Baba
8. Terry Funk/Dory Funk Jr.
9. Jimmy Snuka
9. Riki Choshu/Seiji Sekiguchi
10. Tommy Rich
10. Tony Atlas/Kevin Sullivan
Our match of the month has to be the fantastic clash between Stan Hansen and Antonio Inoki for the NWF World Heavyweight strap from NJPW’s Big Fight Series (3/4) in Kuramae Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
All Japan: Jumbo Tsuruta and Dick Slater clash in the finals of the Champion Carnival and we will have a report on the Terry Funk-Abdullah feud.
Mid-Atlantic: Jimmy Snuka will aim to regain the US title back from the grasp of Ric Flair as will Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood strive to claim back the Tag Titles from Greg Valentine and Ray Stevens.
New Japan: The MSG Series continues throughout the month of May before concluding in early June. We will report on all the happenings in the MSG league up until the 31st May.
Portland: Will Buddy Rose’s bald head be revealed and will Roddy Piper gain more revenge on the “Playboy” and his army?
WWF: The Bruno-Larry feud continues and how will new tag champs Afa and Sika and the new IC Champion Ken Patera fare in May 1980?
This month we witnessed the fallout from the shocking betrayal of Larry Zbyszko on his mentor Bruno Sammartino – they meet in the ring for the first time since the horrific incident.
Lots of title changes this month around the territories but first, we start our look at March 1980 with the travels of Harley Race, our NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race defended his title eleven times this past month, see the table below for all the results.
DATE
EVENT
RESULT
2/3/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – General James White Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
Harley Race defeated Dick Slater to retain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title.
13/3/80
Central States Wrestling – Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
Harley Race defeated Bruiser Brody
14/3/80
Houston Wrestling – Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, TX
Harley Race and Tony Atlas went to a one-hour draw for the NWA Worlds Title.
15/3/80
CWF – St. Lucie County Civic Center, Fort Pierce, FL
Dusty Rhodes beat Harley Race via DQ. Race retained the NWA Worlds Title.
16/3/80
Big Time Wrestling Texas – Dallas, TX
Harley Race and Bruiser Brody wrestled to a no-contest.
21/3/80
Stampede Wrestling – Victoria Pavilion, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Harley Race defeated Leo Burke to retain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title.
22/3/80
Stampede Wrestling – Exhibition Auditorium, Regina, Alberta, Canada
Harley Race defeated Leo Burke to retain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title.
24/3/80
Georgia Championship Wrestling – Memorial Gym, Hazard, KY
Harley Race defeated Stan Hansen to retain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title.
25/3/80
CWF – The Armory, Tampa, FL
Harley Race and Manny Fernandez went to a one-hour draw for the NWA Worlds Title.
26/3/80
CWF – Miami, FL
Harley Race defeated Steve Keirn
27/3/80
CWF – Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL
Harley Race defeated Manny Fernandez to retain the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title.
28/3/80
St. Louis Wrestling Club – Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, MS
Harley Race and Ric Flair went to a double count-out for the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
30/3/80
CWF – Lee County Civic Center, Fort Myers, FL
Dusty Rhodes beat Harley Race via DQ. Race retained the NWA Worlds Title.
30/3/80
CWF – Jai Alai Fronton, Orlando, FL
Dusty Rhodes beat Harley Race via DQ. Race retained the NWA Worlds Title.
ALL-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
AJPW finished their Excite Series 1980 sixteen-day tour on March 5th with a three falls main event that saw Jumbo Tsuruta defeating Dick Murdoch to regain the NWA United National Championship.
Towards the end of the month, the 8th Champions Carnival tournament began with the following participants: Abdullah The Butcher, Carl Fergie, Dick Slater, Giant Baba, The Great Kojika, Jumbo Tsuruta, Motoshi Okuma, The Mysterious Assassin, Ray Candy, Rocky Hata, Ted DiBiase, Terry Funk and Tiger Toguchi.
The tournament is set to run through to 1st May. By the end of the March, Abdullah topped the table as he got off to a perfect start winning his first three matches against Okuma, DiBiase and Slater. We will release the table next month once all of the league matches are completed and preview the finals of the competition.
BIG TIME WRESTLING (DETROIT)
The promotion returned to Cobo Arena on the first of the month with a huge main event. In a rematch from the AJPW Real World Tag League finals of December 1979, Terry & Dory Funk Jr. tasted defeat and their own blood in a Steel Cage Texas Death Match against Abdullah the Butcher and The Sheik. Dory gained revenge on Abdullah on the 15th in a Japanese Spike Match beating the Man from Sudan. The match had a unique stipulation with four wooden boards of three-inch spikes surrounded the ring, and yes, you guessed it… both men lost a lot of blood.
BIG TIME WRESTLING (TEXAS)
Harley Race was close to losing his NWA World Title to Bruiser Brody at the Sportatorium on the 16th. A controlling performance by Brody but he failed to capitalise on his dominance as the match was declared a no contest.
NWA Women’s Champion Fabulous Moolah was in action the next night in Fort Worth defeating Winona Little Heart to retain the strap.
Things did not go to plan for “Gorgeous” Gino Hernandez this past month, he lost various important matches. The standout was against El Gran Markus (6/3 – Beaumont, TX) in a Texas Death Match. He was defeated by Tiger Conway Jr. the next night in Arlington and against David Von Erich in the Sportatorium on the 30th.
CENTRAL STATES WRESTLING
In his first title shot of the month, Bruiser Brody took NWA World Champion Harley Race to the limit but ended up losing at the Memorial Hall, Kansas City in front of the champion’s home crowd. In other news, the NWA Central States champion “Bulldog” Bob Brown successfully defended his belt numerous titles against Japanese superstar Takachiho.
CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING FROM FLORIDA
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race worked six shows for Eddie Graham’s territory defending the belt on five occasions. Race outlasted the challenges of Dusty Rhodes and Manny Fernandez, although he lost all three matches to Rhodes via DQ and was took to a one-hour draw with Manny.
Manny Fernandez had a bad month, unable to clinch the World title he also lost his NWA Florida Heavyweight Title to Don Muraco at the Convention Center in Miami Beach on 26th March.
New NWA Florida Tag Team Champions were crowned as the team of Jack Brisco and Jimmy Garvin dethroned Bryan St. John and Stan Lane for the titles in West Palm Beach, Florida (3/3). Despite numerous rematches throughout the month, Brisco and Garvin head into April with the belts.
EMPRESA MEXICANA DE LUCHA LIBRE
Two big title changes in Mexico this month as Lizmark dropped the Mexican National Heavyweight title to Americo Rocca in Mexico City on the 29th March. In addition, Satoru Sayama has dropped the NWA World Middleweight title to El Satánico at a live event in Arena Mexico on the 28th March.
GEORGIA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
On Georgia TV, the new team of Tony Atlas and Kevin Sullivan are making waves in the territory and are undefeated through March 1980. They will look to take on the NWA Georgia Tag Team champions The Russians in the coming months, a championship that Atlas has held five times previously. Speaking of the champions, early in the month Alexei Smirnoff and Ivan Koloff defeated Lars and Ole Anderson on TV to retain the straps.
On the 9th, there was yet another big at the Omni. The main event saw Terry and Dory Funk lose to the team of Dusty Rhodes and Wahoo McDaniel that sent the Atlanta crowd home happy. Mr Wrestling II held onto his NWA Georgia Heavyweight title against Austin Idol however, this would not be the last time they met this past month.
The promotion returned to the Omni on the 23rd where Mr Wrestling II defeated Idol once again to retain the title but on the 29th March TV show, after playing hot potato with the National TV title since the turn of the year, Idol managed to uncrown Mr Wrestling II for the Georgia strap to become a two-time champion.
Also, on the 23rd Omni show, the fans were treated to a Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk classic Texas Bullrope Match with Dusty as the victor.
HOUSTON WRESTLING
After last’s month angle setting the bout up, Tony Atlas got his shot at Harley Race and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The impressive Atlas pushed Race to the limit but failed to defeat the champion before the one-hour time limit expired and the three falls match resulted in a 1-1 draw.
Jose Lothario and his protégé Tiger Conway Jr. regained the NWA American Tag Team Titles defeating JJ Dillon’s team of Mr. Hito & Mr. Sakurada at the Sam Houston Coliseum (14/3). Lothario and Conway lost the titles to the Japanese contingent in the same arena in January this year.
There was more than one title change at the Coliseum show on the 14th as Bruiser Brody claimed the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Title defeating Mark Lewin in a bloody brawl.
MAPLE LEAF WRESTLING
The partnership with Mid-Atlantic thrived once again this month in Toronto. Stars like Greg Valentine, Ray Stevens, Blackjack Mulligan and Jay Youngblood made it over the border and the bloody feud of Mulligan and John Studd continued. On the 9th, the big men squared up in a vicious Texas Death Match which Blackjack coming out the victor. Also, at that show, Dewey Robertson held onto his NWA Canadian Heavyweight Title despite a valiant challenge from Greg Valentine to send the fans home happy from the Gardens.
MLW was back at the Gardens at the end of the month (30/3) with NWA United States champion Jimmy Snuka defending against Angelo Mosca. Mosca won the match via DQ as Snuka’s cornerman Gene Anderson smashed Mosca with the cane and the referee called for the bell. In the main event, Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood took their feud with Valentine and Stevens up to Canada. The good guys won as Youngblood pinned Valentine after a 30-minute war.
MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
A busy month in Mid-Atlantic as the winner of TV Title Tournament has been decided as Masked Superstar was crowned the new champion as Blackjack Mulligan lost his cool and was DQ’ed in the final. Bitter rivals for years, Mulligan and Superstar defeated Swede Hanson and Johnny Weaver in the semis respectively and met in the final on the 12/3 TV show. Mulligan had been injured by both Masked Superstar and Superstar #2 at a house show previously, with the Superstars smashing Blackjack’s hand with a steel chair. The injury was so severe that Mulligan was forced to wear a cast to protect the hand and he used this to his advantage in the final. However, Superstar managed to rip the cast off and began to punish Mulligan’s hand. In obvious excruciating pain, Mulligan flipped and threw Superstar over the top rope and was disqualified. Superstar was declared the champion and he and his partner rubbed salt into Mulligan wounds stomping away trying to do more damage to the hand until Ric Flair made the save for the Texan.
US champion Jimmy Snuka held onto his title month despite strong contenders. Snuka overcame the challenge of Ric Flair in three bouts, winning two via count-out and pinfall due to Gene Anderson’s help behind the referee’s back and also losing one via DQ. Near the end of the month in Charleston, Snuka managed to get past big Rufus R. Jones.
The NWA World Tag Team title war raged on between champions Steamboat and Youngblood vs. Stevens and Valentine. No less than nine matches took place throughout the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia before heading to Toronto for Maple Leaf Wrestling. The biggest match, however, was held on Saturday the 29th at the Charlotte Coliseum for the World Tag Team Titles. On Mid-Atlantic TV a few days prior, challengers Ray Stevens and Greg Valentine announced they were no longer on probation by the NWA and a title match was set for Charlotte. The challengers defeated Steamboat and Youngblood for the NWA World Tag Team Titles in a match full of controversy – more on that next month as officials have promised to show the videotape of ending of this match on Mid-Atlantic TV in April.
NEW-JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
The Big Fight Series 1980 tour took over the total of March with Days 2 to 25 covering the month with the tour set to finish on 4th April. The Iron Sheik was on the excursion but was not very successful. The man from Tehran, Iran faced Tatsumi Fujinami and Antonio Inoki in singles competition on many nights of the tour but could not find a win. He also tagged up with Stampede regular Bad News Allen and The Super Destroyer to face Inoki and Riki Choshu but again fell to losses. His only successes were at the start of the month in six-man tag team main events on the 3rd and 4th.
Towards the end of the month, Stan Hansen and NWA International Junior Heavyweight champion Mike Graham joined the tour and were defeated in a great match with Inoki and Fujinami in Fukuoka on 28th. Graham is set to defend his belt against Fujinami on the big end of tour show on 4th April. On the same night, Hansen will face Inoki in which should be a fantastic hard-hitting contest.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRESTLING
Throughout the month, Buddy Rose and The Sheepherders, Luke Williams & Butch Miller challenged the ever-popular Roddy Piper to a ‘Hair on the Line’ match. Andre the Giant was announced to be returning to the area to team with Piper. Rose and The Army goaded Piper by saying by the time Andre entered the territory: “the Giant will be teaming with a bald man.”
On March 1st, Piper faced Luke Williams with whoever lost the bout who gets his head shaved. Don Owen ordered that Rose and Miller to be handcuffed to the ring post so they could not interfere. The match and challenge backfired on Rose’s Army when referee Sandy Barr was bumped out of the ring in a collision with Piper. Williams brought a chair into the ring and raised the chair above his head to smash Piper in the head but the Scotsman nailed a dropkick to get the win. A barber’s chair was set-up and the Sheepherder had his head shaved bald much to Buddy Rose’s chagrin. Later that week Andre and Piper combined to defeat Rose and The Sheepherders in a three on two handicap match,
Rick Martel returned to Portland to team with Piper a few weeks later to beat The Sheepherders and after Miller brought a pair of scissors into the ring to cut Piper’s hair he lost control, Martel grabbed Miller so that Piper could trim Miller’s hair. After the match, Miller challenged Piper to a hair match with Buddy Rose as the referee. Piper accepted the challenge but nominated Martel as a second referee.
Come Tuesday night March 19th, Piper defeated Miller and shaved the Kiwi’s head. Piper challenged Rose to a Hair match to complete the Army’s new hairstyles.
SOUTHEASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
Southeastern promoted a huge show at the Civic Coliseum in Knoxville on the 16th March with two new champions crowned. Troy T. Taylor defeated “Dirty” Dutch Mantel to win the NWA Southeastern TV Title and in the main event Killer Karl Kox pinned Ole Anderson to become the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight champion. Stan Hansen also appeared on the event defeating former tag team partner Bobby Jaggers with a stiff lariat.
ST. LOUIS WRESTLING CLUB
The usual bumper crowds attended the Kiel Auditorium for two big Sam Muchnick shows this month. The first held on the 7th saw Kevin Von Erich retain his NWA Missouri title against Ed Wiskowski and Bob Backlund defended the WWF Championship against Dick Murdoch. The second Kiel show was on the 28th and was headlined by a great NWA Worlds title match between champion Harley Race and “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. The match ended in a draw after 28 minutes due to a double count-out.
STAMPEDE WRESTLING
The gigantic Loch Ness Monster formed a tag team with the petite fellow Englishman Dynamite Kid and they had some blistering matches with Stampede International Tag champions Bret and Keith Hart. They battled throughout the month until the heels uncrowned the Harts to become the new champs (pictured above with manager J.R. Foley).
Keith Hart must have been sick of the sight of Dynamite as he lost his British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight championship to young Englishman too in Red Deer, Alberta on the 24th. Also in the territory, NWA World Champion Harley Race appeared for a pair of successful title defences against Leo Burke.
VANCOUVER ALL STAR WRESTLING
The feud between Buddy Rose and The Sheepherders versus Roddy Piper ventured up to Vancouver with Andre the Giant and Don Leo Jonathan joining Piper in six-man action. Piper and company defeated Rose’s Army on the 10th and then Roddy went one on one with success against Rose later in the month.
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION
After the horrific betrayal of his protégé Larry Zbyszko last month, Bruno Sammartino looked to gain some revenge by getting his hands on Zbyszko on two of the WWF’s biggest shows.
However, in both matches, Zbyszko got the win via disqualification after Bruno lost his cool and the referee threw the match out. At the Philadelphia Spectrum on the 1st, Bruno was DQ’d for striking the referee in anger after Bruno failed to stop on the five-count choking out Zbyszko. At Madison Square Garden, in front of an excess of 26,000 people, again Sammartino failed to release a chokehold on Zbyszko. It took Arnold Skaaland and referee Dick Kroll to remove Bruno’s hands from Larry’s throat while Zbyszko escaped to safety.
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
HARLEY RACE
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS
GREG VALENTINE & RAY STEVENS
1. Dusty Rhodes
1. Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood
2. Bruiser Brody
2. Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta
3. Tony Atlas
3. Jose Lothario/Tiger Conway Jr.
4. Andre the Giant
4. The Sheik/Abdullah the Butcher
5. Jimmy Snuka
5. The Sheepherders
6. Giant Baba
6. Mr. Hito/Mr. Sakaruda
7. Manny Fernandez
7. Terry Funk/Dory Funk Jr.
8. Ric Flair
8. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami
9. Dick Slater
9. Bruiser Brody/Angelo Mosca
10. Jumbo Tsuruta
10. Dynamite Kid/Loch Ness Monster
NWA United National Champion Dick Murdoch travels to All Japan Pro Wrestling to defend against the man he beat for the title, Jumbo Tsuruta. From the Civic Auditorium in Kuroiso, Tochigi, Japan on the 5th of March. The final day of the Excite Series 1980 tour.
AJPW: The finals of the Champions Carnival will be set, we will provide a breakdown on how the finalists reached the Carnival’s conclusion.
Georgia: Will Kevin Sullivan and Tony Atlas get their shot at the Georgia Tag Team champions The Russians, Alexei Smirnoff and Ivan Koloff?
Mid-Atlantic: Promotion officials have stated they will look at footage of Ray Stevens and Greg Valentine’s NWA World Tag Team Title win over Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood on Mid-Atlantic TV in early April. We will have full news on the outcome of this presentation. Also, see if Ric Flair can finally capture the NWA United States Title from champion Jimmy Snuka.
Pacific Northwest Wrestling: Will the Roddy Piper-Buddy Rose Hair match finally get signed?
Project Territories 