Episode 35: Texas Oct-Dec 1975

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Time for the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Podcast. [00:00:05] Speaker B: We've got lots and lots of things to talk about and to do today. [00:00:08] Speaker A: Covering the territories from the 1940s to the 1990s. [00:00:13] Speaker C: It's the best thing going today. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Interviewing wrestlers, referees, authors and other media personalities that have made the sport of professional wrestling great. [00:00:27] Speaker C: The cream, yeah, the cream of the crop. [00:00:30] Speaker B: And now, here's your host, Tony Richards. [00:00:36] Speaker A: The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Podcast is on the air once again. Hello, everybody. I'm Tony Richards. Welcome to our show. Today we've got a blockbuster of a program lined up for you. I can't wait to tell you more about it, which I will in just a second. First of all, though, I want to thank you. My heart is full of appreciation and gratitude for each one of our listeners. And our audience is growing. Every single week we get more listeners, more regions of the world. I'm amazed that we've got so many listeners in Great Britain. We've got so many listeners in all of the countries outside the United States and we've got just about 40 something states in the US there are a couple stragglers that haven't discovered the show yet. But listen, all of you who are listening every single week, I this is the season of gratitude. This is the season of giving. And I want to give you my thanks right now for listening to our show every single week. We're coming down here to the end of 1975 and we've got some great shows lined up for you here on the Time Tunnel. You can download our show, the audio version, the video version. The audio version is available on all the major platforms. We drop the show around 5am Central Time every single Wednesday. We've had a couple of instances where we've been a little bit late on that, but for the most part, Wednesday morning the show comes out with a new episode and you can get it on all the major audio platforms. You can get the video version. If you're interested in watching us, you get the video version on our YouTube channel, Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel. And if you want options, you can sign up for it at Substack where you can get the audio and video version. And all our previous shows are available on my Substack channel. They're also available on my YouTube channel. And we are working on adding more and more of them to our audio download feed so that you can eventually get all the shows in our archives for this year of 1975. All right, let me tell you a little bit about some other things I've got going on and this is a super busy time of the year for me. I've been doing a series and a salute to the Territory era television announcers and commentators that a lot of us grew up with. Some younger fans and newer fans are just discovering. These guys, they go back and they watch video clips of them. But so far we've released five profiles. I just released a brand new one this week on Paul Bosch and I have another one coming out probably Friday on Ray Morgan. So two fantastic Territory era television commentators and announcers and full length profiles about their life and their career, their media career in television, how they got involved in wrestling and all that are involved in our lengthy profiles. And this week Paul Bosh and Ray Morgan, who was a WWW F commentator in Washington D.C. also, my evolution of Wrestling series is out this week with two big articles. And Evolution of Wrestling is for our subscribers that support the work that I do by giving us a little bit of money, $5 a month or $50 a year. Get you all our premium content, including the Evolution of Wrestling series. Now let me sneak in a little. Well, I'll save that. I'll save that for later. Give you something to look forward to. Evolution of Wrestling first article that came out this week, earlier in the week is my complete review of the year 1925. I have a model that I've created the seven stages of the Territory era. And the first stage is conception. Where did all this stuff come from? Where did the concept of worked matches and angles and storylines and getting over and creating psychology, where did all that come from? Well, a lot of it started around 1925 and I've got a complete analysis of all that, plus a couple of profiles about some of the big promoters that are. 1925 was a very, very. All the years that end in five have some very interesting paradigm shifts in pro wrestling. 1925 was really setting the stage for what we'd come to know as the Territory era. As Tom Pax came to prominence in St. Louis, Morris Siegel came to prominence in Houston. You had a couple of guys who started working together for the first time in Amarillo. Cal Farley and Dutch Mantell. And there are some other people as well who are involved in all this. And I cover it in this full length article in the Evolution of wrestling the year 1925. And I'll be having other articles come out about 1935-1945-1955-6575 and 85. As the evolution of pro wrestling continues through all those years and through all those frameworks that I've set up that I will explain to you in the articles. Also, this is the week that Terry Funk defeated Jack Briscoe for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in Miami, Florida. And I'm going to tell you at the end of the show today about a special show we've got coming up on that next week. But also I have an Evolution of Wrestling article coming out this week on the entire situation, the match, the angle, the storyline, the circumstances, everything about Terry Funk's historic NWA title win on December 10, 1975, 50 years ago. Man, it doesn't seem like that. It sure doesn't seem like that when I got a magazine with Terry on the COVID with the NWA World title. But it has been that long. And so I have an article covering all that coming out this week on the Evolution of Wrestling. Also, we've got a special Christmas super show that I'll tell you about when we take a break in today's show. But first, let's get to the show today where we are going to wrap up the year 75 in Texas. The first half of our show today will be me and our regular commentator and analyst, Greg Klein. And Greg is going to be here at the Richards Ranch with me as we go through the last three months of 1975 with the Dallas Big Time Wrestling Office. And that will cover Fort Worth and Dallas and Corpus Christi and San Antonio and the big crazy and amazing Friday night shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. So let's go to that right now, the first half of our show. I'll be back to introduce the second part of our show and tell you about the Christmas super show as soon as I do this interview and commentary with our good friend Greg Klein. Let's go to that right now. Hey again, everybody. Welcome to another Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. I'm Tony Richards, your host and back at the Richards Ranch, one of our most frequent visitors and guests. We almost call him an extended member of the family. Greg Klein is back with us again to talk about East Texas. We're going around the Dallas office loop, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Corpus and Houston. And it's going to be a great show because we're going to talk about the ending of 1975 and set the stage for 1976. Greg, welcome back to the Richards Ranch again. [00:08:35] Speaker C: Thank you, Tony. Thank you for having me. You know, I was thinking about how many people in Texas you've offended by calling them East Texas. You say that like a West Texas guy where everything but West Texas is East Texas. But we really, we're talking about North Texas, South Texas and East Texas. [00:08:53] Speaker A: If I don't say that, then everybody emails me and want to know where Amarillo and El Paso and all those towns are on the show. [00:09:01] Speaker C: I know, I know. [00:09:02] Speaker A: So I try. Just. It's just a way to categorize the show. [00:09:06] Speaker C: Well, it's interesting. I was looking. You know, most of my stuff is in the 1950s right now. And there's a point where there are three booking offices in the state. The two that we know, obviously, the Houston one and then the Amarillo one. But there's also one in El Paso at that point in time. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And Mike London has that office. And I have a big old piece on Mike London that I've been sitting on now that I just haven't had a chance to release. But there is a. There's a huge story there. Also going to be in my Dorie Funk Senior book about London and the fight that he has with Dory Denton and a whole lot of stuff. So, yeah, there was an office there and London was booking El Paso. He was also getting in really good with Barnett and Doyle and he was booking Denver for them. And he was kind of. He was losing focus on what he really wanted to be doing. And so he somehow ended up with just Albuquerque. But. Yeah, that's right. There were three booking offices there for a while. [00:10:10] Speaker C: Yeah. But anyway, thank you for getting me out of the 1950s and into 1975. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Well, we're going to be in 75 here just for a few more weeks, and then we're going into the exciting bicentennial year of 76. So I think where we left off was we were. We didn't talk too much about August and September, so set the stage for us going into the last three months of the year here. [00:10:35] Speaker C: Well, we were. Yeah, we were in the summer of 1975, and we had a couple of lingering questions. One was about a Pole Battle Royal, which turns out to be a little simpler than I was trying to make it. There is a Pole. You do have to climb the Pole, but you can have a winner of the Battle Royal and a winner of who climbs the pole and gets the check. And that apparently was what it was. You weren't getting Fritz up the Pole, apparently. So he won the Battle Royal. And I think John Tolos is scurried up and got the check. Something like that. And as you said it, in a different territory, it probably would have set them up for a future match, although it doesn't in this case. Then we had that San Antonio mystery of a guy named Maurice Rose, who beat Mad Dog Vachon in, like, three seconds. And we couldn't figure out why. Well, it turns out he was a security guard, and for some reason, they worked a program between. Maybe it happened by accident, but it turned out that he and Mad Dog worked a little program together. And the resolution was this. Longtime security guard Maurice Rose pinning Mad Dog Vachon at the height of his push in Texas in three seconds in San Antonio. So that was some interesting stuff. And then we talked a lot about Superstar Graham, and I had talked about him and Jose Lothario starting a feud in 75. Actually, I think they're reigniting a few that started in 74, during the beginning of the season of Superstar Graham. So that's kind of where we were. Al Madrid had just won the Texas heavyweight title after a big chase, and in the interim, I think he loses it back to John Tolos. So we start October with John Tolos back with the title, and we get some interesting stuff at the end of the year. Tony, we get our last Jack Briscoe week. We get an Andre the Giant week right afterwards. If you remember in the summer, we had a Jack Briscoe week. And you're like, well, how would they follow up on the NWA World Champion coming in for a week? And the answer was El Santo. Well, this time in October, they follow up Jack Briscoe week with Andre the Giant week. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:34] Speaker C: And Andre the Giant is there for the entire last week of October, including at the Sam Houston Coliseum on Halloween night. [00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm always amazed. I've talked about this before, and this is going to be my obligatory. [00:12:48] Speaker A: Brag on Red Bastine, because in October, he actually has the World Junior Heavyweight Champion in the second week of the month. He has Jack Briscoe in the third week of the month and Andre in the fourth week of the month, which, if you think about the complexities of NWA scheduling and Andre the Giant scheduling and having to work with primarily the NWA office for the World Junior and World titles, and having to work with McMahon for the Andre, I mean, that's a pretty. Pretty nice little. I don't know what you'd call it, but, I mean, he just does a masterful job of scheduling in October as far as having matches lined up for touring, special attractions, plus his own local guys that he's getting over. [00:13:35] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, the other thing that's so interesting is in the interim, we've had a couple of people come in. Not one of them is not a debut, one of them has been in Texas before, but that's Stan Hansen. And Stan Hansen is going to get a big push in the fall and then an even bigger push in 1976. And then the other one who debuts is Rick Martel. And Rick Martel gets a push from the very beginning in October. And in fact he is one of the guys that gets the title shots against hero Matsuda. When Matsuda comes in to defend the NWA Junior Heavyweight title. Obviously Al Madrill is also one of those guys because we're still. Even though Madrid has lost the Texas title to John Tolos, he's still going to chase Matsuda. And actually doesn't he beat Matsuda, but kind of only in Texas. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And what's cool is in this era, which we want to remind everybody about the differences of the booking philosophies and the audiences and the psychology of this era versus what you may be used to in your own territory or what you might be used to in the modern day era. The, the next best way of getting over in this era is to go a full match with a champion, either the world Junior champion or the world title with Briscoe. And they, they do time limit draw matches with Martell and Matsuda and I think Fort Worth and Dallas, like on successive nights, I mean they, they're really putting him over. And then I think he tags up with Fritz a little bit. Who comes. [00:15:15] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's, I noticed that too. That's how big a push Rick Martel, just a year into the business basically is getting in Texas. He actually does team with Fritz Von Erich in Dallas and maybe even in Fort Worth. That's, that's pretty amazing. That's a good catch. [00:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a. And what I'm really interested in this particular time period is we know that this territory is going to go into some fairly hard times. And I think as we go forward in the, these late later 70s years to see exactly what moves were made to put them in such a lurch, not drawing as well. And what's funny to me is Fritz has just taken over the presidency of the National Wrestling alliance and he's just kind of working when he wants to and he's just sort of inserting himself, but he really inserts himself here in 4Q75, which I would have thought maybe he would have been in less, but he's actually in a little bit more than usual here in these three months. [00:16:20] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. There's definitely. He's, he's popping up a little more Than he was in the summertime for sure. So here you go, Tony. Fort Worth, Monday, October 13th. Matsuda and Martel go to a time limit draw. The next day in Dallas. Matsuda and Martel go to a time limit draw. The next day in San Antonio, Madrill beats Matsuda by disqualification. The next night or two nights later in Houston. [00:16:48] Speaker C: Matsuda beats Martel two falls to one. And then in Corpus Christi. No, I'm sorry. In Houston on Friday, Madrid beats Matsuda by dq. Same as the in San Antonio. And then Corpus. That week is on a Saturday. Normally it's on a Thursday. But two out of three falls, Matsuda beats Martel two falls to one. So that is the hero Matsuda week right before the Jack Briscoe week. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And another little note that I just made that I caught just really, very quickly is an interesting thing, is they're really trying to put over Jerry Blackwell. [00:17:28] Speaker C: And I was just about to say the other debut is Bruiser Blackwell. [00:17:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And they call him Bruiser. They give him the handle Bruiser, which Bruiser Brody is still working as Frank Goodish. [00:17:39] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:40] Speaker C: This is before Bruiser Brody. [00:17:41] Speaker A: And to your point about Stan Hansen, Bruiser, or. Goodish and Hanson have been a tag team for most of 74 and most of 75. Hansen comes down here, Goodish goes to Amarillo, and they've just put the Western states title on Frank Goodish, his first major singles title. So we're starting to see the seeds get planted for these two huge stars. [00:18:06] Speaker C: This is them splitting up, essentially. This is. This is. We've already had the tag team run in McGurk, and they've already sort of come into their own as a tag team. And Bill Watts is looking at them and saying, we need to get these guys separated. And. And they are. They're starting to become who we, you know, know them as. And it's just so interesting, you know, to see the pairings in Texas in the fall of 1975 of Stan Hansen versus Rick Martel quite a lot. Stan Hansen versus Bruiser Blackwell. Rick Martel versus Bruiser Blackwell. You know, these guys that a decade later will be hooking up in the AWA Mad Dog Vachon, obviously an AWA mainstay. And, you know, it's. It's so interesting to see them at the beginning of their careers and it's the next month. But, you know who comes in is Tony Atlas in his rookie year. And actually, you know, Tony gets a big start in Mid Atlantic, and then they send him away and he goes to Amarillo. And he goes to McGurk and he comes here to Texas. And he's mostly used as a job guy for that like six months while he's out of Mid Atlantic. And then by the end of the year he's back in Mid Atlantic and he's getting a huge push. But they sent him on the road to kind of learn his craft. And it's just pretty amazing that, you know, within about a span of a year we've got these four or five guys who are going to be huge stars in the business. You know, we've already seen Gino Hernandez debut in Houston earlier in the year, but he'll come back at the end of the year as well. Same thing with Skip Young, who we've seen before but is going to come back and get a little push. It actually it looks like Skip has gone and gotten his first push in Portland and then he comes home for Christmas to Dallas and gets a little push again and then he goes on his way again. But you know, we've already seen Roddy Piper this year in Texas. And you know, what we see with Rick Martel and what we see with Stan Hansen is pretty amazing as they get their first big singles pushes in America, you know, in Martell's case and Hansen, you know, his first big push without Bruiser Brody as a tag team. [00:20:14] Speaker A: And also the importance of the world Junior heavyweight title in this era, I mean, it still is the second biggest, most important title in the National Wrestling alliance at this time. And guys and guys like Hiro Matsuda, guys like Danny Hodge, guys like Ken Mantel, they've really made some prestige around that title. That it could be, that it could come in and be the main event in a territory for an entire week. [00:20:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, I think back even to my discovery in wrestling Georgia days, Les Thornton wasn't the most exciting wrestler, probably not the best choice for that title. But you know, when Tommy Rogers got a title shot against him, 12 year old me was excited. And you know, the lightweight babyface who's mostly fighting the big bruisers, but then now he's got a chance to get the world title against this touring champion. It's pretty exciting. And it obviously with Rick Martel and with Al Madrill, they fit the bill perfectly for that spot. [00:21:21] Speaker A: And for a guy who grew up with the world Junior heavyweight title, I have a hard time accepting small guys in the modern, modern product because they had their own category where they could get over. And it was believable because you had guys that were more evenly Matched. And I don't mean to knock the modern product, but when I see a 5 foot 4 guy who weighs 175 pounds going up against a guy who's like 250 and 6 foot 3, it just doesn't, it's not logical. And it's, and it's because the seeds of my wrestling fandom and what I knew as a product were planted with this kind of world junior title run. [00:22:08] Speaker C: Well, you know, it goes back to what was believable. I mean, we talk about Bill Watts and how strict he was and how his integration of wrestling had to do with the fact that in other sports black athletes were competing with white athletes, but in wrestling it wasn't happening. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:24] Speaker C: So, you know, similarly, like in boxing they have weight classes. Now today in ufc they have weight classes. And if somebody is two or three classes out of their weight, they don't do as well. They're not going to win. I mean, it's, even in wrestling it's very rare that you hear about like the 120 pound guy that can make the heavyweight. You know, somehow the heavyweight still crushes the little guy. Unless the little guy is Danny Hodge. Right. So, you know, it doesn't make sense and it kind of wastes little talent and it does. I mean, nobody's concerned about exposing the business anymore. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:06] Speaker C: But it does expose the business. To have it so drastically different than the real fighting sports. [00:23:14] Speaker A: And, and you're almost, and, and they don't do this either, so. But it's almost like if you're going to do that, you're almost forced to beat the little guy, because that makes sense. But they don't do that. [00:23:26] Speaker C: So I, I remember, you know, I'm not as big a fan in retrospect as I was at the time of ecw, but there is a way to do it. Like the Mikey Whipreck thing, you know, the 1, 2, 3, kid thing, lightning kid thing in the WWF, WWE, you know, where they beat the guy a lot and then suddenly he gets a fluke win and then he gets a little confidence and then he's perked up a little bit. And then you use him in gimmick matches like they did, you know, like Paulie did with Ray and 911. But you don't necessarily match him against Bruiser Brody and he's not going to out brawl Bruiser Brody. [00:24:04] Speaker A: Like that's, that's the thing. You can't do it with six guys. You can do it with one guy and you can do it in a program like that, but to do it, you know, where almost every other match is a mismatch. [00:24:16] Speaker C: I, yeah, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of like TNA and that style, but I think they had it right in having the X Division and having to be smaller guys now. I stopped watching, I didn't watch for very long, so I don't know what became of it. But to me if you, you know, that was an era where the smaller guys based on the Indies were developing their own style and you know, the old guys like Bill Watts didn't get it. So their light heavyweight group wasn't as exciting, couldn't use the top rope, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But to me, if you have those guys in their own division and they're doing their own thing, you know, then you can promote a couple of different styles of wrestling within one card. And, and as you know, that's sort of what the Supercard was always about. That's what, you know, the wrestling that we liked was always about. That's what Houston wrestling was all about. That's what Dusty's booking, Memphis booking was all about. A couple of different styles, couple of different things. So that by the end of the night you've seen everything, right? [00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And, and Matt Sudo was a fantastic worker. [00:25:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:24] Speaker A: Really? Absolutely. I mean he was amazing. [00:25:27] Speaker C: So the next week, here's, here's Jack Briscoe week Dallas, Tuesday, October 21 he beats Jose Lothario. The next night in San Antonio, he beats Buddy Wolf by disqualification. Two nights later in Houston, he is wrestling two out of three falls and beats Jose Lothario. And so then they follow up the next week with Andre the giant. Week Fort Worth Monday, October 27th there's a 10 man battle royal that Andre wins. The next night in Dallas, Andre and Jose go against Buddy Wolf and John Tolos. [00:26:03] Speaker C: Wait a minute. Actually that's San Antonio. In Dallas he beats Hans Schroeder by count out. And then in, also in San Antonio they have a battle royal that Buddy Wolf wins. Actually kind of strange. [00:26:15] Speaker A: And Andre is in the battle royal. [00:26:17] Speaker C: Andre's in the battle royal but Buddy Wolf wins it. Probably with some cheating. And then in Corpus Christi, Andre and Jose wrestle Buddy Wolf and John Tolos again. And then in Houston, Andre on the Halloween showdown, we finally get the payoff. We talked about this during the summer. Andre comes back and finally gets revenge against superstar Billy Graham. And in this case Graham is, is leaving or has already left and he's coming back for the big match. And Andre Wins in two straight falls. [00:26:47] Speaker A: Yeah, they're working with him. He's. He's working his way up kind of the mid card in the WWF at this time. [00:26:56] Speaker C: So here's the Halloween show. Greg Valentine beats Abe Jacobs. Buddy Wolf and Red Bastine go to a time limit draw. Al Madrill and Rick Martell beat Brewster Blackwell and Hans Schroeder. Gypsy Joe beats Mad Dog Vashon. Mad Dog Vashon is finishing up and doing some jobs on the way out after the big buildup he had during the summertime. And then in the Texas heavyweight title match, Peter Maivia beats John Tolos two falls to one to win the Texas heavyweight title. [00:27:23] Speaker A: Yeah, and Peter. [00:27:24] Speaker C: And then the Andre the Giant match. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Yeah, and Peter Maivia here. I mentioned this to you before we started recording. Peter Maivia is not necessarily associated with Texas wrestling, but. [00:27:35] Speaker C: No, but he has a great run here. [00:27:37] Speaker A: This run is just absolutely fantastic. I also wanted to mention what a great worker Abe Jacobs was. He was simply fantastic. I mean, he's, you know, he's in the later. Starting in the. I mean, guy wrestled into the 80s, but I mean, he's in the later kind of stage of his career in the 1960s. He was just a phenomenal draw. And of a lot of wrestlers that I've talked with in these over the last couple of years, when you bring his name up, it's always got a ton of respect on it. [00:28:11] Speaker C: Nice. So, Tony, I'm going to read you a quick paragraph from the October 24, 1975 Houston wrestling program. An update on Big John and Bob. To all the fans who have called us for information about the condition of Johnny Valentine and Bob Bruggers. We report they have both undergone operations on their backs broken in the recent airplane crash. It will be a couple of weeks before the results are known. If you want to send a card to either man or both, send it to Wrestling Headquarters, 2022 San Jacinto at Gray 77002 and we will see that it gets to them. In the meantime, they have both asked us to express their thanks to you for your good wishes and your prayers and to tell you that they need them both. So keep praying and wishing. [00:28:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I did the show with John Hitchcock on Mid Atlantic and we talked a lot about the place plane crash. And then we just did a WWWF show with Steve Giannarelli and we talked about that Blackjack's losing the title in. In the Northeastern territory because Blackjack Mulligan's going back to Mid Atlantic. And this is a case too where Greg, they're bringing Greg in to some of the Houston Cards. Are they trying to keep Johnny's Persona out there doing that Greg with? [00:29:29] Speaker C: I think so. I think it's almost like a special appearance where he's just coming in to sort of get the well wishes of the crowd. [00:29:36] Speaker A: And they're hoping Johnny can come back. I think at this point too, like. [00:29:39] Speaker C: They don't know yet. Yeah, it's, you know, I mean, as we know in the, in the 77, 78 era, he's, he's, you know, with a brace, walking around managing. So, you know, they're not 100. Sure. [00:29:53] Speaker A: And Paul Bosh, when he's putting the main event together, which I think was, correct me if I'm wrong, was mostly the case where he, he'd have a lot of input in the semi, in the main on his cards. I mean, he had six guys that he would rotate around and bring in from time to time and definitely Johnny Valentine was one. And so I think he just wants to keep, it's my impression he just wants to keep the Valentine thing out there. Greg's kind of just in the opening stages of his major singles run. He's been to Los Angeles, he's had the America's title, he's been in Florida. He's going back and forth now to some different places. He hasn't really hit the Crockett territory yet, but so having him in Houston here I think makes sense if you're hoping that Johnny can sometime come back. [00:30:44] Speaker C: Well, and he's finally getting his run as Greg Valentine. I mean, he's been Johnny Valentine Jr. And he's been Johnny Fargo. Yeah, he's, he's had all sorts of gimmicks. I think at one point they're billing him as Johnny Valentine's brother, you know, because Johnny doesn't want to admit he has a son. I mean, there's definitely stuff in earlier years where they're, you know, they're, they're noting the similarity, but not, you know, they're questioning what the relationship is between the two of them. So this is really coming back as the son, you know, acknowledging everything and finally, you know, I mean, a small turn as a baby face soaking in the well wishes of the fans, you know, again, I mean, Johnny Valentine was the proverbial so bad that the fans start to like him because he's such a tough guy, you know. And as we said last time, you finally get to the point where when you have these battle of the bullies matchups, you bring In Johnny Valentine as a face to face, these guys who nobody else can take down. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Yeah. John Hitchcock mentioned this to me and I'd never really considered it. He said, do you think Johnny Valentine would have been a contender for the NWA title had he not had the plane crash? And I just don't know. He definitely was at that stage of his career where he had been a heel for so long that the fans were starting to go over to the like side for him. So he probably. I'm sure he would have been in the conversation. I don't know that he checks all my boxes for the NWA title, but he, he definitely was going to have a second kind of. I think he would have been a baby face if he would have come back from the plane crash. It would have been perfect, you know. [00:32:35] Speaker C: For sure. For sure. [00:32:37] Speaker A: I also wanted to mention, in Dallas. [00:32:41] Speaker A: The second week of the month, the Funk Brothers are in Dallas and a Texas tag team title match with Jose Lothario and Al Madrill, who are the Texas tag team champions. And I would have loved to seen that match. [00:32:56] Speaker C: Yeah, we get some really cool funk appearances in the third or in the fourth quarter of 1975. They're always dipping in, they're always coming in. You know, they're in San Antonio a lot of. But, but Dallas, that, that's a great. You know, they don't. They're not in Dallas as much and. [00:33:15] Speaker A: They don't know that Terry's getting the title yet in October. It would be after the first week in November before they know, which is kind of interesting because I think they kick off the month of November with Terry around there. [00:33:31] Speaker C: So, yeah, we'll. We'll get some interesting Terry appearances that definitely were, you know, we were speculating in the summer, but by fall, some of the stuff that's happening, you know, that they know. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:42] Speaker C: But here's your match. Fort Worth, Monday, November 3rd. Fritz von Eric and Rick Martel against John Tolos and Hans Schroeder goes to a time limit draw in the main event in Fort Worth. And also on the card, Tony Atlas losing to Gypsy Joe and Peter Maivia beating Bruiser Blackwell. So we've got a little bit of everything going on there. Joe Blanchard also makes an appearance for a week doing a few jobs for people. [00:34:06] Speaker A: I like seeing Joe on the card. [00:34:08] Speaker C: Yeah. So Peter Maivia is often running as the Texas champion. He's wrestling Hans Schroeder. He's wrestling defending against John Tolos. He's wrestling Bruiser Blackwell. He's wrestling Stan Hansen. He's a fighting champion. [00:34:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just amazed at his work here because I'm so used to seeing him on the west coast and being tag team partners with Patterson and holding the tag titles and holding the Pacific coast title or the US Title and having him as the Texas champions just kind of scrambles my brain a little. I like it. [00:34:44] Speaker C: So Houston, Friday, November 7th. Listen to this card. Greg Valentine beats Han Schroeder by disqualification. Rick Martel beats Stan Hansen. Tony Atlas beats Gypsy Joe two out of three falls. Peter Maivia beats Terry Funk two falls to one. And, and then in the main event, Jose Lothario and Al Madrill beat John Tolos and Buddy Wolf two falls to one. Those last two matches were Texas title matches. So right here in Houston, a month before Terry gets the title, Peter Maivia beats him clean. [00:35:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're, they're, they're really using Peter on top here. And we talked about earlier, we know what's that's going to lead to, so. [00:35:27] Speaker A: I don't want to jump the shark. [00:35:29] Speaker C: So the next week in Fort Worth, Terry Funk and Hans Schroeder against Peter Maivia and Red Bastine in the main event go to a time limit draw. [00:35:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So that this is the week they know for sure that Terry's going to get the title. [00:35:45] Speaker C: Right. [00:35:45] Speaker A: So the NWA Championship committee met at the airport in Dallas because now Fritz is the president. So this is kind of the first time that these decisions aren't made in St. Louis and they aren't made at the convention. They tabled it at the convention in August. They tabled it because Briscoe no showed the convention and they kept waiting for him to show up, and he never showed up. And they send people out to try to find him and they try to call him and they never can get a hold of him. And then he shows up in St. Louis the next week with a match with Giant Baba. And he tells Mushnik, I told you, I'm serious. I want this title off of me. And so they schedule a committee meeting in Dallas for November 1, I believe. And Fritz is the deciding vote for Terry to get the belt. So obviously now Terry's going to get booked in Fritz's territory. [00:36:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Listen to this card. In Dallas, Tuesday, November 11th. This is the opening match. Rick Martel and Al Madrill go to a time limit draw with Buddy Wolf and, and Stan Hansen. Gypsy Joe beats Tony Atlas. Peter Maivia beats John Tolos. Mongolian Stomper beats Bruiser Blackwell. And for the American heavyweight title, Fritz Von Erich beats Hans Schroeder. Now, the American heavyweight title is not something that's defended in Houston or San Antonio or Corpus. It seems to be like Fritz is a little bit of a vanity title at this point, where when Fritz wants to come out of retirement or be on the card, he has a title to defend. [00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good thing for the Texas title, but it's not a good thing for the American title because the American title is getting shortchanged. The other thing I was going to mention too is that that appearance in Fort Worth on the 10th is the day after they put Terry over in a tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the US Title in the Crockett territory. So Terry starting to make the rounds and get put over. They put the US Title on him. Now he's in Fort Worth, and now he's going to start. Terry's going to start experiencing a little bit of a taste of what it's going to be like to carry that belt and have that schedule. [00:37:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So the next week they have a rematch between Fritz and Hans Schroeder with no referee. So they are. They're definitely working to program at this point. And the night before in Fort Worth, in the main event, Schroeder beats Rick Martel. Probably pretty clean or maybe with a little cheating, but so they're really. They're pushing him as the big heel against Fritz, which is. Is. There's some irony there, right? [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And this was a gimmick match that was going around a lot in the mid-70s. The no referee in the match. And Bobby Simmons, who is. Is one of our regulars on the show and a longtime NWA referee, told me those matches always suck. [00:38:40] Speaker A: Because there's no. No third person in the ring. And when that third person is doing their job, you don't notice them. But when they're invisible and not there, you really notice it, if that makes sense. [00:38:54] Speaker C: Well, it makes sense to me because, you know, having been in the ring and knowing what the referee does in terms of carrying messages back and forth and. And looking, you know, being aware of what's going on outside the ring and. Yeah, it's really hard. It really is a three person thing and people don't realize that at all. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah, they tried to do a match with no referee in a cage match with Mr. Wrestling 2 and somebody. And Bobby said it was the worst thing ever. Like he told Rinesto, please don't ever book that again because it was terrible. It was awful. [00:39:26] Speaker C: But so Tony San Antonio went one. [00:39:29] Speaker A: Of those Things it's going to say. It's one of those things that sounds good in your head. [00:39:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:34] Speaker A: But then it doesn't work. [00:39:36] Speaker C: Like Terry Funk pouring oil on his hair. Right. That'll make a great promo. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:43] Speaker C: Hey, sorry. So, no. San Antonio, Wednesday, November 19th. Here is the main event. Jose Lothario beats Dr. Know it all. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Knows it all. [00:39:53] Speaker C: Dr. Knows it all. Yes. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Terry always pointed at his nose when he would tell that gimmick. Doctor Knows It All. [00:40:01] Speaker C: So they're doing a program in San Antonio with Terry under a mask. [00:40:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And Terry, I think he freely admits it was one of his worst ideas. [00:40:12] Speaker A: It was one of those things he tried. It just. It was worse than Chainsaw Charlie. [00:40:19] Speaker C: But again, now, you know, even with. We've seen him lose to Jose Lothario, he's wearing a mask. There's a little bit of an out there. But Again, this is November 19th, so we're literally just weeks away. [00:40:31] Speaker A: And he's got a log jam of stuff going on, too. And Amarillo, he's got the international title on him. So they've got to figure out what to do with that, which they do figure out what to do with it, but they got to figure out a creative way to get that title off of him. And all these puzzle pieces have to fall in place by December. [00:40:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:50] Speaker A: It's funny. I just so much love watching the machinery of the territories in these days because there was a lot of cooperation, and they were going to have to work together to get all these puzzle pieces in place to get the title on him. Even with McMahon, you know, and I meant. I remarked this to Giannarelli the other day when we were talking about Crockett asking for Blackjack Mulligan to come into his territory. Because Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair both. He lost both of his heels in the plane crash. And I said, can you imagine? Just 10 years later, in 1986, Magnum TA goes down in a car crash. Do you think they're going to work together to get somebody in for Crockett? No. [00:41:33] Speaker C: Right. [00:41:33] Speaker A: Hell, the NWA couldn't work together to get somebody in for Crockett. So this. This time period is just a great time for cooperation and working together. And you would think in the mid-80s, when there's fewer of them and they're facing this annihilation and disintegration, they would bond. But they. They. They don't. And it's. There's so much more of that in this era. Yeah. [00:42:00] Speaker C: So Tony, Thanksgiving night in Corpus Christi, it's a little Card, but not bad. El Gaucho against Hans Schroeder. Alma Drill against Gypsy Joe. The Texas heavyweight title, two out of three falls. Peter Maivia against Stan Hansen, and in the main event, Buddy Wolf and Jose Lothario. [00:42:20] Speaker A: I'd have to look into it a little bit more, but. And I'm planning a Thanksgiving special show. I can't remember in this particular loop, whatever you want to call it. It was the big time wrestling loop booked out of Dallas. I don't remember Thanksgiving ever being in a big deal in this particular. [00:42:39] Speaker C: No, and mostly it would have been Corpus Christi on a Thursday night, obviously. So it just seems like a regular show in a sense. But as you know, the desire to get out of the house after Thanksgiving dinner in, in midday is strong. So if you're visiting relatives and you've had dinner and now it's four o', clock, you're either going to fall asleep watching football or maybe get out and go to the wrestling match. So it was always a big deal in Alabama. I know. A big deal in Georgia. And not. [00:43:11] Speaker A: It was always a big deal in Amarillo because Amarillo was on Thursday nights. So they always had a huge Thanksgiving card. [00:43:18] Speaker C: Yeah, makes sense. [00:43:20] Speaker A: But in this time period, I don't know, we'd. I have to go. I'm going to go back now and look at some Corpus cards in previous years, but I just don't remember anybody really throwing up the fireworks for Thanksgiving in this loop. [00:43:34] Speaker C: Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. So here is something interesting. The first of December in Fort Worth, we have an American heavyweight title match. Fritz Von Erich and Terry Funk. And then the next night in Dallas, Fritz Von Erich and Peter Maivia beat Terry Funk and Hans Schroeder. So again, what do you think we're setting up for here? [00:43:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I mean, obviously, you know, they're featuring Terry, of course, because they know Terry's going to come back 12 times next year. [00:44:08] Speaker C: Isn't there a big parade of champions in 1976, Tony? [00:44:12] Speaker A: I believe so, Greg. Yeah, you'd know better than me, but. [00:44:15] Speaker C: I believe in the Cotton bowl with Fritz Von Erich and NWA Champion Terry Funk. So we are laying the. The groundwork for something big in 1976. [00:44:28] Speaker A: And I, I don't know who to credit for that. You know, I want to credit Bastine, but. But maybe Fritz is thinking ahead here. I'm not sure. [00:44:37] Speaker C: Well, I, I think that Red Bastine deserves a lot of credit. And as you know, though, Fritz Von Erich certainly was very headstrong and had a hand in particular in booking himself. And, you know, as you say, he's probably very busy at this point, so I can see if he's not as involved in the whole loop. And as you know, these are independent promoters with their own TV shows, by and large, and their own promotions, and they're just paying a booking fee essentially to the Dallas office in this era. And I don't know if Red Bastine, you know, how involved he was in each town. And it may have differed town to town depending on, you know, who the promoter was and what else they did in that city. And again, you know, we're talking by and large about the biggest cities, you know, in my two thirds of the state, you know, north, south, east Texas, Houston, San antonio, Corpus, Dallas, Fort Worth. But there's also 15 or 20 spot show towns that they're running. And on any given night, if we're not seeing a certain wrestler on the card, they could be someplace else. And, you know, we're not talking about Saturday nights, by and large. This is still the era where we're not doing Sunday shows. But, you know, there's. There's Austin, there's Del Rio, there's Eagle Pass, there's Harlon, there's other places around the Dallas Metroplex. There's Galveston. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:05] Speaker C: You know, there's Beaumont, you know, so there's a lot of other stuff going on that we're not touching on at the same time. And that's why a Fritz Von Erich, you know, might not travel out of the Metroplex very often. Whereas, you know, Jose and Buddy Wolf and Peter Maivia are making the whole loop mostly in the big towns. But occasionally, you know, Galveston is the same night, I believe, as San Antonio. So occasionally you click on a Galveston card and, and they've got the other half of the crew. And both Galveston and San Antonio have like a four match show or a five match show because they're split up. Right. [00:46:45] Speaker A: So here's an interesting question to ponder. So sitting at the airport in Dallas with your committee, Jim Barnett, Eddie Graham, Jim Crockett Jr. [00:47:00] Speaker A: Michael LaBelle wasn't there. He was on the phone. [00:47:06] Speaker A: And Dorie Funk Jr. [00:47:09] Speaker A: And Fritz von Erich's. And it's tied and Fritz Von Erich's going to cast the deciding vote, do you think that he had the Cotton bowl in mind when he voted and he was thinking, okay, who would I rather have at the Cotton bowl against me, Harley Race or Terry Funk? Do you think it's within the realm of possibility that he was thinking that far ahead? [00:47:35] Speaker C: I do. I You know, I'd be fascinated to know what he liked about Terry versus Harley. Did he. [00:47:44] Speaker A: I've always thought it came down to loyalty because Senior really. And Sarpolos really pushed Fritz. And Sarpolos was the reason Fritz got in the business to begin with. And in 60, 61, 62, 63, in that early part of the 60s when Fritz was really on the rise, I mean, they pushed the heck out of him in West Texas. Sure. And so did Verne, you know. [00:48:11] Speaker C: Well, it's interesting because later on it's. Harley and Fritz become associated with each other and, you know, the famous Harley no show in 1980 in Houston. But, yeah, I think that Terry probably was more of a personality. Probably thought that he could play off of Terry a little better. Terry's been in Dallas more often as a main eventer than Harley in this era. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Two Texas guys. [00:48:36] Speaker C: Two Texas guys, yeah, for sure. [00:48:38] Speaker A: I mean, I've never thought about that before until just this moment. [00:48:42] Speaker C: I'm fascinated with what you said about. And they've got somebody on the phone. This is not the era of. Of, you know, cell phones. That means that they were standing by a pay phone bank. Somebody's on the phone. [00:48:55] Speaker A: Well, they probably were in a conference room. [00:48:57] Speaker C: Okay. They were at the airport or in the hotel. I mean, it's fascinating. [00:49:01] Speaker A: I think. I think they were either. Either in the airport hotel right there in Dallas and probably had a speakerphone. [00:49:09] Speaker C: It's funnier my way though, if they're just all huddled around the bank of payphones in the airport having a drink in a meeting. Right. [00:49:17] Speaker A: But I mean, no doubt about it that Crockett Jr, Barnett and Graham all wanted Harley because they had brought him to Atlanta. They'd given him the booking job in Atlanta, they'd given him the booking job in Florida, and he was just biden his time to get the title at the end of 75. And then when he doesn't get it and they go with Terry, well, Harley goes back to Kansas City and says, well, you know, Terry isn't going to do this for a long time, and then I'll eventually get it. So I'm going to go home and concentrate on my own promotion. I have points in. And I just. I just. I'm fascinated by that now since you brought up the Cotton bowl, if that. If Fritz was thinking that far ahead and thought I would bet he was. I would rather be in the main event with Terry Funk as the champion than Harley race. [00:50:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Interesting. So interesting. [00:50:05] Speaker A: I mean, I mean, you know, I mean, not to think These guys don't have their own self interest in mind when they're voting is ridiculous. I mean obviously Graham and Barnett and, and Crockett wanted race because they were, they were going to take over the whole Southeast. Yeah. [00:50:23] Speaker C: So your boy, the Mongolian Stomper comes in at the end of November, immediately wins the brass knuckles title from Jose. [00:50:29] Speaker A: Lothario and by another overlooked guy for the amount of success he had in 1975, he was, he was one of the top five heels in the whole United States in 1975. [00:50:43] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely underrated these days. And people in the south and people in Calgary know just what an incredible, I mean just scary, scary heel he was in this era. So he's only in the, the, you know, he's only here a couple of weeks before he's already in the main events and he's winning the brass knuckles title in Houston on the seventh he beats Milmascaras two falls to one. Although the third fall is disqualification. The next night or the next couple of days later in Fort Worth he beats Red Bastine in a lumberjack match. So they are pushing him right to the moon, as you said. [00:51:21] Speaker A: And the other thing that happens too is JJ Dillon is in Florida and he's tag teaming with Roger Kirby. And Mongolian Stomper had been managed by Bearcat, right, most of 75 and before that he was managed by Don Carson. They had a breakup and then he got Bearcat Wright to manage him for most of 75 in Florida and then in Tennessee. And he held the two major titles in those two awesome territories. And then when he comes to Texas, he doesn't really have anybody. And I think this is where he calls Dylan in Florida and asks him to come be his manager, which is the beginning of JJ's career, managerial career too, that we're seeing the seeds of. [00:52:07] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. I actually, I have a couple of those Houston wrestling programs that are signed by JJ Dillon and he's about to come in and get a big push and you're right, they, they team him up with the Stomper and we actually, this is the beginning and you know, as I always talk about in Houston, where you have the Monster Heel and he has a season of. Who can stop the Monster Heel? Well, lo and behold, the last show of the month in December, the big, you know, pre Christmas show, they bring in Wahoo McDaniel back from mid Atlantic and he goes up against the Mongolian Stomper in the main event, the semi main is Jose and Peter Maivia against Stan Hansen and Buddy Wolf. We've also got Gino on the card against the Baron. We've got Tiger Conway Jr. Coming home for Christmas against Hans Schroeder. We've got Nick Kozak coming in, doing a little work in Houston, Going to a time limit draw with Rick Martel and Greg Valentine. He's just opening the cards in this era, wrestling Gypsy Joe. So that's a great show. And Tony, I don't know if you've heard on my show, but they often do something at the end of the year in Houston where they give out gifts. And in the program it's this neat thing where everybody gives a gift. And you know those tickets that everybody that loves the programs hates because people cut the little tickets and put them in the raffle. So you don't get the. The complete program in this era sometimes, but in this case, they could qualify for Christmas gifts. So do you want to hear some of the Christmas gifts in Houston in 1975? [00:53:42] Speaker A: Of course I do. [00:53:44] Speaker C: Okay. So Paul Bosch gave a bicycle and Branko Lubitsch gave a gift. Danny McShane gave a box of candy. Mil Mask gave away some souvenir masks. Andre the Giant gave away a giant poster of Andre the Giant. Somebody named Emma Taylor gave a doll. The box office crew gave a fruitcake. Boyd Pierce gave away some of his photos of the wrestlers. Let's see. Big Humphrey gave a giant pizza. That seems appropriate. Peter Berkles gave a skateboard. That's kind of funny. Let's see. Pat Malone gave a gift from Rodney's, which is a men's shop. Oh, Here it is. J.J. dillon is here in December and he gave away a cigar. That seems rather appropriate. [00:54:33] Speaker A: Yeah, he was a big cigar smoker in this when he first came in. [00:54:36] Speaker C: He. [00:54:37] Speaker A: He was. [00:54:38] Speaker C: The promotional pictures of him are him in a cigar. Yeah, absolutely. Tiger Conway senior gave a. A gift from Tiger Conway's fence company. Jose Lothario gave away a doll. Gina Hernandez gave away a box of candy. He's still a baby face in this era, so it's okay to eat, I think. Rick Martel gave a gift. Peter Maivia gave a gift. Alberto Madrill gave a gift. Tiger Conway Jr. Gave a gift from Santa. Jerry Stubbs, who has started to debut here. You know, Houston guy or Texas guy? South East Texas guy. He gave away something from Stubbs Cycles, a motorcycle helmet. That's interesting. Wahoo McDaniel also gave away a skateboard. I feel like maybe he didn't bring the skateboard. I feel like maybe they got a couple and they just assigned One to him, Pete's dad, Jon Berkles, who is related to Paul Bosch, he gave away a set, a bound set of 1973, no, 1975 programs. Isn't that amazing? Tony, how would you like to have that book that John Berkles gave away that Christmas? So far, 1975 programs bound up. [00:55:50] Speaker A: So far. That's. That would be the one I wanted. [00:55:53] Speaker C: Yeah, me too. I mean, the bicycle would be pretty cool thinking about 1970s me. Right. But Buddy Wolf gave a gift, Bad man Stan Hansen gave a gift, Gypsy Joe gave a gift. That might be the one that I. I'd be leery of if it's any sort of food or drink product. And Ernest B. Smith gave a handmade wallet. And those were the, the things given away December 19, 1975. But as you know, Tony, what do they do in Houston for the last show? Because there's a two week gap. They always hype up the January show. And in this case it's going to be January 2nd. We're going to have a two ring battle royal with Andre the Giant. We're going to have two out of three falls. The Stomper against the Superstar in a brass knuckles title match. We're going to have the little people, Lord Littlebrook and Bobo Johnson. And we're going to have a two ring six man Jose Lothario, Al Madrill and Gino Hernandez against Stan Hansen, Buddy Wolf and Gypsy Joe. Plus a trio of preliminaries. [00:56:55] Speaker A: I got two questions for you. One, who was the superstar there? [00:56:59] Speaker C: That's. That's Superstar Graham. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Superstar Graham. Okay. [00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah, they're bringing him back as a, presumably as a good guy to face off for his old title, the brass knuckles title against the Mongolian Stomper. Clown Classic. What do we say? Texas Battle of the Bullies. [00:57:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:16] Speaker C: The guy who was previously the bad guy of the season, now he comes back against the new bad guy of the season. We built up superstar Billy Graham for two years, but the Mongolian Stomper has had a month of just wrecking havoc across Texas. It's classic Houston wrestling. Right. [00:57:33] Speaker A: My mind was working on that Fritz Von Erich vote thing and I might have missed it. But did you mention that on December 5 that the stomper went over mascaras? [00:57:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Okay. Well, here's my question for you. [00:57:50] Speaker A: That's kind of amazing. First of all, they're really putting Stomper over. They're going to put over mill. I mean, he beat him by dq, but he beat him two falls to one. But the other thing I was going to ask you is that. I don't have any idea. Did Mill come to the ring with the IWA World title on? [00:58:06] Speaker C: I don't know. That'd be so fascinating to know. I need to see if I have. [00:58:10] Speaker A: That specific program because the IWA was in 75 and mill was the world champion. They even engraved his name on the belt. They didn't really plan on anybody else ever winning it, I don't think. But I just wonder with, with the Houston standing in the NWA and all of that and them running somewhat of an outlaw group, I wonder if Milk came to the ring with his IWA World title. [00:58:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's fascinating. You know, you touch on something though, in terms of Mill losing a fall. All the, all the no job people need to understand that the 70s matches were two out of three falls. And I mean, they act like Mil Mask never let himself get pinned. [00:58:53] Speaker A: Right. [00:58:54] Speaker C: He lost one fall of almost every big match that he was in in Houston. In an era where you did that, it's not like he never did the job. And you know, I can find you plenty of matches where he's doing jobs for Gina Hernandez. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:59:11] Speaker C: So among other people. [00:59:12] Speaker A: So if you, if you find out, please let me know about that because. [00:59:16] Speaker C: I don't have the December 5th program, unfortunately. Yeah, that's one of the ones. As you know, 1975 is one of the years that I'm almost complete on, but I am missing about 15 programs and that happens to be one of them. [00:59:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I wish, I wish we'd get a video release or something of that match so we could see whether or not he wore the. That title belt or not. [00:59:41] Speaker C: Yeah, interesting. So, you know, we conclude the month in Dallas, as far as I know, on the 30th, and Mongolian stomper and Peter Maivia go to a double disqualification and Rick Martel and Al Madrill beat Stan Hansen and Hans Schroeder in, in one of the semi main events. We have a little person week as little Brooke and Bobo Johnson are making the rounds. I don't have a. [01:00:04] Speaker C: San Antonio on New Year's Eve card or a Corpus Christi on New Year's Day card to talk about, but as you know, we do get to Houston on Friday night, January 2nd for the Big show and the Two Ring Battle Royal. [01:00:19] Speaker A: So that Christmas card in Dallas, Fritz works and he beats Stan Hansen, which I thought was interesting because they're really going to push Stan. [01:00:30] Speaker C: I'm glad you brought that up. So with no Houston card on Friday, the 26th, they actually have a card the day after Christmas in Dallas, which is not usual. And that, as you said, Fritz beats Stan Hansen in the main event. Mongolian Stopper beats Al Madrill in the semi main event. So think about that. And how many months have we been pushing Al Madrill? And now we've got the new big heel in and he comes in and, you know, maybe he cheats, maybe JJ helps him, but you know, getting to win over Al Madrill is a big deal, obviously. [01:01:02] Speaker A: And while Thanksgiving isn't mentioned that much until the 80s, Christmas has kind of always been a big deal for Dallas wrestling. Yeah. [01:01:12] Speaker C: Well, again, it's, it's interesting. We should be in Corpus Christi on a Thursday night. But we don't have any shows for the last two weeks in San Antonio or Corpus. But we do have this unusual Dallas show on the 26th, and then Monday the 29th, they get back to the loop, you know, as far as we know, going back to Fort Worth and Dallas to start again. So maybe they mostly had the week off, you know, in between, but they do do that Friday night show in Dallas, which is a big show. [01:01:41] Speaker A: Well, I'd be assuming a lot, but just kind of going by what other territories did you know most of the boys lived in the booking office city. So if most of the boys are living in Dallas and making the trip, then Dallas is the home base. It's not very far to Fort Worth. And then they're doing the south, you know, from Dallas to San Antonio, Corpus, Houston and then back to Dallas. I would imagine that they were just thinking, hey, guys will all be home and give them Christmas and we'll just do a Dallas card. [01:02:15] Speaker C: And there's some guys like Skip Young is on the card, Nick Kozak is on the card. So you wonder if some guys are just home for Christmas right out of town. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Back to their families or whatever. I would say that's probably a good guess. [01:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah. So one last thing to share with you guys. This is from the December 12, 1975 Houston program. And this is where they announced the title change. Terry Funk wins world title and belt. You know, we, we talked about the Jack Briscoe week, but what we didn't mention is that's the last Jack Briscoe week in, in Texas with him with the title. And we don't get a Terry Funk week until the beginning of January or the middle of January when he comes in. So he is not in Texas after he wins the belt in December. But here's what they say in the Houston program. Terry Funk, the man from the Panhandle has been calling, has been called. The toughest member of the Fighting Funk clan is the new heavyweight wrestling champion of the world. He won the National Wrestling alliance belt from Jack Briscoe in Miami, Florida on Wednesday night. The match was a one fall bout that Terry won in 28 minutes and 13 seconds with a cradle hold. Briscoe had held the title since he won it here in Houston From Harley Race, 20 July 1973. Terry's win marks the first time that brothers have ever held the world title. Terry stepped into the Miami match to replace his brother Dory, former champion who was unable to return from Japan in time for the match. The NWA approved the substitution less than an hour before the match and made the title tilt official. Jim Barnett, secretary of the nwa, was on hand to certify the victory. Funk was immediately challenged by Samoan Peter Maivia, Texas state champion, who defeated funk here on the 7th of November when the rough and rugged Texan tried to take the Texas state title from him and failed. And there's a picture of Terry Funk and there's a picture of Chief Peter Maivia with the Texas title around his waist. [01:04:11] Speaker A: Wow, that's a cool photo. [01:04:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So as we said, we've been building this up for a couple of months now. [01:04:18] Speaker A: Thank you, Greg, for all your expert analysis and all your knowledge and all your research work that you do on Texas and for coming on with us in these segments and I've really enjoyed going through 75 with you and I can't wait for us to go through 76. [01:04:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for having me on, Tony. And thank you for all the work you do and for encouraging me to do all the work that I do. [01:04:43] Speaker A: You bet, man. Tell everybody where to find you and your stuff and all that. [01:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah, so I'm jyd book on a lot of the social media, on Blue sky and on what used to be known as Twitter. You can follow Greg Klein's old school wrestling talk on Facebook. You can get my books on Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon. The King of New Orleans, the biography of the junkyard dog. The Paper Tigers, a baseball historic fiction novel, which is my first novel about the day that Ty Cobb climbed into the stands and nearly killed a crippled fan. And a strike team has to be fielded to replace the Detroit Tigers. And then my first collection of plays, Sunset Painting in the sun, two plays by Greg Klein. And coming next year, my second novel, the Road to Churchill. And my Second wrestling book, the Texas Wrestling wars of the 1950s. [01:05:31] Speaker A: That's what I'm looking forward to, and I want to be one of the first people to get one. [01:05:36] Speaker C: Yeah, you will for sure. I'm looking forward to it as well. It is well underway and I'm hoping to make the rounds next year, Tony. So I'm hoping in Iowa. [01:05:45] Speaker A: I hope you're in Waterloo with us next year. I think that's the plan. [01:05:49] Speaker C: The money is earmarked, the ECW Press books are coming in another order, and I'm just working diligently on the next book, hopefully getting it ready for next summer. [01:06:03] Speaker A: All right, man, Thanks a bunch of. [01:06:05] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you, Tony. I'll talk to you again soon. [01:06:07] Speaker A: Well, that was a fantastic, wonderful trip in the Time Tunnel back to the Dallas, Texas territory with our good friend Greg Klein, who always does such a fantastic job covering all the matches, all the angles, all the terror, all the territory, the towns, the buildings, all the wonderful things that happened in that Dallas, Texas loop at the end of 1975. And I, for one, cannot wait to get to 1976, which is going to be a fantastic, fantastic year. Okay, the Christmas super show is coming up and we're going to be talking about the three world champions, the three main ones. There were several world champions in various federations. New Japan had Enoki in the NWF title. Giant Baba had the PWF title. Mil Maskeris had the IWA title. But we're going to be talking about Bruno at the www. F. We're going to be talking about Jack Briscoe and the NWA title, which had a historic change. And another historic change was the AWA title, where Vern Gagne dropped it to Nick Bockwinkel. We're going to cover all those three world titles, the situations, the title changes, and we're going to be talking to interesting people who know a lot about that. And so that's coming up in our big Christmas super show to cover the end of 1975 and the big title changes and the wonderful, fantastic year that Bruno had. Okay, let's get to a second part of our show where I'm welcoming a brand new analyst and a brand new guest in is my good friend Dan Black. And Dan has had me on his podcast a few times, so I wanted to have him on to talk about Terry Funk and the Amarillo territory and the big angle with the Super Destroyer. Also, the Po family is in Amarillo at this time, at the end of 75. And we're going to talk a little Bit more about Jim Pride, which we know is Randy Savage in the early stages of his career in Amarillo. That's all coming up now in the second half of today's show. Let's go as I welcome Dan Black here to the Richards Ranch. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the pro wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. I'm your host, Tony Richards, and tonight at the Richards Ranch, I'm welcome in a dear good friend of mine. It's his first appearance on the show. Dan Black is here tonight at the ranch and we're going to talk about Amarillo and West Texas and the Funk family and a whole bunch of stuff. Dan, welcome to the program, man. [01:08:50] Speaker B: It's an honor and a pleasure. Thank you for having me on, sir. [01:08:52] Speaker A: Well, you've had me on your show a couple times and I've. I've had it in the back of my mind to have you on and this is good timing to have you on for this show as we talk about the last part of 1975. And I know Terry Funk is close to your heart and so is the fact that he won the NWA title. And so I wanted to have you on as we talk up the Amarillo viewpoint of Terry's big title win in 75. [01:09:22] Speaker B: I'm getting chills already. [01:09:24] Speaker A: Now tell me a little bit about your organization and the things that you do. [01:09:29] Speaker B: Sure. So I'm a founder, head coach and president of Team Black Mentorship. It is a mentoring program for youth, but we accept all ages and we use powerlifting as our platform. I was a competitive power lifter for over 30 years, been coaching for over 30 years and just felt like I needed to plant some of that wisdom, plant that seed into, into kids that I had learned through the years of people that mentored me. And we, we meet on Saturdays, we coach them up, we train them up, we use biblical principles. We allow them to go compete if they want to. If not, they can become a vital part of our organization. Other aspects and, and we mentor older people as well as for coaches and we just have fun with it and we don't charge any money for it. We're a non profit, 513c organization that accepts private donations, but we don't solicit private donations. We do it for people, be led to be doing it. So. [01:10:31] Speaker A: And you live in Oklahoma now, right? [01:10:33] Speaker B: Correct. Correct. I actually been in Oklahoma since 1973. So we moved away from Amarillo area in 73, but we made ventures back to the Amarillo Sports arena, my dad And I, until 76 and I actually made a couple of trips to Amarillo in 79 and one in Saw the Funk Terry Russell in Arkansas in 19 late 79. Early 80. [01:11:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:02] Speaker A: So. And. And were you the guy that was telling me about your grandfather at the sports arena? [01:11:08] Speaker B: No, that would be. That would be Keenan. [01:11:11] Speaker A: That would. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. [01:11:12] Speaker B: Kenan Smith, who's a good friend of mine, another Facebook friend. [01:11:15] Speaker A: Well, I don't think it was Keenan. It was somebody else though. And their grandfather had broke his cane over Jack Kane's back at the. Might have been Larry. Yeah, I think it was Larry. Yeah, I've got it all in my notes for the book and everything, but just a great story about generational people going to the sports arena there in West Texas. You know, just generations after generations of people taking their kids and growing up with, with the wrestling in Amarillo. [01:11:46] Speaker B: My dad had a little bit of relationship with Dory Funk Senior. Is. Is. I think I told this story to you before, but this, this larger sized gentleman had his knee in my back for most of the match. He was a Native American gentleman. And dad was getting mad and so they just decided he was going to go settle it outside. And when we. It was after the matches were over with and we were heading out there and for whatever reason, Dory Funk senior caught eye of it. And this guy probably outweighed my dad by £100. I mean he was three plus. But my dad wasn't backing down. And senior come up behind my dad and that was the end of it. The guy took off. [01:12:24] Speaker A: Now remind me too also your name of your co host on your show that you do. [01:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's. That's Kyle Cook. We call him kc. [01:12:32] Speaker A: Nice fella. Just a really nice guy. [01:12:34] Speaker B: He's a. He's a former youth pastor and he's also now a middle school coach and a teacher. So great job. [01:12:41] Speaker A: I like Kyle. He's a. [01:12:42] Speaker B: He's a good man. [01:12:43] Speaker A: Nice fella. And you guys do great job on your podcast and. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Yep. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Spreading the word. And also podcast. Yeah. [01:12:52] Speaker B: On Wednesday nights. Generally. We're not tonight just because we take a break every once in a while with everything going on, but usually we go live on. On. On YouTube. 8 o' clock every Wednesday generally. But we took a break from tonight, so. [01:13:07] Speaker A: And you. And you're have been recovering from hip surgery too, correct? [01:13:11] Speaker B: Had a hip replacement nine weeks ago today. And the hips doing great. The low back, not so much. But that's another story. [01:13:19] Speaker A: I resemble that remark. I got some of that going on myself. [01:13:24] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [01:13:24] Speaker A: All right, so 1975, we're in West Texas and the loop was Monday nights were El Paso, Tuesday night was Odessa. And in this particular year, for some reason they moved Lubbock to Friday night and Abilene to Wednesday night. And Thursday night was always Amarillo. And then Saturday night was Hereford and then a couple of times a month, Pueblo, Colorado. And so let's start out Mondays in El Paso at the first of October. And I'm just going to hit the top couple of matches. A couple of things to note here is Johnny Starr is in the. Is. Is in the territory. And that is Eddie Gilbert's dad, Tommy Gilbert from Tennessee working as Johnny Starr, which I don't know why he worked under that name in West Texas, but he did. And Angelo Poffo and Lanny Poffo are in the territory. So is Scott Casey, Sputnik Monroe and Ray Candy are all in the territory. In the top two matches in El Paso on October 6, Dori Funk Jr. Beats Don Fargo. And in the main event, Frank Goodish, who's in the territory in his first singles run. He'd been a tag team in a tag team with Stan Hansen in Oklahoma in 74. In the first part of 75, Bill Watts had split them up and sent them out. He sent Stan to East Texas, to the Dallas office and sent Frank down to Amarillo. And this is his first singles push. He hasn't yet developed the Bruiser Brody name. He's still working under Frank Goodish. And Terry Funk has put. Is putting him over. And he beat Terry for the Western Championship. So it's Frank Goodish and killer Tim Brooks against Terry Funk and Ricky Romero. And that ends at one fall each with a double disqualification. And I imagine that love to have seen that match. [01:15:27] Speaker B: That would have been a good one. And Frank was another West Texas guy. So there's. I mean that, that pipeline out of West Texas is. I don't think there was. There's a college, one single college university produced certainly no more world champions in West Texas State. [01:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah, probably from 1960 until around 74, 75, they just had a steady stream of wrestlers coming out of there. [01:15:53] Speaker B: There were. There were a bunch there and a. [01:15:55] Speaker A: Lot of that was Dory seniors affiliation with the university as well, you know. [01:16:00] Speaker B: Well, both his boys there played. They were stars at West Texas State and Junior even played in the Sun Bowl. In 63, I think. [01:16:09] Speaker A: 60, yeah, 63, yeah. In 50, I believe it was 58. Dory Funk Senior and Doc Sarpolos, they held some fundraising Cards to help build a brand new stadium for the West Texas Buffaloes. So they were very close to that university there in Canyon. [01:16:28] Speaker B: So I'm sure you know the answer to this trivia question, but do you know what Sputnik Monroe and Terry Punk have in common? [01:16:34] Speaker A: Well, they had their, had Terry's first match as a matter of fact, in the sports arena. I think Terry had a couple of matches before that. [01:16:41] Speaker B: Yes, he did. [01:16:42] Speaker A: But, but in the sports arena for Amarillo, Sputnik had Terry's first match and he, he took advantage of Terry a little bit. [01:16:52] Speaker B: And so tying that end, it was the first professional wrestling match I ever saw was Sputnik Monroe taking on Danny Hodge for the junior world title in Wichita Falls, Texas. [01:17:02] Speaker A: Wow. [01:17:02] Speaker B: First time I ever attended. [01:17:04] Speaker A: So yeah, and there's the old story of Sputnik would always tell the story that when they would get away from wrestling in West Texas they'd always bring him back in and he, and he'd come back in and we'll see this a little bit because he's matched up with some early on rookie guys who. [01:17:24] Speaker B: Ray Candy. [01:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And helping break them in and work with them or whatever. And so, you know, he said after he left the territory everybody was doing backdrops again and doing, you know, hip tosses and he's very technical. Back to wrestling again. [01:17:39] Speaker B: Very technical heel. [01:17:42] Speaker A: On 20 October in El Paso, Dori Funk Jr. Ricky Romero against Frank Goodish and Ray Stevens that ended at a double disqualification at one fall each. That's a old Doc Sarpolis finish that was used for years with the time limit draw at one fall apiece or a double disqualification or a double count out one fall apiece. Andre the Giant and Terry Funk. [01:18:07] Speaker B: I never knew this title. Yeah, I never knew this. [01:18:10] Speaker A: So Terry defended the international title this whole week around the territory against Andre the Giant. And this is a double count out as well. [01:18:19] Speaker B: Imagine that. [01:18:21] Speaker A: And, and they go 15 minutes though. So you know, a lot of the Giants matches from this time forward are 6, 7, 8 minute affairs or their tag team matches. But he's in a singles match here with Terry for the international title. So last week of the month in October in El Paso, Mil Maskers is in the main event. The Guerreros brought him in quite a bit because of the heavy Hispanic influence there. And he beat Sputnik Monroe in the main event. Ricky Romero defeated Frank Goodish by disqualification. And Angelo and Lanny Poffo versus Dory Funk and Ricky Romero went to a full 30 minute time limit draw. And this Kind of interesting here. Angelo and Lanny, they had been NWA world champions in 75 in Detroit, and now they're working here in West Texas together. And they were a heck of a tag team, father son tag team. And of course, I saw a ton of them here in the late 70s, early 80s when they had their ICW promotion here. [01:19:24] Speaker B: Right, Kentucky, Right. [01:19:26] Speaker A: Tuesdays, the first week of the month is a spot show in Big Spring, Texas. Angelo and Lanny Poffo against Scott Casey and Johnny Star. That's a time limit draw. Ray Candy beat Frank Goodish. For all of you who think that he never did jobs, he was doing. He was doing them here early on. [01:19:46] Speaker B: In his career, trying to put Ray over. [01:19:49] Speaker A: Ricky Romero defeated Sputnik and Dorie Funk Jr. Defeated Tim Brooks in a Texas Death match. A good old Funk brother standby. [01:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I wonder if the referee helped him there. [01:20:00] Speaker A: October 14th in Odessa. Frank Goodish and Johnny Star go to a time limit draw. So here's Frank working with another veteran, Tommy Gilbert, known as Johnny Star here. Ricky Romero and Red Bastine defeated Sputnik, Monroe and Don Fargo. Red Bastine's the booker in Dallas and he comes over here and works quite a bit. And we have some Dallas, Dallas trade off with Mad Dog Vashon, also from the Dallas office, working over here a little bit. [01:20:29] Speaker B: Didn't he come in as a heel at one point? [01:20:31] Speaker A: That's Red. Yeah, typically he did. He worked as a heel and baby face in Dallas and a heel in West Texas and the Funks would be heels in Dallas and baby faces in West Texas. [01:20:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:20:43] Speaker A: That's where that one match we have with Dori Funk Jr. And Red Bastine. Texas death match in Amarillo. Vince McMahon did us a favor. [01:20:52] Speaker B: I saw that. [01:20:53] Speaker A: One of the favors he did is he ran that on Tuesday night Titans. And so that's the reason we have. [01:20:58] Speaker B: That today with Brad Bastine doing commentary. [01:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And another longtime West Texas veteran on that, too was Lord Al Hayes. He was in on that commentary on that match in the studio with the. [01:21:13] Speaker B: That is the. The. The biggest mystery in my entire wrestling life is. And I think I've talked to you about this before, when you bring up Lord Al Hayes, I can't help but talk about it. They had this. He had this feud with Junior in. In the spring of 72, actually, from. Yeah. Winter to spring of 72, which ended in the most controversial match in the history of Amarillo wrestling. To this day, I cannot find anybody who knows anything that happened that night. [01:21:41] Speaker A: And Junior says he doesn't remember either. [01:21:43] Speaker B: Oh, bull butter. And you ask him then? [01:21:46] Speaker A: I guess I sure did. [01:21:48] Speaker B: I mean that is just the. Those that haven't heard it. I mean, Hay's got the pin now. I was there and I saw what happened. Junior's legs were over the ropes and Senior went up to get Ken Farber, the referee, and grabbed him by the shirt and said, hey, you missed this. And then Hayes and Senior got into this slugfest. Senior nails Hayes. No, actually Hayes nails Senior and when he turns around, Junior slaps him in that double arm suplex and, and the referee pins again. It's like a double pin. And Junior walks out with a belt. [01:22:24] Speaker A: What happened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I talked to him about it in St. Louis and I don't remember that. [01:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I've been asking that question through Terry, through, through various people, Romero's, all that none of them remember, none of them can recall it. But in Junior too, and. [01:22:47] Speaker B: I don't recollect that match so well, whatever. [01:22:51] Speaker A: In the third week of October in Odessa. This is the week that Andre's in town and he and Terry are for the international title in Odessa as well. And in the fourth week of the month, October 28th, Mil Masqueras, who's going around the territory from El Paso to Odessa is with Sputnik Monroe. Dori Funk Jr's wrestling. Randy Tyler, who was a Tennessee and Alabama heel who really had a run with Luke Graham and he actually wrestled in a tag team with Sputnik Monroe's kayfabe brother Rocket Monroe in Tennessee here in 75 and now he's here in West Texas Run having a run. Frank Goodish and Ricky Romero are in the main event in Odessa. Did you ever go to any matches in Odessa? [01:23:41] Speaker B: I did not. Now I went to Lubbock once. They had matches, Childress and all, down Hereford down through theirs, but I never went anything and I'm interested here. Tony Atlas is on the card though. I mean I, I never knew he. [01:23:55] Speaker A: Was in Amarillo and that's his rookie year too. 75, so. [01:24:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, I'm off. [01:24:01] Speaker B: That's a heck of a card. [01:24:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, well, Pat o' Doughty was the promoter there in Odessa and he was an old time shooter who were, you know, was really good friends with Dutch Mantel and was part of Dutch Mantel's original crew and he stayed around for years as the promoter in Odessa. Wednesday night is Abilene, which typically Lubbock's on Wednesday night, but it must have been because they were had some five Week, months. And they wanted to get an extra Lubbock card or something. [01:24:33] Speaker A: Don Slatton, of course, was the promoter. And Abilene, the first week of the month, October 1st, Putnam Row has an opening match win. Angelo and Lanny Poffo against Ray Candy and Scott Casey. Ray Stevens and Terry Funk have a match for the West Texas Brass Knuckles title. And Don Fargo and Johnny Star are in the main event on the 15th in Abilene. We have Alex Perez and Mike Vashon Jr. Mike Vashon Jr. We don't even really know who that is. [01:25:05] Speaker B: I don't know. It is. [01:25:06] Speaker A: We don't know his identity. Frank Goodish defeated Johnny Star. Scott Katie Casey defeated Sputnik Monroe. Dory Funk Jr. And Ray Candy, who are the Western states tag team champions, defeated Angelo and Lanny Poffo. We, we never get, I don't think, a run for Angelo and Lanny here. I would have thought maybe they would have gotten a heel run with these tag belts, but in this particular era, they aren't really having a lot of tag team title matches in West Texas for some reason. [01:25:37] Speaker B: And they must have that time they pulled the international title out of there for something because that was big at when you know, 73, 74. That was huge. Well, 72, 73, 74. [01:25:48] Speaker A: We're going to catch something that happens with it here in just a little bit. [01:25:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:52] Speaker A: Terry Funk defeated killer Tim Brooks in a Russian chains match. And killer Tim Brooks, who's Dick Murdoch's cousin, actually is the big heel in this particular run in West Texas in the fall of 75. On October 22nd in Abilene, we got Dorie Funk Jr. Defeating Sputnik Monroe. And again we got our Andre the Giant and Terry Funk match for the international title. And that ends as a double count out. And in the last week of the month on the 29th, Terry is back to defend the international title. And this time he defeats an old friend and a guy who spent most of 74 in West Texas. [01:26:33] Speaker B: He did. [01:26:34] Speaker A: Jim Dillon, we know him. [01:26:36] Speaker B: I remember that. [01:26:37] Speaker A: We know him now as J.J. dillon. [01:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:39] Speaker A: But in his wrestling career he wrestled as Jim Dillon and wrestled as a cowboy, as a matter of fact, and West Texas, and a heel at that. [01:26:49] Speaker B: He was pretty good, too. [01:26:50] Speaker A: An east coast cowboy heel in West Texas. [01:26:53] Speaker B: Yep. [01:26:55] Speaker A: I'm sure his city slicker Persona did not endear him to the. [01:27:00] Speaker B: He was a really good heel. [01:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:04] Speaker A: So we get to Thursday nights, which is the Amarillo night, October the second. Don Fargo and Sputnik Monroe go to a 10 minute time limit draw. I can only imagine that being a very good match. [01:27:14] Speaker B: That could be crazy because both were heels and that was. That area was known for. For heels against heels. [01:27:20] Speaker A: Yep. Angelo and Lanny defeated Scott Casey and Johnny Star. Mad Dog Vashon beats Ray Candy. Ricky Romero defeated King Curtis Ikea who's just in for this particular week. And Dory Funk Jr. Defeated Mad Dog Vashon who I mentioned is on loan from the Dallas office. [01:27:39] Speaker B: Why would you not put them in a tag team there? [01:27:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not sure. The booking is a little erratic here at the first part of this run, but we have a booker on his way in and is Junior booking right now? No, it's kind of a committee. It's Don Fargo and it's Ricky Romero and Ray Stevens. They're all just kind of doing it together, which is why it's a little disjointed. [01:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely doesn't seem like it has a method, but it's about to. [01:28:11] Speaker A: Take shape because we've got somebody coming in to take the book. Who's going to be. Yeah, who's going to be in the big angle here? [01:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:19] Speaker A: October the ninth, Angelo and Lanny Poffo beat Scott Casey and Johnny Star in a no DQ tag team match. Ray Stevens and Sputnik Monroe have a double count out. This match goes a little over 15 minutes for the brass knuckles title. And Terry Funk defeated Killer Tim Brooks for the second week in a row for the international heavyweight title. And that match goes almost 20 minutes and they just can continue to beat Killer Tim Brooks and he doesn't lose his heat like he just. [01:28:49] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean you would think that they would had him won the chain match against Terry the week before to set this up. [01:28:55] Speaker A: Yep. But now they beat him and then on the 16th the next week they beat him again. This time Ricky Romero beats him. So I mean they beat him three weeks in a row. [01:29:05] Speaker B: Ricky didn't lose much though. [01:29:07] Speaker A: Yeah, and he still got, he still got heat. On the 23rd in Amarillo. Angelo and Lanny profo versus Ricky Romero and Scott Casey is a 30 minute time limit draw. Ray Candy beat Frank Goodish by disqualification. Two falls to one for the Western States title. And Andre the Giant defeated Terry Funk by disqualification in about a 17 minute match for the international team title. This is a heck of a card right here on the 20. [01:29:36] Speaker B: Terry probably hit the referee by accident. [01:29:38] Speaker A: Something. [01:29:39] Speaker B: Yeah, saw a bunch of those. [01:29:41] Speaker A: But Angelo and Lanny and Ricky Romero and Scott Casey in a 30 minute draw. And then Ray Candy and Frank Goodish for the United States title. And then Andre and Terry for the international title. That's a card, that's an amazing card. On October 30, the Don Slatten is here against Sputnik Monroe in a 15 minute time of draw. It's Sputnik's on all these very technical wrestling matches. And Randy Tyler beat Ray Candy. Ray Stevens beat Tony Atlas here. Lanny Poffo and Angelo Poffo versus Ray Stevens and Ricky Romero end up at a double count out in a little over 30 minutes. And Terry Funk defeated Frank Goodish by disqualification, defending the international title. Two falls to one and that match goes almost 30 minutes. [01:30:27] Speaker A: Almost always in West Texas. The semi main and the main are going to go half hour. [01:30:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:33] Speaker A: So. [01:30:35] Speaker A: In Lubbock, Texas on Friday nights here, it's a little unusual. Like I said, Lubbock's always been. On Wednesday night on the third, Don Fargo and Scott Casey go to a time limit draw. And the thing is, to their booking philosophy, even no matter who was booking, they always went by that old National Wrestling alliance booking philosophy of we need a wrestling match to kick off the card and two guys who can go out there time limit draw and really work and do a time limit draw to get the fans kind of into the wrestling part, get the juice rolling. Yep, get, get the wrestling going, you know, something we don't really have today, unfortunately. Ray Candy beat King Curtis, Ikea, Funk Brothers beat killer Tim Brooks and Mad Dog Bashawn. Then on the 10th of October, Ricky Romero defeated Sputnik Monroe in Lubbock. Killer Tim Brooks defeated Terry Funk in a Texas death match. [01:31:29] Speaker B: He wins a match. [01:31:31] Speaker A: And then we have, on October 17th in Lubbock we have the debut of the Silver Streak mask wrestler. This is Steven Romero, who's Ricky Romero's son, who would later wrestle, we would come to know as Ricky Steamboat's tag team partner, Jay Youngblood. And he defeats Mike Vachon Jr. And he had a couple of matches in the Tennessee territory in May. I think he had three matches in Chattanooga, but this is his first match in West Texas here. So do you remember the Silver Streak at all? [01:32:07] Speaker B: I was, I never did see him wrestle. The times that we were there in that time frame, he never was on the card. So I never, never. And I never saw him after that either in person, I saw video. [01:32:18] Speaker A: But Frank Goodish beats Ray Candy to retain the Western states title. Ricky Romero and Scott Casey defeated Angelo Poffo and Sputnik Monroe and Terry Funk Defeated killer Tim Brooks in a Russian chain match. So they've taken the Russian chain match that they've done in a couple other places and put it over in Lubbock for the Internet this time they get. [01:32:40] Speaker B: Tim winning it the week before. So. [01:32:42] Speaker A: Right. [01:32:42] Speaker B: Set it up. [01:32:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Then on the 24th, fourth in Lubbock, Angelo Lanny Poffo and Sputnik Monroe are against Ricky Romero, Scott Casey and Ray Candy. Andre the Giant versus Frank Goodish for the Western States title, which Frank is not at the point where he would be where we'd see him as Bruiser Brody, but still two big human beings clashing in the match. You know, you can. [01:33:08] Speaker B: I still bet it was pretty good. [01:33:09] Speaker A: I wish I would give anything if we had take that man. [01:33:13] Speaker B: Yep, yep. [01:33:14] Speaker A: To go back and see his early work. Frank Goodish his early work and see Andre be nimble and. [01:33:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:21] Speaker A: Moving, able to get around, you know. [01:33:23] Speaker B: That he was still pretty athletic then. [01:33:25] Speaker A: I bet they were going 15 or 20 minutes probably. [01:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:30] Speaker A: And on Halloween night in Lubbock, Angelo Pafo and the silver streak go 15 minutes for a time limit draw. And they're working with young Romero, young blood here to, you know, put some. Put some experience on him. [01:33:44] Speaker B: And do you ever know why he. He never went by Romero or it just. I mean, it was because Ricky had a pretty good reputation. [01:33:51] Speaker A: Yep. All those kids went by Youngblood. [01:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I just wonder. I wonder what the process was. [01:33:57] Speaker A: I need to ask Ricky Romero Jr. That question. [01:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:59] Speaker A: Because we talk pretty frequently and I need to ask him why that was. [01:34:05] Speaker A: Just did a little piece on his uncle Al Romero, who was the anniversary of his passing here just a few days ago and just a really a family in pro wrestling that doesn't get the recognition that they deserve for sure. [01:34:22] Speaker B: I wonder if it had something to do with. With just taking that Native American angle instead of the Mexican. [01:34:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And that was Ricky's big deal. You know. [01:34:34] Speaker A: They were bringing in. [01:34:38] Speaker A: Jose Lothario in the. In the 50s, and senior and Sarpolis decided to go with Ricky Romero and Gory Guerrero instead and sent Lothario back to the other side of the state. And so he never. Lothario never got over in West Texas because. Because Ricky got over so big and Gory got over so big. But they, you know, that was their calling card was the Spanish, you know, in towns and back then in the 50s, San Angelo was a regular Thursday night town and Tuesday night town. And the way they got that town going was with Ricky Romero and Gory Guerrero. There was the arena in San Angelo was near the Hispanic population. [01:35:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, there you go. [01:35:27] Speaker A: And they just drew a lot of folks. Once they got those two guys in there, they struggle with San Angelo forever. And then when they got Ricky Romero and Gory Guerrero, they started drawing, drawing fans. [01:35:39] Speaker B: You know, they had a popularity contest in Amarillo, I think it was 1971. And Ricky won that over Terry, which I always felt like was. [01:35:49] Speaker B: Not accurate. But he, you know, like we're going to push the Hispanic population to come see Ricky Russell. [01:35:56] Speaker A: And well, Dory Jr. Told me that the biggest ticket selling wrestler ever was Richard Romero in Lubbock. In the town of Lubbock. [01:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:36:07] Speaker A: Not necessarily Amarillo. I don't think anybody, I can only. [01:36:12] Speaker B: Anybody could outsold the function. [01:36:14] Speaker A: But in Lubbock, that he said Ricky was the draw for sure. [01:36:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I believe it. [01:36:21] Speaker A: So let's go to November. [01:36:23] Speaker B: Okay. [01:36:23] Speaker A: November 1975. November 1st, there's a meeting at the airport in Dallas. We've got a new NWA president. It's Fritz Von Erich. They have a meeting. They have a meeting. Yep. Jack Atkinson. They have a meeting of the championship committee. And Terry Funk is decided upon as the new NWA World champion. And we've talked about it quite a bit, but in case you haven't heard some of our other shows or you don't know the story, the vote is tied 3 to 3. Eddie Graham, Jim Crockett Jr. And Jim Barnett vote for Harley race. And on the other side, it's Mike LaBelle and a couple other people. I'm trying to remember who those were, but it was three to three. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Junior was one of them. [01:37:10] Speaker A: Junior was one of them. And he was the one really pushing Terry's name. But you're right. Yeah, how could I forget that? Dory Jr. Was one of them. And with the tie, the president breaks the tie and Fritz Von Erich cast the deciding vote for Terry, who was in California. Mike LaBelle. [01:37:28] Speaker B: Okay, so he was the one he got on the phone. [01:37:30] Speaker A: Yep, he was on the phone. He was not at the meeting. [01:37:32] Speaker B: But he was not the other one at the meeting. I don't know who it was that voted for Terry. Okay. [01:37:37] Speaker A: I should have looked at my giggle. [01:37:39] Speaker B: No, he would have gone race when he. [01:37:41] Speaker A: No, I think, I think Bob would have probably. Well, it's hard to say. [01:37:46] Speaker B: He had a long relationship with the Funks. Yeah, could have been Bob. Yeah. [01:37:49] Speaker A: But the other person had. Well, they cast their vote for Terry. I'll have to look that up. Yeah, so that's on the first and then on the third In El Paso at the County Coliseum, the Silver Streak. Jay Youngblood defeats Angelo Poffo. Lanny Poffo defeats good old veteran Johnny Heideman. Sputnik Monroe defeats Ray Candy. And Frank Goodish defeated Terry Funk. [01:38:17] Speaker A: Not sure. I'm sure Terry knows at this point because Dory's on the card. [01:38:21] Speaker B: Yeah, he knows. [01:38:22] Speaker A: Dorie Funk Jr. And Ricky Romero defeated Bobby Jaggers and Randy Tyler. So I'm sure that. [01:38:28] Speaker B: I'm sure that was to set one up later down the line. But then I don't think Frank was there much longer after. [01:38:35] Speaker A: Yeah, he's leaving here toward the end of the. The quarter. [01:38:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:39] Speaker A: Then on the 9th, November 9th, the big tournament is held in Greensboro, North Carolina at the Greensboro Coliseum. And lo and behold, the US titles up for grabs because Johnny Valentine was in the plane crash and cannot defend the title any longer. In fact, wouldn't come back to wrestling. It's not really known at this time. He wouldn't be able to. But they put the belt on Terry in a tournament and so Terry's going to have the US Title here for a couple of weeks as a precursor to winning the world title. [01:39:15] Speaker B: Well, that was to probably set up Paul Jones in a rematch for the world title. [01:39:18] Speaker A: Do you know if in the West Texas. Well, Terry's going to lose the title to Paul here in the end? [01:39:25] Speaker B: Well, he's the one he beat in this as well. [01:39:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They had a little feud to kind of be on top there in Charlotte. Do you know how people. Did people know that Terry won the US Title? [01:39:37] Speaker B: I don't think so. [01:39:38] Speaker A: West Texas? [01:39:39] Speaker B: I don't think so. He didn't have it long enough for him to get it out there. [01:39:42] Speaker A: I mean, it wasn't back in these days. I mean, you didn't know about. It went on other parts of the country. No, and that's what I love about this is. Yeah, I like looking at. Back at this particular time because there was so much cooperation going on between the territories that no one knew about. Yeah, they were. They were moving their talent around and their cards around and they were shifting it all around for the NWA World championship. Everybody was, you know that jockeying positions. That title had such significance that everybody wanted to keep it strong. [01:40:19] Speaker B: You know the story behind the US Title belt in that match? [01:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a different title belt. [01:40:25] Speaker B: You know which belt they used? [01:40:27] Speaker A: Tell me which one. [01:40:28] Speaker B: Well, see, they couldn't find the belt or Johnny had it or whatever. So they got to the match and realized they didn't have a belt. And the only person had one that no one would recognize was the WWF tag team title belt Blackjack Mulligan had with him at the, at the card that night. And they. He loaned it out for the, for the title belt. [01:40:48] Speaker A: Yeah, we just were talking about this on the WW WF show with Steve Giannarelli because Crockett had called McMahon and asked if Blackjack Mulligan could come into the territory because Flair and Valentine got hurt in a plane crash and he needed another heel. And so they had to get the tag team title off Blackjack, but they hadn't done it yet when they had the US Title. Yeah, yeah, that's right. [01:41:17] Speaker B: Terry's holding the belt up, actually, because I remember seeing a picture of him, him holding that belt up and it looks an awful lot like the West Texas State Championship or the Western States title. And I thought, well, that's not it. It's designed different. And I start looking at other pictures, I go, that looks like the tag belt. And sure enough, I found out years later that was sure. [01:41:41] Speaker A: On November 24th in El Paso, Dori Funk Jr. Defeated Frank Goodish in a Texas Death match. That goes almost 30 minutes. I don't know how many falls it went, but those two. [01:41:52] Speaker B: A couple, I'm sure. [01:41:53] Speaker A: Texas Death match would have been cool. All right. Tuesday nights in Odessa, on the fourth, Frank Goodish defeated Terry Funk. So Terry's gonna start doing some jobs here. On the 11th in Odessa, it's Randy Tyler and Sputnik Monroe in a lumberjack match. In the. On the 18th, Scott Casey defeated Frank Goodish by two falls to one. And Scott Casey was a young, energetic, very over baby face because he was presented kind of as a protege of the Funks. Right? [01:42:25] Speaker B: He was. [01:42:27] Speaker A: And then on the 25th at the Coliseum in Odessa, we've got Angelo and Lanny Poffo and Billy Robinson and Sputnik Monroe. That interesting match. [01:42:36] Speaker B: Wow. [01:42:37] Speaker A: Randy Tyler and Ricky Romero and Frank Goodish and Scott Casey in a Texas Death match. So they really putting a lot of shine on Scott Casey and putting a lot of good veteran miles on Frank Goodish. [01:42:51] Speaker B: Lord Al Hayes comes back for an appearance too, I see, so that's right. [01:42:56] Speaker A: Wednesday nights in Abilene, Frank Goodish and Terry Funk. On November 5th, on the 12th, Dori Funk Jr. And Frank Goodish for the Western states title. On the 19th, Dori Funk Jr. And Frank Goodish in a lumberjack match. And then on the 26th, it's Dorie Funk Jr. And Frank Goodish in a Texas Death match. So we got Dori and Frank Goodish heading up the cards in Abilene in November in the main events and a 12 man battle royal in the main event in that last card for November in San Angelo actually. But Don Slatton was the promoter in both of those towns. He had Abilene and then when he didn't run Abilene, he run a card in San Angelo Thursday nights In Amarillo on November 6th, we had Dorie Funk Jr beating Hank James. This is from. Hank James is from Detroit and is a chic connection. [01:43:52] Speaker B: You know who his brother is? [01:43:53] Speaker A: Yes. Bobo, isn't it? [01:43:55] Speaker B: Bobo, Brazil. [01:43:55] Speaker A: Bobo, Brazil. Ray Stevens and Ricky Romero defeated Randy Tyler and Bobby Jaggers and Scott Casey beat Frank Goodish by disqualification in a Western states title match on the 13th in Amarillo. Hank James and Randy Tyler defeated Ray Stevens, Ricky Romero by disqualification and Dory Funk Jr. Defeated Frank Goodish by disqualification in a Western states title match on November 20th. It's a six man. It's a six man. Hank James Angelo and Lanny Poffo against Ricky Romero, Ray Stevens and Scott Casey in a 20 minute time limit draw. Billy Robinson defeated Dan Burdick. And Dan is a young rookie wrestler that they're really trying to work with here and give him some matches to get him going. And he never heard of him. He never really gets going. Yeah, he does has a really short career. Dorie Funk Jr. Defeated Frank Goodish in the main event. And in the main event. Well, I'm sorry, that's a semi main. In the main event we have the new booker showing up under a mask, Art Nelson as the Super Destroyer. And he beats Terry Funk to win the international heavyweight title in Amarillo on November 20th. And from what I understand, I had a one fella and I can't remember all these stories and names. I've got them all for my book. But a young attorney. [01:45:18] Speaker A: Who was in the market at the time, he had notes from the television on. [01:45:23] Speaker B: Yes, I was just going to bring that up. [01:45:25] Speaker A: And he. And he gave me some great stuff for the book on this Super Destroyer angle. So what can you add to that? [01:45:32] Speaker B: Well, I showed up on TV and I think he put Junior put Terry in a bear hug on TV and he passed out. I mean that's. I was, you know, we had left. We had left Amarillo area then. But we came home often, like once a month. And I remember seeing an angle on this on tv and I think it was before when Terry still had the. [01:45:51] Speaker A: Title and you were getting McGurk's wrestling right. Where, you know, I. [01:45:55] Speaker B: Well, then I was. But. But I was coming home to Amarilla. I raised in Quanta, Texas, and they had Amarilla and McGurk's wrestling show. But at that time, when we moved to Oklahoma, we didn't get Amarilla anymore. So only wrestling I could see is going back to. To my grandmother's house. [01:46:14] Speaker A: You didn't even get McGurk? [01:46:16] Speaker B: No, I got McGurks because we had. We had Oklahoma City wrestling. [01:46:21] Speaker A: Gotcha. [01:46:21] Speaker B: We got to see. [01:46:22] Speaker A: That's where they did the television forever in Oklahoma City. [01:46:25] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. It's a Channel 4 new studio. [01:46:28] Speaker A: Yep. Danny Williams was there. [01:46:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Watch out for flying chairs. [01:46:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Dynamite Danny. [01:46:33] Speaker B: Yep. [01:46:33] Speaker A: Then On Thanksgiving night, November 27, in Amarillo, Texas, Thanksgiving is always a big night because it's on Thursdays and Amarillo's on Thursdays. And so pretty good card here. Angelo and Lanny Poffo beat Randy Brewer and Dan Burdick. Randy Tyler defeats Jim Pride in a little over two minutes. And for those of you who don't know, Jim Pride is Randy Poffo also. Also will be known later as Randy. [01:47:00] Speaker B: Randy Savage. I did not know that's what his name was in Amarillo. [01:47:04] Speaker A: Yep. He's there with his dad and his brother. And I. I was just telling Steve Giannarelli the other day, can you imagine here in 1975, he's. He's watching his dad and his brother be NWA World Tag Team Champions. He's working opening matches in Detroit. He's working opening. He made a WWWF television taping where he did a job on tv. He's in the opening matches here doing two and three minute matches, and he's probably wondering if he's ever going to get a shot. And man, 10 years later in 1985, he goes to the WWF and just sets the world on fire. [01:47:44] Speaker B: But he really made his name there in that Kentucky, Memphis area. [01:47:48] Speaker A: He sure did. He. I saw him from 1978 and 9 to 1985. I saw him here, gosh, a hundred times probably. [01:47:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:47:57] Speaker A: And then he went to work for Jarrett and had about a year there. [01:48:02] Speaker B: Was he pretty much the same gimmick? [01:48:05] Speaker A: He was better. He was better there. He was Those years, those 1979-1985 years were his peak physical years. [01:48:15] Speaker B: Okay. [01:48:16] Speaker A: If you saw him work in 1981, 82, he would. He was better than he was and he was phenomenal in the wwf. But he, but he was just unworldly before that. [01:48:29] Speaker B: Such an athlete. [01:48:31] Speaker A: Amazing athlete. Yeah. Sputnik Monroe defeated Joe Polardi another young rookie. They're trying to get going that they can't get going. Ricky Romero defeated Hank James, the Super Destroyer. And Frank Goodish beat Scott Casey and Lord Alfred Hayes, Billy Robinson and Dory Funk Jr. In a double count out in almost 25 minutes. And in the 16 man pole battle Royal on Thanksgiving night that the winner gets $5,000, it's Scott Casey coming out on top because they're getting ready to push young Scott again. [01:49:04] Speaker B: Yep. [01:49:05] Speaker A: Friday nights in Lubbock in November on the 7th, Angelo Poffo and Johnny Heidman are in the opening match. Hank James and Ricky Romero. Frank Goodish beat Dory Funk Jr. To retain the Western States title. Then on the 14th it's Ricky Romero and Scott Casey beating Sputnik Monroe and Hank James and Dory Funk Jr. Defeated Frank Goodish by DQ in the main event. On the 21st it's Randy Tyler and Ray Stevens in a lumberjack match and Frank Goodish and Scott Casey for the Western states title. And then on the 28th, the last card of the month for November in Lubbock, Billy Robinson versus the Super Destroyer which had to be a phenomenal match. And Frank Goodish and Randy Tyler against Ricky Romero and Scott Casey. You know, I often dream of what would it have been like to grown up in Amarillo and how far is Hereford from Amarillo? Just like oh our maybe I mean a hop skip and a jump. [01:50:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's close. [01:50:08] Speaker A: 40 miles maybe. [01:50:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Hour at the most. [01:50:11] Speaker A: You can run over there to the bull barn every Saturday night. And In November of 1975, if you lived in that area, you could go to the sports arena on Thursday night and see wrestling at Amarillo, see big cards. But then you could go over to Hereford, Texas on Saturday night at the bull barn and you could see Angelo and Lanny Poffo and Ray Candy and Mario Romero, that's Ricky Romero's brother who I was just referencing a little while ago. Uncle Al, Randy Tyler and Scott Casey. And in a main event in the bull barn in Hereford you could see Frank Goodish and Ricky Romero on a Saturday night for like Larry, Rick and. [01:50:52] Speaker B: Wrestled in the Hereford Bull Barn. [01:50:54] Speaker A: $2.50 man, 45 minute drive. Angelo and Lanny Paffo on the 8th against Mario Romero and Scott Casey, Dorie Funk Jr. And Frank Goodish in the semi main event and Hank James and Ricky Romero in the main event. And just some phenomenal, I mean there were just some great cards in Hereford on Saturday night and it was, it was an office owned spot show. Because they did television in Amarillo on Saturday and then they had Hereford on Saturday night, you know, and back in the day, this is before your time and before mine, too. I only know this because of research. But they had Friday nights was Borger. [01:51:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:51:36] Speaker A: Which is a hot jump from Amber. So you can go to Amber, you go to Amarillo on Thursday, you go to Borger on Friday and Hereford on Saturday. [01:51:47] Speaker B: Being hog heaven. [01:51:48] Speaker A: Wouldn't it, if you were a wrestling fan, man. [01:51:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:51:52] Speaker A: And let's see. So we're in December now and things are really going to start to pick up. We got the. The international title is on the Super Destroyer now. So Terry has got the international title off of him. And in el Paso on December 1, it's Lord Alfred Hayes who's back in the territory. He beats Ray Stevens, Frank Goodish and Randy Tyler beat Dorie Funk Jr and Ricky Romero. On 8 December, it's Frank Goodish and the Super Destroyer against Terry Funk and Scott Casey in a time limit draw. And Randy Tyler beats Ricky Romero. And then on the 15th, we have a shorter schedule in December because of Christmas, so only three cards in most of the towns. On the 15th, El Paso, the Super Destroyer defeated Sputnik Monroe. Scott Casey beat Frank Goodish. And Ricky Romero defends his Rocky Mountain heavyweight title and beats Randy Tyler. [01:52:49] Speaker B: You know, in all the years of Amarillo matches, I never saw him defend that belt. [01:52:53] Speaker A: One time in Amarillo, he never really defended it there. It was always in Albuquerque or it was in El Paso or it was in Colorado. I can't remember him ever defending that title in Amarillo. [01:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I never saw it. [01:53:08] Speaker A: And it was really kind of a title made. Made specific for him. [01:53:11] Speaker B: Junior or senior? Made it for him. [01:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah, for him. [01:53:16] Speaker A: Tuesday nights in Odessa, it's Angelo Poffo and Lord Alfred Hayes, Sputnik Monroe and Super Destroyer. And in the main event, Frank Goodish and Randy Tyler against Ricky Romero and Scott Casey. On the 9th of December, Angelo Poffo and Ray Stevens. Frank Goodish and Super Destroyer against Lord Alfred Hayes and Scott Casey and Randy Tyler and Ricky Romero in the main event. And then the final card for Odessa before the Christmas break. Silver Streak and Scott Casey defeated Angelo and Lanny. Ray Stevens beat Sputnik, Super Destroyer beat Ted Dibiase, who I'm sure is in town for Christmas. And Lord Alvare Hayes defeated Frank Goodish and Ricky Romero defeated Randy Tyler in a no DQ match. December and Amarillo on the 4th, Lanny Poffo beat Joe Polardi. Scott Casey beat Angelo Pompo Lord Alfred Hayes beat Sputnik Monroe. Randy Tyler and Frank Goodish beat Ricky Romero and Ray Stevens. And Terry Funk defeated the Super Destroyer to get his win back for the international title. But he doesn't get the title because it's by disqualification. Over in St. Louis, Missouri, Terry Funk beats Stan Stasiak in a singles match and then wins the 15 man battle royal in the main event in St. Lou, which if you were able to look forward in time or read the tea leaves, you would know Terry's about to get the NWA title because wouldn't. [01:54:48] Speaker B: He do this the night before he won the title? [01:54:50] Speaker A: Yeah, like 12, eight, I think on the eighth. [01:54:54] Speaker B: Well, eight. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. [01:54:56] Speaker A: And then on the 10th in Miami, Florida at the Convention center, still Howard Baum's biggest regret, not going to see the match where Terry Funk defeated Jack Bristol. [01:55:10] Speaker B: Is he the guy I read about that they always went with buddies on, on that night? [01:55:15] Speaker A: Yep. [01:55:15] Speaker B: And he just said, well, there's no. [01:55:16] Speaker A: Way because it was advertised as a. [01:55:19] Speaker B: Junior Junior and there's no way Junior is going to beat him. So he just, he was tired of watching that match. Right. [01:55:24] Speaker A: I think, I think people had decided that Junior was probably not going to get the title back and they had seen plenty of those matches and it's like it's just going to be another. [01:55:34] Speaker B: Time limit and then, and then they show up with their, his buddies and tells him he should have been there, that Terry came in and won the title. He didn't believe him. [01:55:40] Speaker A: That's right. And what's the same guy and what's amazing is that you would ever get tired of seeing a Jack Briscoe and Dory Funk Jr. Match. [01:55:49] Speaker B: Could you? They were all great and they were all different. It's not like today. Well, I say today when Flair was champion, it's like all his matches were the same. And in my opinion now, the ones I always saw were the same and I saw him in person a lot. [01:56:04] Speaker A: They were more the same in the second half of his. [01:56:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it was his. I understand the first when he was. [01:56:09] Speaker A: Pretty much a Crockett guy. He was a lot the same. [01:56:13] Speaker B: Yeah, but how would you not want to see that match? [01:56:16] Speaker A: So tell me what the feeling would have been in Amarillo, Texas here with having another funk, oh, be the NWA champion. [01:56:25] Speaker B: I, I never got to see Terry Russell in Amarillo as the champion. It was probably because we just never got there during that time frame. We knew he won the title, but I do remember the story of him showing up they already knew in Amarillo he'd won the belt, but he showed up on TV under a mask. [01:56:45] Speaker B: With the robe. With his robe on that had the. His dad's flying Mirror Ranch logo on the back of the rope. They already knew it was Terry. He knew it was him, but he had a mask on. And he flips that robe open and they got that world title match. And that's. Studio audience just went crazy. Just went crazy, I bet. But Terry was like my dad never. He. My dad never thought that Terry would hold the belt because he said he was too wild. He's just too wild. He's too different from Junior. He'll get. Lose his temper and lose it. They'll never. He'll never. And back then, we still kind of believe that they could win the title instead of giving them the title. So he never thought he win it. So it was a. I'm sure Amarillo felt the same way. They're fa. They're. I mean, he was over more in Amarillo than anybody, in my opinion. You know, more than junior, more than Senior. Maybe not as much as senior early in his career when he was there in the 50s. [01:57:38] Speaker A: Oh, sure. Yeah. Because they didn't know the kids were going to be. [01:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:42] Speaker A: You know, what they became. [01:57:43] Speaker B: But by the time that, you know, late 60s, early 70s, Terry was, you know, because he could take a whooping and just get bloodied up all over the building, and everybody feels sorry for him. And then when he started, you know, winning matches or coming back from the dead or whatever, it. There was pops in that place, you'd never. I mean, you just. [01:58:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was. I think it was around. I'm trying to remember. I have it in the book, but I think it was around 71 maybe. And Terry had been going to Florida. He had pretty much wrestled in Amarillo from 66 to 70. 71. And he started going down to Florida with Eddie Graham. [01:58:25] Speaker B: Yep. [01:58:25] Speaker A: And that's when he started being more of a brawler and being more wild. [01:58:30] Speaker B: Yep. [01:58:30] Speaker A: And then Funk Senior made a trip to Florida and saw it and got. Got totally out of sorts. [01:58:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:58:40] Speaker A: And told Terry, you're never going to be the champion if you keep wrestling like this. [01:58:45] Speaker B: Yes. And he settled it back down a little bit. [01:58:48] Speaker A: He's. You know, But. But when he saw the crowd and he saw what Terry did with the crowd with that style, he got on board with it. [01:58:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:58:59] Speaker A: And of course, he passed away without never knowing Terry was going to win the title. In 75, he almost get kicked out. [01:59:07] Speaker B: Of St. Louis Messnik got so mad at him, he almost didn't book him again. [01:59:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a. Pat o' Connor did that. Pat o' Connor was the booker and he booked the Johnny Valentine brawl. And Mushnik was not a brawl outside the ring. [01:59:21] Speaker B: Stay in the ring. [01:59:22] Speaker A: And yeah, it almost cost Terry even getting booked in St. Louis, but Pat O' Connor took the heat for it, as he should have. [01:59:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:59:31] Speaker A: And he got the spanking and Terry got to come back. But, yeah, I always think that's ironic that Senior was very upset that Terry had changed his style. And of course, that's the thing he's really known for today, all these rough style. [01:59:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:59:49] Speaker A: And I always thought, too, I'm glad that Terry got the title for a couple of reasons. And I've said this on your show before, we've talked about this. I've always been glad that Terry got the title, but I always thought it was very unfair of him to get it when he got it. [02:00:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:00:05] Speaker A: Because again, we just talked about the Dory Funk Jr. And Jack Briscoe matches. [02:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:00:11] Speaker A: And from 1969 until 1975, there was not a better match in. In the pro wrestling world. It was the gold standard it's ever. And then you got. And then you got Dorie Funk Jr. And Jack Briscoe in that amazing almost seven years with the title. And now you've got to be the title holder and you've got to uphold that standard. It's impossible. [02:00:36] Speaker B: It was hard for him to do. I think that's the way he was. The way he was because he was trying to reinvent something because he couldn't be his brother. I mean, they wouldn't sell tickets. [02:00:47] Speaker A: Right. [02:00:48] Speaker B: And he had to come in as the guy that. Because I think. Didn't they let one of the magazines label him as like the accidental champion or something like that? [02:00:55] Speaker A: Like that. But, you know, the way they booked it, you know, it was that Jack was totally unprepared and surprised because it was supposed to be Junior and he prepared for Junior. Yeah, of course, we know that's all a work, but that's the way it was positioned. And that's the way that fan narratives get going, right? Is those things get planted and people start believing them as the real thing. And. [02:01:19] Speaker A: I don't know, you know, and people often say, you know, that the NWA title matches took a step down and I think they were going to anyway. I mean, you weren't going to match those two, Funk Jr. And Briscoe. And I wish, you know, I really believe with all my heart that if the plane crash in February of 75 wouldn't have happened, I really think Buddy Colt would have got the belt. [02:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, you've said that before. [02:01:47] Speaker A: And I think that maybe going to Terry after Buddy Colt would have been a better. For Terry. It would have been better. But also, Terry was having a lot of financial issues and he was having relationship issues. [02:02:02] Speaker B: He divorced his wife, divorced him there for about a year. [02:02:05] Speaker A: Yep. And he needed to get away and he needed to make some money, and it. It was good for that reason. So I'm glad that that happened for him. [02:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I've always. I don't think he gets the credit he gets as a champion now. The people like you and I do, but, you know, he just didn't have. He didn't have a long run, for one. And he didn't really have that good a quality opponent. Opponents, I don't think. I mean, you know, he couldn't wrestle his brother. Briscoe was kind of out of it. I mean. [02:02:35] Speaker A: Well, and then you had to transition, too, because Mushnik was always heavily involved. And then he stepped down from being president of the National Wrestling alliance. And Barnett started booking the champion. [02:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:48] Speaker C: So. [02:02:48] Speaker A: And Barnett, I. I'm not saying he would purposely not book it as well, but Terry is not who he voted for. I'll just say that. [02:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I was gonna. I was gonna pull this up when we were. [02:03:06] Speaker B: And I forgot to pull it up. But, you know, looking at Terry's title defenses, I don't know if I can get it pulled up or not. Oh, there it is. I mean, just didn't have. I don't think he had that quality opponents, personally. I can't get it right now. [02:03:23] Speaker A: I mean, that's just kind of where the Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler thing starts, because he came into Tennessee and he and Lawler have some fantastic matches in 76. And they even did an angle where Lawler supposedly won the title. [02:03:39] Speaker B: Yeah, he took the belt. [02:03:40] Speaker A: So the picture. His reign did set up some great matchups that lasted, you know, for the next 10 years. [02:03:48] Speaker B: Well, and he talked about that in his book, that he just. He didn't like the long runs that his brother did. He wanted to get his money, quit and get out. [02:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:03:56] Speaker B: Because I don't think he thought he was going to. He was going to have the title very long. [02:04:00] Speaker A: Well, I don't think the schedule was not something that he enjoyed as well, you know. [02:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:07] Speaker A: But let's finish up December here. You you keep looking for what you're looking for. But December 18th and Amarillo Sputnik Monroe and Ted DiBiase go to a 15 minute time limit draw. Ricky Romero, Ray Stevens and Lord Alfred Hayes beat Randy Tyler and the Pothos by two falls to none. Scott Casey beat Frank Goodish to win the NWA Western States title. So they switched the title on the 18th at Amarillo. Frank Goodish gives up the Western states belt. He's about to leave the territory. And Scott Casey is going to be the baby face Western States champion here for the next little bit. And in the main event, Red Bastine defeated the Super Destroyer by disqualification. So he doesn't get the international title. But I'm sure that was a really good match. Most Red Bastine and Art Nelson matches are. And then the big Christmas show for 1975 and Amarillo on December 25, Sputnik Monroe beat Joe Polardi. Lord Alfred Hayes and Ted Dibiase go to a 15 minute draw. Great match, I'm sure. Dick Murdoch, who's in town for Christmas, defeated Don waite. Dorie Funk Jr. Defeated killer Tim Brooks. And in the main event, the Super Destroyer defeated Haystack Calhoun by disqualification to keep the international heavyweight championship. So we've kind of gone through the last part of 75 and kind of gone through the angles and the matches as Terry, the international title comes off of him. It comes onto the Super Destroyer. He's going to be in the territory here for a lot of 76. Terry then wins the NWA World Championship. So what are your thoughts and memories of this time, Dan, about the West Texas wrestling? [02:05:56] Speaker B: Well, it's unfortunate that Terry's got the title and it's fortunate because you don't have him in Amarillo wrestling as much. So that's one of the things. And Junior still there, but I just, I don't. [02:06:06] Speaker C: It. [02:06:07] Speaker B: It starts to take a downturn a little bit, I think. [02:06:11] Speaker B: I. The matches with, with, with the Super Destroyer were good. I thought they were well booked. I mean they had him beat him before he took the title. They had a, had him show up. Terry did his first defense against Pat o' Connor and then the Superstore shows up before the match and challenges Terry, says he's the one that should be wrestling Terry. And they get into this, you know, melee before the match to set up the option of the match and somewhere down the line they have a double title match tickets after a couple, three title matches. Yeah, and I do think they were doing really well during that time. And of course Terry wins both Belts. And, and he had, you know, Destroyer has an option. He can keep the belt to take off the mask, or he can give the belt back and keep the mask. [02:06:59] Speaker A: And did you go to. When you were growing up there in West Texas and going to shows at the sports arena, did you go to any Christmas cards? [02:07:06] Speaker B: Nope, never did. Never did. Or Thanksgiving? Yeah, that was our family time. Mom would never. But never sign off on that. [02:07:13] Speaker A: Right. [02:07:14] Speaker B: We did actually go on her birthday once, which. That night was Danny Hodge versus Terry Funk in the main event. And Gorgeous George Junior in the Texas Death match against Cyclone Negro. [02:07:28] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [02:07:29] Speaker B: One of that. [02:07:30] Speaker A: One of the baddest dudes ever in West Texas, man. [02:07:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. And that was actually during that run where he was, they were, they were booking him as the king of the Texas Death matches, and he was having that run to lead up to the big battle with Senior. [02:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. All right, well, tell everybody where they can find you. [02:07:50] Speaker B: Yep. We are on YouTube on Wednesday nights. It's called Faithletic, the podcast, and it's a little bit of sports and the letic part and a little bit of faith in the, in the faith part. And we do cover sports mainly during football season. We're primary a football show and, and at the end of the show, we always do a devotional and just give people hope and, and hopefully, you know, touch somebody's lives. And I've always maintained, I've done live events and, and. [02:08:22] Speaker B: Youth events, mentoring events over the last 10, 15 years. And I've always said if we reach one person, then it's. It's been worth it and we may not even know who that person ever is. [02:08:32] Speaker A: That's right. [02:08:33] Speaker B: But when I do that show, I don't, I don't know if anybody heard. I don't know if it impacted anybody's life. [02:08:38] Speaker A: But, but, but it is, it is impacting people's lives. I know that. [02:08:44] Speaker B: Try to be the hands and feet of Jesus every day and maybe the only Bible people here, the only Jesus people here, and we just do our best to do that without, you know, going out and preaching on the corner. We just try to live by example and shine light. [02:08:56] Speaker A: Dan Black, thank you so much. I appreciate your friendship and I appreciate you coming on the program tonight and talking a little bit West Tex Wrestling and I, I support the work you do and if there's anything I can ever do to help you, you know, you know, you can contact me and we'll, we'll jump in with both feet, try to help you out. [02:09:17] Speaker B: We me And Keenan have done a. Well, I don't think we did it last year, but maybe we did. We always try to do an anniversary around either his birthday or his date or his death. Maybe we could have, you know, all of us together. [02:09:30] Speaker A: Oh, man, that'd be awesome. I love Keenan. He's awesome. [02:09:33] Speaker B: He died in August, I believe, and his birthday's in June. So one of those two dates, you know, we. We just kind of get. Talk about Terry and talk about the West Texas and impact. So maybe we can. We're six, seven, eight, nine months out from that, but maybe we. We plan that ahead. [02:09:49] Speaker A: I got so much great support from the family with the book and a lot of great, great stuff. I can't wait to. I need to work on it. I got all this other stuff that's keeping me from working on it. [02:10:00] Speaker B: But I'm curious, as Terry's daughters have been giving you information, have they? [02:10:05] Speaker A: Very helpful. [02:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:06] Speaker A: Very wonderful, wonderful people. [02:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:10] Speaker A: Stacy and Brandy, I've always heard they are, but I've developed a very close relationship with them. [02:10:17] Speaker B: I've kind of followed them in the magazines through the years. [02:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And I. I haven't really talked too much about it, and I don't really talk too much about it because I don't want them to get inundated. [02:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:31] Speaker A: Because they're not. They're very private. They don't really want to talk about it. They have been very gracious in talking to me about it. [02:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [02:10:39] Speaker A: And so got some great stuff for the book, so. [02:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Good, good. Yeah, they've been pretty protective. [02:10:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:10:46] Speaker B: And that's. And that's fine. [02:10:47] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Dan Black here at the ranch, everybody. Dan, thank you, man. [02:10:51] Speaker B: Thank you. Thanks for having me on. We'll see you next time. Have a good night. Whoo. [02:10:56] Speaker A: Wee. What a great show we've had today. We have gone from one end of the state of Texas to the other, from the east to the west, with my friend Greg Klein covering the end of the Dallas loop. October, November, December of 1975, and those great blockbuster shows in Houston, Texas. Can you believe if you lived in Houston, Texas, in 1975 or in Dallas or in Fort Worth or Corpus or any of those towns, you could go every single week and see some of these amazing cards and amazing stars. We didn't know how lucky we were. And also the western end of Texas, the Amarillo office, all El Paso and Odessa and all those wonderful towns over there, Lubbock, and of course, Amarillo and Abilene and the entire angle of the Super Destroyer and taking the title from Terry Funk. Frank Goodish, who would later be Bruiser Brody, had a hand in that. And Terry had to submit to the awesome bear hug by the Super Destroyer to lose the international title. But we know that's setting up Terry coming back to the territory with the NWA World title with challenges by the Super Destroyer. And we're going to have a wonderful 1976 talking about Terry's entire title run in all the territories and on all of our shows, and it's going to be great. I'm looking forward to it. Tell you a little bit about our social media channels and next week's show. You can catch me on Facebook at the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Facebook group. All you have to do is fill out a little membership thing and submit it and apply. Catch us on YouTube at the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel. YouTube. Get me on Substack, the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel substack channel, which is the main home base for all my writing, all my research, all our podcasts, video and audio. It's all at Substack. If you haven't downloaded the Substack app and subscribe to our channel, that's something that you need to do right now. Also coming up here next week on the show. [02:13:03] Speaker A: Well, let me tell you stories with Briscoe and Bradshaw. I didn't tell you about that. We are releasing episode four four this week of the Roy Welch and Family legacy. And I've done three episodes with Briscoe and Bradshaw so far. This week on episode four, I'm going to be talking about Roy Welch's son, Buddy Fuller and his amazing run in the Gulf coast territory and opening up the Mobile, Alabama office and the great matches there and the 1959 Memphis run that set Memphis, Tennessee on fire and set the stage for Memphis to be a leading wrestling city for the next 40 years. And so it's going to be a fantastic show with Briscoe and Bradshaw and the Roy Welch legacy. We're going to be talking about Sputnik Monroe and Billy Wicks and Mario Galinto and Tretch Phillips and all those fantastic stars that Buddy Fuller positioned and manipulated to make Memphis Memphis. That's on Stories with Brad Briscoe and Bradshaw here. Next week we're going to have a great show about the Terry Funk NWA title win over Jack Briscoe. There was one photographer there that night and Howard Baum and I are going to be welcoming, welcoming him to our show. Don DeLeon, who was backstage when Terry Funk came through the door with the NWA title after his match with Jack Briscoe in the Miami Beach Convention Center. And Don took those amazing photos that we still have today of Terry Funk smiling with the NWA title. And we're going to have an entire show about that coming up here next Wednesday on the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel. I hope you'll join us. Thank you for joining us today as we took a tour of Texas. Next week we're going to be in Florida for Terry's big title win. And this is Tony Richards telling you that if you want better neighbors, be a better neighbor and I'll catch you here next week on the show from the Richards Ranch. So long everybody from the Bluegrass State. [02:15:13] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. Tune in for another great episode next. [02:15:19] Speaker C: Week interviewing wrestlers, referees and media personalities. [02:15:24] Speaker A: That have made the sport of professional wrestling great. We'll release a new episode soon. [02:15:29] Speaker B: Don't you dare miss it.