Episode 62: 1976 Territory Review Jim Crockett Promotions

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Time for the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. We've got lots and lots of things to talk about and to do today. Covering the territories from the 1940s to the 1990s. [00:00:13] Speaker B: 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. The cream, yeah, the cream of the crop. And now here's your host, Tony Richards. [00:00:34] Speaker B: Well, hello everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. I'm your host, Tony Richards, coming to you live from western Kentucky on the Richards ranch. And we're doing our 1976 Territory Series. And today we're headed to North Carolina, South Carolina, we're headed to Virginia, back to the bicentennial year. And we have a brand new member of our Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel analyst firm family. He's going to be talking about Jim Crockett Promotions. And we're all welcome. Todd Goss to the podcast today. Hey, Todd, how you doing, man? [00:01:08] Speaker A: I'm doing good. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Glad to have you. [00:01:11] Speaker A: I'm glad to be here. [00:01:12] Speaker B: And the other thing we got going for us is Todd and I have the same birthday. So we're supposed to be doing this show together. [00:01:21] Speaker A: That's right. [00:01:22] Speaker B: As we were talking before we went on, we're Aries, so we're hard headed. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we both figured out that we're about the same level of hard headed [00:01:32] Speaker B: before we get into 1976. Let's talk about your background a little bit as a fan. You grow up in the territory, right? [00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah, my father was a fan and my grandfather and my great grandfather. So at times we had four generations going to see the wrestling. I don't remember the first matches I saw because it was before I had memory. Yeah, because I was going right after my dad got out of the army and was back here and I pretty sure I went with my uncles and my grandfather when he was in Vietnam. So. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Wow. [00:02:04] Speaker A: I was, I guess I started going, yeah, probably about 1965, as soon as I was old enough to take. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, so. So who were some of the people that your grandfathers and your father talked about in previous generations? [00:02:20] Speaker A: Well, George Becker and George Becker, Johnny Weaver, Nelson Royal. I mean my dad was a big fan of Argentina Roca. He always talked about how he was the best he ever saw. My, my grandfather saw. He saw. He saw Luther. He saw what, what was the chant? What was the champion before him? [00:02:47] Speaker B: Well, it would have been like Wild Bill. [00:02:51] Speaker A: Wild Bill, Yeah, he talked about seeing Wild Bill. [00:02:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been Wild Bill Longson, I guess. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Bill Longs and he saw Bill Longson wrestle. They saw Jim Laundis wrestle. [00:03:02] Speaker B: Wow. So that's quite a lineage. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, my great grandfather, he didn't. He died when I was about 4, so I never picked his brain about it. But you could not convince him it was not a contest to his dying day. He wanted to hop the rail, go after the heels. Every time I would. [00:03:23] Speaker B: I would have loved to talk to him about the 1960s and Nelson Royal when he first came in as a heel in the territory. [00:03:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. They would talk about the Bolos and Ike Eakins. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Yep. [00:03:40] Speaker A: And I remember the tail end of the Luther Lindsay being in. He died in the ring in 72. I saw him a few times. [00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:03:56] Speaker A: there was a. Yeah, the Abe Jacobs and Luther Lindsay team. The team that broke segregation in North Carolina and wrestling. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. And Les Thatcher worked there in the early 70s, too, so. [00:04:07] Speaker A: No, he was. He was there in the city. Was there in the 60s and into the early, early 70s. Yeah, he's there doing announcements, and he was still doing some announcing there when he was working for Fuller over in East Tennessee. So I guess he was around till about 76. I would guess seven, something like that. 76. 77. [00:04:31] Speaker B: Somewhere around in there. So. So in your time there as a fan in Crockett, what was your favorite time? [00:04:39] Speaker A: Probably. Probably the. Probably about 1975 when Johnny Valentine was in. I liked before that, when Dory was coming in as champion. I was a big, big fan of Dory Funk Jr. And we would go further than our usual to go see Dory wrestle. We would go up to Richmond or go to Charlotte, you know, three hours away in either direction. Anytime Dory was in the. Was in the territory. [00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I was just on it. I was just. I was just on a show this morning, and a guy was asking me about that and about. About it, and I said, you know, it. Unless you experienced it, it's really hard to explain to a fan what it was like with the NWA World title back then. It was just something that you never hardly got to see. And when you got to see it, it was really, really something. [00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And it was different after. In 76 is when it changed. Because before, the champ was not neither a heel nor a baby face. They came in and wrestled the top contenders. You know, you would have. Jack. I saw Jack Briscoe wrestle Gene Anderson one night, Johnny Boyd the next night, Johnny Weaver the next night. So it's. It was. Yeah, they wrestled everybody. They weren't positioned. They Would play subtle heel if they're wrestling a baby face, but they were never an outright heel. And you got long matches. You didn't get. You didn't get 15 minute title matches. You got close to it. You got between 30 minutes and an hour every time. And you, most of the time you got some sort of finish. [00:06:16] Speaker B: So one of the things that distinguished territories was the fact that there were weekly and monthly towns. So in 1976, what were the, what was the travel schedule like in Crockett? [00:06:29] Speaker A: Well, you had. Well, you've actually got the notes that I didn't write down. But I know Tuesdays were Raleigh and it was also Columbia, South Carolina. Wednesday was. Wednesday was the TV tapings and Rocky Mount and a spot show. I'm thinking Greenville, South Carolina was on Mondays. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I can, I can do the notes if you want me to. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah, do the notes. Because I wrote them all out. Don't have them in front of me. [00:07:01] Speaker B: One of the things that struck me right away when you sent the notes over was that Fayetteville moved to Sundays. So Sunday had Fayetteville, Asheville, sometimes Greensboro or Roanoke. Monday was. Every Monday was Charlotte and Greenville. And that's the old park center, right, for. [00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they ran some bigger shows in the Coliseum, the old Coliseum. But most of the time in the early mid-70s it was, it was the Park Center. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Tuesday night was Raleigh, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina. [00:07:33] Speaker A: And we went to Raleigh every week and went to Wednesday to the TV tapings at WRAL and that. [00:07:41] Speaker B: And that was one of the reasons they put the Loop that way was because they could be in Raleigh on Tuesday night and then do TV the next day in at Wrao. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Yeah, and I knew Rocky Mountain Mount, which is about an hour and 15 minutes away from Raleigh. Also on Wednesday. [00:07:59] Speaker B: Thursday was Norfolk at the Scope. And sometimes they would run Savannah, Georgia and they got that town from the Georgia territory. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, Barnett and I asked Barnett about that. It was just not practical for them to run it. It wasn't a very. It was further away than any other town on their loop and it just didn't draw well for them. So they just gave it to Crockett. Yeah, it's not that far from Charleston. [00:08:24] Speaker B: Right. I've talked to Jerry Oates about that too. His father in law was the promoter there in Savannah and he said that, he said it was, it was their Thursday night town, but it. And then they moved it to Sundays. They moved it around trying to figure different days, but it was still a long haul for them. Friday night was Richmond Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina. Lynchburg, Virginia, sometimes. And then Saturdays was row. And they had regular Saturday night shows in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Roanoke, Virginia. And you'd get a Greensboro show a lot of times for the month would be then. And Hampton. The Hampton Roads Coliseum. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they would run Hampton and Greensboro didn't run weekly. They would run a couple of times a month. I think it was probably about every three weeks, sometimes every two weeks. And sometimes Greensboro would be on Sunday, because the Coliseum ran all sorts. You know, they ran college basketball there, concerts, the circus, everything. So that. That was pretty much the cultural center in the state. You know, everything went to the Greensboro Coliseum last time. [00:09:34] Speaker B: We covered 1975 last year, and we had ended off with the plane crash. Johnny Valentine, you mentioned him earlier. I mean, George Scott came in as the booker, transformed the territory from a tag team territory to both tag team and singles. Had Johnny Valentine, had the Masked Super [00:09:56] Speaker A: Destroyer, Super Destroyers, Don Jardine. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Super Destroyer had Wahoo. They had. Had. Who else did they have in their Todd? [00:10:07] Speaker A: Paul Jones, of course. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Of course. [00:10:10] Speaker A: The number one baby face time. [00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Sonny King. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, Sonny King was in. He jumped to the opposition when that started up and was never welcomed back [00:10:23] Speaker B: then the plane crash happened, and then they put the US Title on Paul Jones there at Thanksgiving. [00:10:32] Speaker A: I think they did a tournament that Terry Funk won. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Right. They were prepping Terry to win the world title. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So he won the tournament and then Paul Jones on the big Thanksgiving show won the. Won the US Title from Terry Funk. And Terry Funk did jobs for Wahoo when. Right around that time and for Rufus Jones. So basically he set up with his contenders when he comes into the territory. [00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah, when he comes back with the title, he's got the program built in and it was amazing. It's amazing to me how they did that in so many territories. They had that set up in Florida, they had it set up in Georgia. They had it set up in Amarillo. They really. They really did a great job of setting Terry up for success in 76, I thought. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah, but he was a very different champion than his brother or Briscoe or Harley or Kaninsky because he only wrestled. He only wrestled baby faces. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:28] Speaker A: And he pretty much. I think he wrestled Johnny Weaver one time, but pretty much his opponents were always Paul Jones, Waha McGee, Daniel or Rufus Jones. I think they brought Dusty in for a shot at him at one point, but before the champion wrestled everybody and he just wrestled heels and you had a lot more screwy finishes. [00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And. And that part of that Was Sam Muchnick retiring? [00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And Fritz and Eddie Graham taking over. And I don't, you know, and I love Terry Funk, but I don't think that was an improvement. I think that hurt the tie, the credibility of the title a little. [00:12:07] Speaker B: I felt bad for Terry for getting it at that time because he had to follow seven years of junior and Briscoe. I don't know if anybody could live up to that. You know, that was a pretty high standard for anybody to live up to. In some ways. If, if Buddy Colt hadn't been in that plane crash in 75 that ended his career, I almost think he would have been tailor made for that spot as a champion. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not sure because how much did he work outside of Florida in Texas, really earlier in his career? [00:12:46] Speaker B: He did. He worked in Georgia a lot and worked a little bit in Tennessee. Not, not to the extent of Florida and some others. But he really. I always thought he was one guy who really was suited for the title. There weren't many guys, but I thought he was. [00:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, I saw him because we got the Florida TV here and yeah, he was great. [00:13:09] Speaker B: You bet. [00:13:10] Speaker A: That's not a. It's a connection I've never personally made probably because I haven't thought about it before. [00:13:16] Speaker B: You know, one of the things that happened too was that, you know, with that tournament for the US Title, they brought Blackjack Mulligan in from the WWW F where they were the tag team champions up there. Even used the tag team title belt for the tournament. That was the belt Terry held up when he won the tournament was the tag team title belt. So Blackjack now is in Crockett and so he. He's feuding with Paul Jones. So what did you make of that program? [00:13:46] Speaker A: Well, the thing with Blackjack is they actually tried Billy Graham for the spot first to replace Valentine and he just didn't get over. Yeah, And Blackjack is a very different wrestler. He's obviously a really tough guy, but he was no technical wrestler. He was not Johnny Valentine. [00:14:04] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:05] Speaker A: And you generally got shorter matches and more brawling and more promos as opposed to, you know, you know, hourong matches where. Well, Johnny and Wahoo just beat the. Beat the daylights out of each other over and over again. It was a very different feel. And you know, it seemed like a. And I'm not trying to put down blackjack, but it seemed like a major downgrade because he just isn't the worker that Johnny Valentine was. And it was obvious even as a 12 year old that I could see that. And I like blackjack, and it worked. But, yeah, Paul Jones is a perfect opponent for him because Paul could. Paul could. Paul could basically carry the matches. [00:14:50] Speaker B: I always felt. I always felt bad for people who didn't grow up in the territory who only saw Paul Jones in the TBS years. You know, they didn't see him as a worker. You know, they didn't see him in his really good working time. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there's video of him in Florida. There's a match where he's wrestling Ron Fuller, and Ron Fuller is, you know, Paul Jones is probably. He's probably about five, ten, or a little shy of that. Ron Fuller's like six, nine. And they work together so well that you did not notice the height difference. It wasn't a factor because, well, Ron knew how to position himself to, you know, take that away. And Jones is such a good worker that, you know, you didn't think about him being small. You just didn't. I mean, and he was a world beater then. I mean, he was the number one baby face, I guess you could say. Wahoo. And Rufus and Tim woods were also up there. But, I mean, until Ricky Steamboat came around, Paul Jones, it was. Yeah, he was number one as. As he claimed to be. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Well, of course, you also had the regular tag team champions, Gene and Oli Anderson, who were one of the greatest tag teams of all time. I mean, really rough, tough brawlers and also somewhat wrestlers. They're in a feud with Rufus R. Jones and Paul Jones. [00:16:18] Speaker A: Well, they would do that at the time where there would be multiple. You know, everybody would be feuding with two or three people and they would be in a tag team feuding. And that was a. Yeah, Rufus Jones is another one people saw late in his career that didn't, you know, saw him as. He was older and couldn't do much and don't realize how much. How fast he was and how charismatic he was in the early 70s. And he's somebody who. He's from Columbia, South Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina, he was the top baby face. He always got the world title shot in Columbia, just like Johnny Weaver was the number one baby face in Greenville, South Carolina. Even in the 80s. He's the. He was the number. He was a big draw. But, yeah, it's a. It was a. It's an interesting dynamic. And, yeah, people will knock Rufus because they're seeing him at the end of his career, but he was good back in the day, and he was over. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Was that a. Was that a. Was that More of George Scott style of booking where you were saying, you know, and I've noticed that as well where it's all blended together where tag team guys and singles matches and you had all the top eight players were pretty much wrestling each other in some way or fashion. You had some main parts of programs going on. But I mean even Dusty did that when he came in. Is that a Crockett thing or is that just a. I think it's a [00:17:48] Speaker A: George Scott thing because yeah, that, that. I think it might have been a Crockett thing because that was the case going back even into the 50s where there would be like somebody would be having programs with multiple people at the same time. And when the plane crash happened, Johnny Valentine was spewed. Had programs with Kempetera, with Rufus Jones and with Wahoo McDaniel simultaneously. Ric Flair was spewing with. With Wahoo and with Tiger Chandler Jr. Simultaneously when the plane crash happened. [00:18:23] Speaker B: I like that style of booking. I mean I really. I enjoy the multi layer stories going on. And George did that when he first went to the WWF as well. I mean that was one of the things that really put the WWF over in the national expansion I thought was George brought a couple of the guys from Crockett, you know, Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine and some of those guys that he had booked before. And he brought the multi storyline thing up there for a couple of years to kind of get that rolling. And I don't think he gets credit for it, but I think it was something that he did. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think a lot of people judge him off of that late WCW run where he was completely out of touch with the business. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I do too. And I think that's a shame. I mean because I think George was really, really excellent when he was there and that, you know, bookers don't always. Their stuff doesn't always get over in the territory. You know, Tom Ernesto was a great booker in Georgia. His Tennessee stuff wasn't all that great, you know. [00:19:28] Speaker A: So yeah, neither was his Los Angeles stuff. But that was sort of at the end of his run. [00:19:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:19:34] Speaker A: You know, and I was like. I was actually going to bring up Tom Ernesto as a similar example where what people have on tape is the end of their run, not. Not when they were at the creative peak. I mean Bill Watson, WCW was not Bill Watts in, In Oklahoma or Florida. Yeah, or Florida or Georgia or anywhere else. But yeah, it's. I think every booker has a. A set timeline. I mean Louis to let was a great booker when he Booked Continental. That one point when they first gone to Pensacola, it went down and they had to get replaced. You know, every. You know, you, you have so many ideas and I'm hard pressed to think of anybody who was a successful booker from the time they started doing it till the end. [00:20:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's hard. I. I can't think of anybody either. Ronnie Garvin comes in. Had the Garvin brothers ever been in Crockett before? [00:20:33] Speaker A: I don't remember. I think they may have been in the 60s. But yeah, Ronnie had come in as a. As a single but he was pretty much a mid card wrestler. Adam teaming with. He sort of took Steve Kern's spot. It went back to Florida. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we just had Steve on a couple weeks ago and hit. That was when he was coming into his hotel period in Florida when he had been up there as a tag team partner with Conway Jr. Yeah, and [00:21:01] Speaker A: then Ronnie Garvin, you know, was teaming with Tiger Conway Jr. When he came in. Steve Kern left and they were a good team. There was a. [00:21:09] Speaker B: There was a hot program too going on too. I wish there was a lot of tape of it, which there isn't, but Blackjack Mulligan and Tim woods and that sort of goes into the. [00:21:21] Speaker A: It. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Don't they work the TV title into that somehow there in the spring? [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll have to check my notes on it to be remember exactly. But yeah, Tim woods did win the TV title and they had a tournament on television. [00:21:38] Speaker B: Seemed like it was in April maybe something like that. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Moscow won the TV title over. Over Tim over Tim woods in the. On television when Flair interfered and he pulled the tides. And that's the same episode that Wahoo. Panteri Funk on television. [00:21:58] Speaker B: Right? [00:21:59] Speaker A: Well, Funk was a champion. Well getting all these marquee matches on television all at one time. But they had Tim Woods. Tim woods was working with Blackjack quite a bit. You know, when Blackjack wasn't working with Paul Jones and they had. [00:22:16] Speaker B: They would worked a bounty into it as well. $5,000 bounty. [00:22:22] Speaker A: Yes. Blackjack put the $5,000 bounty on. On Tim Woods. That was, that was in January. [00:22:31] Speaker B: One of the guys who really takes off and his career really takes off because he comes back amazingly transformed. And of course he's a probably the best well known person that's ever come out of Jim Crockett. That's rick flair. He 76 is a huge year for Flair, right? [00:22:50] Speaker A: Yeah, they weren't sure he was going to be able to come back after the plane crash because he had Broken back. And he's back on television, you know, down about £50 and, you know, in great shape. And he's back in the ring by, by February, which is pretty amazing because I've had a broken back before and that is not something you recover from easily. [00:23:14] Speaker B: How did yours happen? [00:23:16] Speaker A: Car accident. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Oh, man. What year? [00:23:18] Speaker A: That's why I don't referee anymore. [00:23:21] Speaker B: What year was that, man? [00:23:22] Speaker A: About five years ago. [00:23:24] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. No wonder you don't like to fly. [00:23:28] Speaker A: No, I don't like to drive that much either. [00:23:31] Speaker B: I just had a back procedure here just a few weeks ago. And it's because of all the driving and flying and car seats and plane seats and. [00:23:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm trying to put that kind of stuff off because once you get rods and stuff put in it, your mobility is down. My mother had that kind of procedure and yeah, she just had less mobility and the same pain. So, you know, it's like, if I have to do it, I'll do it. [00:23:58] Speaker B: Was Jack Briscoe the first NWA champion that really wrestled on television in Crockett, or did Dory Jr. Wrestle on TV? [00:24:05] Speaker A: Dory appeared on TV a few times, but it was rare. Briscoe wrestled on tv. Terry wrestled on TV and, you know, did jobs on tv, which was pretty, pretty unheard of. I don't remember the television back to tell you if Gene Kaninsky wrestled on TV or not. That's, you know, I'm like five years old. So. [00:24:27] Speaker B: Do you think, do you think that Terry doing the job on television was a. Was one of those things that fall in the Sam Mushnik's gone category? [00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's, you know, I get building up somebody for a challenge, but you don't. Your world champion does not. Does. You know, they wrestle on TV rarely and they certainly don't put anybody over. Yeah, yeah, it just, you just, you know, the champion should be above every. Everyone else and should never be. Never be jobbed on television. Should never look weak, should never. It should never be made to look like a fool. And yeah, Mushnik, like, not Mushnick out there to protect the champion. You didn't see Luther's ever looking weak or vulnerable on television, period. [00:25:17] Speaker B: And you certainly didn't Dory Jr. During his time, you know, or Jack during his time. [00:25:22] Speaker A: No, I mean, there's matches, there's a couple of Dory Dory Jr. And Jack Briscoe matches that are out there. Then one that takes up a whole Florida 60 Minute show and they just go out there and wrestle. They have A tremendous match. And it goes for the whole length of the whole length of the show and nobody looks. Yeah, both. Both the champion and the challenger come out looking strong in that. [00:25:48] Speaker B: This probably surprised some people, but here's another guy speaking of Blackjack and superstar Graham and some other guys that had trouble getting over in the Crockett territory. But Dusty comes in and Dusty has trouble getting over. What. What was the cause for that? [00:26:05] Speaker A: You think he wasn't a Crockett style wrestler? [00:26:10] Speaker B: How would you. How would you describe a Crockett style wrestler? [00:26:14] Speaker A: Somebody that can fight and can actually wrestle. And he did a lot. I mean, Dusty did a lot of comedy. He didn't do much actual wrestling. He didn't look the part of. What a rat, what you think a wrestler from here looks like. It just didn't connect. And I got no explanation for that. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Well, I've told people for years that Dusty didn't get booked in St. Louis. Sam didn't book him because of that. What you're saying that that very reason. [00:26:45] Speaker A: And I'm not trying to just rag on Dusty, but yeah, when he did come through in the in 81 as the champion, we had a certain expectation of what a world championship match was going to be like. And we get a short match with no wrestling in it. Yeah, Koloff had a good match with him, but Ivan Koloff could have a good match with anyone. But he wrestled the heel King James Valiant and he wrestled the Iron Sheik. And you know, they're short matches, have a lot of comedy in them, and it just didn't connect. You know, we had, you know, just two years earlier, we'd seen Nick Bockwinkle come in here as AWA champion and wrestle Steamboat on TV and have wrestle Patera and have these tremendous matches, but there is no wrestling in his matches. It's comedy and it's brawling and it's just not what got over here. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Then I again, not bragging on Dusty, but I mean, that was one of the reasons his 81 reign was shorter was because a lot of the NWA member territories didn't want to book him or you got feedback from them like what you're saying. It's like, I this isn't working. You know, the matches are too short, there's too much comedy. We're used to wrestling and. And I know Dusty didn't want to lose the title in September of 81 when he lost it, but I just think, you know, I've heard that from more than one person where it's the, the feedback from the territory or the booking offices was we. We got to go back to a different kind of champion. [00:28:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Stampede didn't even try and book it. They. They booked Nick Bockwinkle, you're right. And they've been booking the NWA champion forever. [00:28:30] Speaker B: One of the things that was going on during this time period too, that I find really interesting is the whole iwa, which was a different kind of. It was a different version of what we think of as the iwa. This one was based pretty much in North Carolina. Right. [00:28:46] Speaker A: Well, it started out as. As Eddie Einhorn trying to run nationally against. Love is running against everybody. He's running against the Tunis, he was running against Vince McMahon senior run against Crockett, run against Eddie Graham, run against Jim Barnett. But it, you know, it basically did not succeed. And they had. Even though he'd had like a. I mean, Ivan Koloff had jumped there in New York and Ernie Ladd, they had Bobo Brazil, they had Nelson Royal and Rip Hawk, the Carolinas jump there, and Sunny King. But it didn't. It. It just. He basically shut it down. And Johnny Powers and Martinez has kept it going basically as a regional promotion. And I'm not certain. I think they may have been using John Ringley's license because you had to have a license to run in North Carolina. And Crockett kept. Had done. Pulled that to keep other. Keep opposition out when the WWF was trying to intrude on Richmond and they were fighting over Richmond for years and basically you couldn't get licensed and if. If the. The State Athletic Commission was not going to license you to run. So I think they were. I don't know for sure, but I think they may have been using John Rangley's license since he had, you know, split with the split with scene with, oh, what is her name? The sister I must have in a brain. Brain lamps. But yeah, he was. Oh, Francis, Francis, yeah, he'd split with Francis and he was on the outs and was out because I know he was involved in Lou Thez's group in Nashville because his name is in the credits on the TV shows, right. And they're using IWA footage on their first show. But the IWA basically was based out of Mount Olive, North Carolina. It was Johnny Powers running it. There was a lot of outlaw guys, a lot of guys that were just starting out and. And a few people who jumped, you know, Rip Hawk wasn't getting pushed. So yeah, he jumped Nelson Royal and Nelson Royal wasn't welcome back until like 80 late 80, whenever they did the bunkhouse stampede. 84, 85, wasn't they? The. [00:31:23] Speaker B: The anti trust lawsuit. Wasn't that around, like, not being able to get into buildings? [00:31:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Crockett locked them out of the main buildings because when they first ran in, when Einhorn still had it, they ran Charlotte Coliseum, they ran the Dorton arena in Raleigh, and all of a sudden they couldn't get booked in those buildings. And they're running Western Salem, which is not a. You know, it's 30 minutes from Greensboro, but it's not much of a. It's not a strong wrestling town. Crockett didn't run it regularly. They're running in. They're running in Mount Olive, North Carolina. They're running in Danville. They're running in, like, South Boston, Virginia. They're running places like on the coast where, where Crockett just doesn't run. Like Greenville, North Carolina, Morehead City. [00:32:14] Speaker B: I don't have my notes here in front of me, but it seems like. Didn't Crockett have a minor league hockey team in Winston Salem? [00:32:22] Speaker A: He bought the. He bought the. They were using a baseball stadium and he bought that minor league team to lock them out of the stadium. Out of the stadium in Western Salem. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And then I saw all the newspaper accounts of all the different cities that were getting these lawsuits because they were trying to get into the city owned buildings. And Crockett had exclusivity in there, and they couldn't. They couldn't get in. But they. They didn't win the lawsuit. I mean, they ended up. [00:32:54] Speaker A: No, it got thrown out, but, you know, they. Crockett was running at Dorton arena and Raleigh on Monday. I think it was Monday nights. IWA ran the Durham National Guard Armory in Durham, you know, 30 minutes over, you know, and you're seeing, like, Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair and Wahoo McDaniel and Paul Jones and Raleigh, and you're seeing Bulldog Brow or Wrestle Mil Mask or. And really bad style clashes or a lot of. A lot of guys you'd never heard of. You'd have the Love Brothers, that Igor. They had the Mongols who were. We'll talk about them jumping in a minute. Yeah, they had Bobo Brazil and they were building him on the posters as the World Negro Heavyweight Champion, which just seems crazy that they're doing that as late as 1976. And, you know, I'm gonna say, you know, he's a big name and he's a legit athlete, you know, and it's like, why is he the world Negro champion or world colored champion? [00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:59] Speaker A: It doesn't make sense. [00:34:00] Speaker B: Doesn't. [00:34:01] Speaker A: They had done done. Fargo was in doing a Fonzie gimmick which was just horrible. [00:34:08] Speaker B: So who did it? Was Johnny Powers the booker there or who was. [00:34:12] Speaker A: Yeah, Johnny Powers is the booker and the owner. And Martinez is Pedro Martinez son was the other owner. [00:34:22] Speaker B: I see. [00:34:23] Speaker A: I think Pedro still had some involvement with it, but I'm blanket on his son's first name. He was the one that adds the tape library that sold tapes for years. And they said to gave that show went all over the world, you know, into the 80s and did tours in Africa off of it and brought like Igor and Brower and M. Masters, Carlos Cologne over the wrestle in Africa. [00:34:48] Speaker B: So the. The Mongols, they jump to Crockett as the champions, don't they? [00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah, they. They. They left. Showed up with a belt. They. They just split because there was a time they were shut. They didn't have television iwa. Once the run, the Ironhorn run was over, it went to reruns on television. They didn't. They hadn't gotten television yet. And then a bunch of the guys jumped to Charlie Babs group which is. Didn't last long. Like none of Charlie Bab's groups lasted long because he. [00:35:21] Speaker B: We talked about him before we went on the air. Tell everybody who Charlie Babb is. [00:35:25] Speaker A: He's a guy that was promoting outlaw shows and he ends up being the IWA announcer when they do get television. He's a guy that would promote outlaw shows pretty much from the early 70s up until he died, you know, which was probably in the 90s. And he would start up, he would get some investors to put into it, then take tv, run some shows, disappear the gate money. One time he faked a heart attack to not pay the boys. He was. He was always starting up some new promotion that, you know, usually lasted a couple of months at most. And yeah, I met him one time and shook hands with him and I checked to make sure I still had all my fingers when I was done. This guy was a crook. Yeah, there's some people that stuck with him. But you had like. You had other guys running outlaws like Johnny Hunter's ewa. Johnny Hunter is a good guy. He used a bunch of fake mask guys, but he actually had name guys working for him, you know, in. In the. By the 80s. But you know, like George south started out with him. Rick Link started out with him. And you know, Charlie Babb would run shows advertising George Becker in 1975. And George Becker was in Florida and long retired by that point. And so, of course, people pay their money to see George Becker, who's, you know, pushing. He's in his mid-60s by that point. Of course, he know Ships because he was never booked. [00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, huh. So when they bring the Mongols over to Crockett, they put Professor Boris Malenko with him. [00:37:14] Speaker A: Yeah, Malenko was actually the first to jump, and it's forgotten about. But the other person that jumped at the same time with Malenko was referee Tommy Young. [00:37:22] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Because he started out as a wrestler for the IWA, and he jumped in late 75 along with Boris Malenko, when Malenko is basically. He's feuding with Wahoo Some In 75, 1976, the Mongols show up and he switches to mostly being a manager. Still wrestle sometimes. It's kind of like the real Border guard had a few years earlier. [00:37:49] Speaker B: So even though Oli and Gene are fairly fair, most of the time they're heels. [00:37:55] Speaker A: They're. [00:37:56] Speaker B: They're sort of the baby faces in this deal because they're Crockett's team. Right. And the Mongols, yeah, they just. [00:38:02] Speaker A: They just goozled. They. They didn't give the Mongols a thing. Won the belts and threw them down on television. Said they were worthless. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. So they did the television angle on television where they beat the Mongols and then the Andersons take the IWA tag team titles and just. [00:38:20] Speaker A: Well, they won the. They won the belts at a house show, and they talked about winning the belts, and then O just throws the belts down on the ground. Says they're not worth anything. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Oh, my. [00:38:31] Speaker A: Which was pretty shocking because, you know, we're getting the IWA tv, we're seeing reruns. But, yeah, yeah, they've been a dominant team in the iwa, and that sort of pushed out because before they jumped, they were feuding with the Soto brothers, who just all of a sudden, when the Mongols jump, Roberto Emanuel Soto's push evaporated. And they're just doing jobs, basically. [00:38:55] Speaker B: So I think people. I think people have heard for years about the result of what we're about to talk about. But set up and describe the ric Flair Wahoo McDaniel table leg incident angle. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Well, that's pretty much later in the year. They've been. They're spewed like rit. When Flair came back, right before Flair came back, they were announcing the 1975 Wrestler of the Year award being given out, voted on by the fans. And of course, Ric Flair thinks he's won it, but Wahoo wins It and Flair just goes berserk. And that starts back up their feud when they trade the Mid Atlantic title back and forth a few times and it's sort of an angle, but it's sort of a shoot. They made a match in Charlotte where they broke away a table leg, had a nail sticking out of it. Flair cut up Wahoo pretty bad. He still has that scar the rest of his life. And that was Flair taking the belt back. And I don't think it was a cage match, but yeah, and that set up a whole round more just bloody cage matches and Indian strap matches after that. [00:40:12] Speaker B: And they, they had a good thing going for the rest of their careers from that. Right? [00:40:18] Speaker A: I mean, they, yeah, they would, they would, they would, you know, and the flare kept going back and forth and they would team and they would feud again and then they team again. And then Wahoo finally turns and 1980, 1985, Wahoo has that hot heel run where he finally has enough and says they're keeping the Indians down. [00:40:44] Speaker B: And even in 86, I mean, Wahoo's in Florida. I mean, Flair is coming in with the title and they're having main events and they had good team. [00:40:55] Speaker A: He's pretty much up until Ricky Steamboat came around. And even after, I mean, Wahoo is one of players main opponents. [00:41:02] Speaker B: 76, I think it was in late 75, Jerry Blackwell debuted, but he comes in here and Crockett in 76. What was Jerry Blackwell like about this time as a. As a fresh wrestler? [00:41:15] Speaker A: He was a jobber. He didn't, he didn't get a. You know, he was basically losing on tv. They started him out in the mid card and he slid on down. They had the battle of the bulge and they brought in Chris Taylor to wrestle in. So the last of the Minneapolis, that class of, class of 73 Minneapolis wrestlers comes in briefly. But yeah, Blackwell never had a push. And it was really surprising because we're not seeing the other territories pick up a magazine and he's like number two contender for the AWA title. And it's like this guy never won a match that I remember. [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So another thing that takes place in 1976 that is going to be on a lot of these shows that we're doing around all these territories because a lot of the territories had closed circuit presentations of the Ali Anoki match, the boxer wrestler match. So how did Crockett handle that? [00:42:17] Speaker A: They ignored it. And the Mernicks, who were the Raleigh promoters, they didn't join on either. So they, they put it up. They ran it. And they ran it, and boxing promoter ran it. It drew about 100, 100, 150 people. And they used the Georgia. The Georgia feed as the wrestling part of it. Crockett never acknowledged it on television, period. And nobody went to it. And I think if they had, nobody understood MMA then, so they would think, yeah, this guy's laying on his back the whole time. [00:42:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker A: But Georgia TV wasn't on here. So the rest. It wasn't going to draw boxing fans, it wasn't going to draw wrestling fans. It was a fiasco. Whoever promoted it lost their ass. Yeah, because I work for the Murnicks and their nightclubs in the 80s. And I asked about and said, yeah, we just stayed at the. Stayed as far away we knew that was going to be a fiasco and we didn't want any part of it because we like to make money, not lose it. [00:43:18] Speaker B: You know, I'm glad you brought that up because I don't think people are as familiar with the different town promoters. I think they're familiar with, you know, the Crockets, but they had all these town promoter partners, like a lot of territories did that people just aren't as familiar with. So tell us about the Murnick family. [00:43:39] Speaker A: Well, they not only promoted wrestling, they promoted kickboxing, they promoted the circus when it came to town. They promoted the Harlem Globetrotters when they came down. They promoted concerts, they own nightclubs, they promoted plays, and they ran Raleigh, Greensboro and all of Virginia, or all the eastern part of Virginia from Richmond over. They were the local promoters. [00:44:06] Speaker B: So there was. So there was Elliot and there was Joe, right? [00:44:10] Speaker A: Yeah. As Joe was a father and Carl and Elliot were the sons. [00:44:14] Speaker B: Carl and Elliot, Yeah. And so how. What year did Joe go back to with the Senior Crockett? [00:44:22] Speaker A: The 40s. Wow. He'd been around. They've been around forever as the sons that got into concert promoting and, you know, promoting other things. And. Yeah, I actually worked at a couple of their clubs that they own. They own. They own a country music bar. They own the heavy metal bar. They own like two other, like alternative, which wasn't a term yet, music bars and a comedy club like in the early 80s. [00:44:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:44:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I did sound at all of them at one time or another. It's that Long Ranch Saloon was where they had the Ricky Morton concert that was on the Super Towns of the Superstation special. [00:45:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So did they. Was wrestling their big money maker? [00:45:08] Speaker A: Wrestling was their. Well, I think concerts were the number one thing, but wrestling was certainly up there with it. Yeah, I mean, they were around into the, into the Turner era because. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Because wrestling was more frequent. Right. It was a weekly. [00:45:24] Speaker A: Yeah, wrestling ran weekly. And they were promoters. They were. When Flair jumped, they were looking at starting up with using Flair and one of the Carolina guys and a bunch of the indie guys. Before Flair went to wwf, they rejoined the NWA and got a promoter's license and all that. It never came about. But, but yeah, they were, they were the local promoters. I mean, how. You know, Crockett himself was promoted all sorts of stuff in Charlotte in addition to wrestling, as well as, you know, having the baseball team and he did plays. He owned convenience stores. He. He on the, you know, the baseball team. He promoted concert, senior promoted concerts up until Ray Charles showed up to, to inebriated to play. And he didn't want to deal with the rock concerts because the, you know, perceived seediness of them, which is, you know, pretty tame compared to today. But yeah, but, but yeah, Ringley, that's how Ringley met Kroger's daughter was through him being a concert promoter. [00:46:33] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Did you meet John Ringley? [00:46:37] Speaker A: I met him one time briefly because I've never really had a conversation with him. You know, I was introduced to him, but you know, it was just. Yeah, I just, you know, briefly chatted with him. It was when he was part of South Atlantic, but, you know, I was not inside at that point. So, you know, they're not gonna, he's not gonna talk to you about promotion stuff. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So one of the things they do with Blackjack Mulligan is they put him with Andre, right? They, they program. [00:47:09] Speaker A: Yeah, they bring Andre in and put him around the loop with Mulligan, you know, and just goes to a bunch of, a bunch of non finishes, double DQs and stuff. Because you can't job Mulligan. You can't job Andre. [00:47:22] Speaker B: Right. [00:47:24] Speaker A: But Mulan was so big. I mean, you know, they had, you know, to bring in. It was Andre first came in, he was teaming with Red Bestine on television. [00:47:34] Speaker B: What did you think of Andre as a 12 year old boy? [00:47:38] Speaker A: Oh, I'd never seen such a large human in my life. [00:47:43] Speaker B: That's funny. Yeah. [00:47:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I mean. Yeah, even when I'm seeing him when I'm 18, it's like I've never seen such a large human in my life. I've seen larger humans since then. But I mean, he's, you know, the height was exaggerated because you see him in pictures with Ernie Ladd, he's basically the same height as Ernie Ladd. As far as I know, the NFL did not work. Didn't. Or he's about the same size as Ron Fuller. And I've been in a room with Ron Fuller. I know how tall Ron Fuller is. College basketball and the NBA do not work heights like they do in wrestling. And they always look to be the same size. [00:48:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:25] Speaker A: And he's the same size as Baba when Baba was a baseball player. So. But yeah, the difference is, is he's so much thicker. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a big guy. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. You know, when you're a small child and you see somebody that large, it makes an impression over the course. You know, usually when they come in, he's wrestling Frenchie Bernard and a small jobber to make him look even bigger. [00:48:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they're doing those two on one handicap matches, [00:48:55] Speaker A: you know, later on the year. They put him around the loop with Superstar. [00:48:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:59] Speaker A: So over the. We haven't gotten a superstar over 70. [00:49:04] Speaker B: The end of 75, in the first part of 76. A couple of guys who are really near and dear to my heart because they really blew up here in Kentucky with their own promotion. But back here in 1976, in the summer, the Pafos come in. So Randy and Lanny are a tag team. They had been down in the Gulf coast territory. They'd been the Gulf coast champions, and now they're in here in the summer in Crockett. How did they get over in Crockett? [00:49:34] Speaker A: Well, they were doing jobs. You know, I don't think I ever saw them. I know they won matches. I don't think I ever saw them win a match. [00:49:42] Speaker B: Wow. [00:49:43] Speaker A: They were. They were underneath guys. And I mean, it was really surprising years later when you see them, like, be such big stars, because you never would have thought it because they weren't pushed at all. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it kind of depends on the territory, I guess, because, well, out Namorillo, Angelo and Lanny was the tag team and Annie, Lanny and Angelo were the NWA champions up in Detroit. And it wasn't really till they got to Gulf coast that Lanny and Randy were the tag champions down there. But then it didn't seem like they really caught on anywhere else. And by the time they got to Tennessee, they had split. And Randy was a heel and Lanny was baby face. [00:50:24] Speaker A: Then, yeah, they'd had all those problems in Gulf coast and kind of got unceremoniously. Had an unceremonious departure from there. [00:50:33] Speaker B: They ran into Foley and Heath and, [00:50:36] Speaker A: well, it's not so much running the Foley and Heath. They Ran into Eddie Sullivan and Rip Tyler backstage. [00:50:44] Speaker B: Did that have something to do with Ethan Foley though, that wouldn't they? [00:50:48] Speaker A: Yeah, they were wrestling them. They brought blackjacks in the ring and started shooting on those British shooters and yeah, got the fight with Rip Tyler and, and Eddie Sullivan backstage and Angelo got pistol whipped with his own gun. [00:51:04] Speaker B: How embarrassing. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they, they didn't play well with others apparently, which is why it took them. Probably why it took them so long to, to get, to get a good spot anywhere because they just seem to get in fights everywhere. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Yeah, Randy, he caught on in Goulas and got in that program with Dutch Mantel and that, that. I remember going to Nashville to see some of those matches and. [00:51:32] Speaker A: So did you see him wrestling Bobby Eaton when they were both rookies or. [00:51:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I sure did. Yeah, I sure did. Don't remember much about it, but I was, I remember the matches and I remember going to the Cards. Nashville was a regular, a regular place for me to go to wrestling. It was pretty much Nashville, Paducah or Evansville. [00:51:54] Speaker A: So yeah, so you're ever on that, that you're over on that part of the state. [00:51:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm over in the Western. Western end. Western, yeah. [00:52:02] Speaker A: When I saw wrestling in Tennessee was either in Knoxville or it was in Memphis. So. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Yeah, so then we'll see. Wahoo wins the title from Flair in a cage match. The Andersons beat the Mongols in Charlotte and so the, the. What is this? The losing team can never team again. So the Mongols have to have to [00:52:31] Speaker A: split and Guido Mongo was going back to Pittsburgh anyway, so he just split. So Wahoo does the angle with Boris Malenko where is a repeat of an earlier angle in Florida where Wahoo stops his false teeth setting up a hair match with Beto Mongol, which Beto loses and gets what little hair he has shaved off and then sets up a loser leave town match which he also loses. And all of a sudden a week later, yeah, there's no more Mongols, but there's a new guy named the Mass Superstar on the scene. [00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's Bill Eady, right. He's the Beatle Mongol who did all that. And the Mass Superstar, that, that was a Bill Edie and George Scott creation, right? [00:53:19] Speaker A: Yep, that was a. That was, yeah. And they billed him as being an Olympic champion and NCAA champion, but he can't reveal his identity. And he puts out a challenge. It's $5,000 to anyone that can unmask him, which of course Aunt, they bring Andre in to try. [00:53:37] Speaker B: And that was one of the things I was gonna ask you is what's the. It's interesting. George Scott had two really strong masked heels. He had the Super Destroyer and he had the Mass Superstar. Were they alike at all? [00:53:51] Speaker A: No, not. Not in the least. And Jordy, they were not there at the same time because Jardine had had a blow up with Crockett and was fired. Yeah, they go on television and this is slate 75. He won't do a job for Rufus Jones, who's supposed to win the title from him. And so they go on tv, give his real name, say he wrestles as a spoiler, and he just couldn't handle the competition. In Mid Atlantic, they bring in Gas House, Doug Gilbert, Butcher Bashawn, put them on that as the mass spoilers and make them jobbers. So they're sticking it to him after he's gone. [00:54:29] Speaker B: Wow. [00:54:30] Speaker A: Apparently he had gotten into a physical confrontation with Crockett. Is what prompted it, him getting buried on television afterwards. [00:54:40] Speaker B: I. I meant to bring this up a little while ago, but it's okay because I'm gonna bring it up now. But I didn't realize Greg Valentine worked for the iwa. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't know that either till I found some results that I'd never seen before. But, yeah, he was there. I don't remember being on television, but I wouldn't know Greg Valentine, except I guess I probably would have because I saw Florida tv. But yeah, he worked. I found about five results of him working IWA shows early in the year. [00:55:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And then he comes in here in the fall on the big time debut. They're getting his elbow over. [00:55:19] Speaker A: Yep, they're doing a vignette. They're tape. They send it in a tape in Florida getting his elbow over. He's breaking boards with his elbow [00:55:29] Speaker B: and [00:55:30] Speaker A: he does the silver dollar. Thousand silver dollar challenge that his father had done. And they repeat the same angle they had done with Sonny King where puts it up against Rufus Jones this time, gets knocked out, loses his title and his and his thousand silver dollars. They just done that angle with Sonny King and Johnny Valentine a year earlier. [00:55:50] Speaker B: But they don't tell us he's Johnny's son, do they? [00:55:52] Speaker A: No, they say he's his brother. [00:55:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:54] Speaker A: When Johnny Valentine appeared on TV in like, I think around June on crutches and said he was coming back, but, you know, obviously he didn't come back because he's still. He's still paralyzed, but I don't know, you know, he ends up. Johnny ends up booking Florida at some point after book in Houston. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:16] Speaker A: And training guys and I've heard stories about him, you know, getting, getting up into the ring on getting on the map with guys and stretching guys, even without use of his legs. So. [00:56:25] Speaker B: Well, he was, you know, he was book in Florida when Terry Bolayo was trying to break in. And Johnny's like, I don't know what to do with this guy. [00:56:35] Speaker A: You know, he can't do anything. [00:56:36] Speaker B: He can't do anything. [00:56:38] Speaker A: I've seen, have you seen the early Hulk stuff? Winning from, you know, cut from Southeastern and. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, I saw him when he was in Tennessee. I mean, I saw him when he came in as Lawler's opponent. You know, he could do a little [00:56:52] Speaker A: bit more by then. Yeah, those early matches and Southeastern are rough. Yeah, these. Johnny Valentine wasn't wrong. He couldn't do anything. [00:57:03] Speaker B: I. It's funny how I feel about Johnny Valentine, you know, I mean, I, I have this image of him throughout his whole career of being this really tough son of a gun, you know. But then after the plane crash when he's on crutches and he says he's coming back and you know he's not going to. I mean, I just have so much sympathy for him when before I just wanted to see somebody kick his butt. You know what I mean? [00:57:30] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I think he would have eventually turned baby face because he was over as a heel so much that he was getting cheers even then. [00:57:38] Speaker B: I thought so too. I thought so too. I thought, man, they eventually he would have been a baby face because he was a hot, hot heel. [00:57:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he would have been. I think he had the plane crash not happened. He would have had a program with flair eventually of they would have a split and they'd have a. They'd end up having a program and I would imagine he put flair over since Valentine is getting close to 50 at that point. Players is starting. But here's, you know, I think they could have gotten a year's program out of it. The accident not happened. But what happens to Greg if the accident never happens? Does he ever come to the Carolinas? Is Johnny going to want to admit he has an adult son that's 30 years old? [00:58:21] Speaker B: Here's something I would really like your thoughts on. Let's say Johnny doesn't have the plane crash. And as wrestling continues to evolve and moves more toward faster pace matches and high spots, Johnny was super methodical and super slow. How many more years do you think he would have been effective? [00:58:44] Speaker A: I think he would have stayed effective because he was over that much. You didn't see Lawler doing high spots, right? You know, you didn't see you. There's a lot of wrestlers that were over that didn't do high spots. I mean Lawler's a lot faster paced, but he could. The way he could talk and how well he could control the crowd. Valentine would stay over as long as he could wrestle is what I think. See, I think used to be, I think you would have him showing up into the late 80s like they would bring Jackie Fargo back in Memphis to do a. Be a special tag partner, a special referee and he'd still be over. [00:59:24] Speaker B: I'm glad I asked you that because. And I'm glad you said that because I don't think people realize a little bit like our conversation about the NWA title. I don't think people have any concept of just how over Johnny Valentine was. [00:59:40] Speaker A: No, he was my favorite wrestler. And you know, much of the chagrin of my dad and my grandfather because, oh, you don't cheer for the heels, but he was just so cool. How could you not cheer for him? The guy goes out, he's a badass. He says what he's gonna do and does it. And he just works so stiff. [00:59:59] Speaker B: Those eyes that stare, you know, just. [01:00:03] Speaker A: And you never. And unlike heels that the scream and shout is promos were just calm. He's soft spoken and well spoken. You don't see him acting like a crazy person, you know. And it's just a lot more effective when everybody else is doing something completely different. He's not bragging on there he's given. There's the promo that's on YouTube of him wrestling Tiger Conway where they've got him in the same thing. And he's talking about. Tiger Conway is a great athlete, but he's. He's not a good enough athlete to beat me. [01:00:38] Speaker B: The biggest, the biggest card in Green or the biggest card in Crockett every month is the Green Greensboro card, right? I mean all through the territory. [01:00:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the center of the territory. [01:00:49] Speaker B: And in October they have a card with three title changes. [01:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah, they. [01:00:56] Speaker B: October the 16th, I believe it is. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah, they switched the. The TV title. Tim woods winning it back from Angelo Mosca. Flair. Flair wins the Mid Atlantic title over over Wahoo with his. With Flair's hair at stake, which we kind of knew that was coming because Flair was not getting his head shaved. Then Paul Jones finally wins back the US title from Mulligan. [01:01:22] Speaker B: What I love about this multi level booking is that you have the mass superstar coming on the scene, you've got these title changes. You've got Flair and Mulligan, you've got superstars $5,000 mast challenge. You got Rufus and Paul Jones and Flair and Valentine. Flair's a singles champion, but yet he and Valentine are a tag team. You know, this, this, this booking, I just, I love it. I. It's just, it's just amazing. [01:01:56] Speaker A: Well, and they even had the guys at the bottom of the card were having programs with each other on the house shows. I mean it was, it was booked from top to bottom and it made sense. And it was multi layered. It was complex. If you missed a couple of weeks, you got to catch up because you missed something. [01:02:17] Speaker B: You know, one thing we didn't. I skipped over it that we in talking about it. But Dino Bravo was, was in the territory here. And he was actually tagging with Tim Woods. [01:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah, he's another high profile jump from the iwa. He shows up, he rescues Randy Collie. The future Moondog Rex is getting beat down by the Anderson, saves him, starts a few with the Andersons and immediately teams with Tim woods. And they win the world tag titles from the Andersons on television. You know, people forget about Tim woods, how good he was because yeah, his career was, you know, for videotape. So there isn't a whole lot of footage of him at his peak. But yeah, he was easily the number two or number three baby face when, you know, and he was pretty much one of the top ones after the, you know, after the plane crash because he was immediately programmed with Mulligan and [01:03:22] Speaker B: of course, he was the original Mr. Wrestling. [01:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Did he wear the mask in 76 at all? [01:03:30] Speaker A: He wore the mask in 75. He came back without the mask. No explanation. But he's Mr. Wrestling, right? [01:03:37] Speaker B: Yeah, he still, they still called him Mr. Wrestling from Time to time. [01:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah, they still got a Mr. Wrestling. Eventually they started calling him Mr. Wrestling. Tim Woods. They had hid that because his name was in the paper in the plane crash because he was on the plane as a baby face riding with the heels. And they didn't. He actually showed up and wrestled in Wilmington that night even though he was hurt in plane crash. [01:04:01] Speaker B: The short match, Johnny Weaver, who's the perennial baby face in the Carolinas, it gets injured by this new young Greg Valentine. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that basically sets up a program for 1977 and they, you know, and Weaver sells it. He's out for a couple of months. He's not even doing. He was, you know, doing television commentary. He's not even doing that. He's just gone for a couple of months and it's basically setting up Wahoo coming into which also it sort of sets up a few with Wahoo for 77. It really starts in December 76 when they do the angle where Wahoo is. He misses the main event. Tiger Conway Jr. Has to sub for him against Flair and Charlotte. He shows up in the Charlotte Coliseum all bloody well. Flair, Valentine had jumped him. And then Valentine jumps him again, gives him a beat down. And that sets up that program, which was the hottest program of 77. Well, we're. Rick Valentine breaks Wahoo's leg. Where's the shirt that says I broke Wahoo's leg on tv? Yeah. [01:05:21] Speaker B: Which still sells today. [01:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got one around here somewhere. I made sure I never wore that when I was around Wahoo, though. [01:05:31] Speaker B: He was not. Wahoo didn't appreciate it or. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Oh, I was not going to disrespect him like that. [01:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I understand. [01:05:39] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, I did get to be friends with Wahoo towards the end of his life when he was working indies and then when he couldn't work, he was just making appearances. And he was one of the guys that would. He would give the young guys, you know, tips like, don't do this if you want to have a career that lasts as long as mine. Of course, they never listen to him. But [01:06:01] Speaker B: Greg Valentine loses the TV title to Rufus Jones and is knocked out. That's. That's another recycled angle. Right, with Sonny. [01:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, talked about that. Yeah, they've done that. Sonny King and Johnny Valentine. [01:06:16] Speaker B: And then there was a. Then there was a deal with Lanny Poffo and Gene Anderson that. That you say this never happened. What? What? [01:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah, Lanny Papa made a claim that he shot on Gene. And I actually asked Gene Anderson about that years ago and he said it's complete. And then. Yeah, I know that there is somebody who's basically a gymnast is not going to be able to take out somebody who was praying with Verngagna and Stu Hart. Yeah, they're not gonna happen. Gene Anderson was a tough guy and he was outstretching the next generations up until the day died. And I've been to his. I'd been to his camp and yeah, those guys were not having an easy time of it. They were getting stretched. [01:07:04] Speaker B: And what else should we hit here at the end of the year for 76 that we haven't talked about yet? [01:07:10] Speaker A: Well, we got the two ring Battle Royal and Greensboro on the Thanksgiving show, which is the first year they hadn't had a world title match. [01:07:20] Speaker B: Right. I'm surprised that Terry didn't. Didn't come in for Thanksgiving. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I was too, because Briscoe had come in the year before and wrestled Wahoo [01:07:32] Speaker B: there. There had pretty much been a funk on the Thanksgiving show in Char in Greensboro from like 1970 to 1974 or five, I think. [01:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not sure where he was, where he was stationed at. I mean, Mighty Igor jumps in the end of the year, which really takes a toll on the IWA because he's their top baby face. And he's immediately into a program with mass superstar Professor Malenko, which, when we get to 77, we can cover that whole angle. [01:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. Let me back up here just for a minute. I'm going to get your thoughts about this. I was always amazed that there would sometimes, like in the first, in 1970, Jerry Briscoe was in the territory when he wrestled Dory Jr. For an hour. But sometimes there wasn't a funk or a Briscoe. They weren't working the territory, but they were headlining the Thanksgiving card. [01:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, Dory was champion during that time. And if Dory wasn't coming in, they were bringing Terry in and says, you had to beat Terry to get a title shot with Dory as part of the deal they would do. And Jerry was in the territory. Regular Jack was in and out because, well, he was going around the horn wrestling. Wrestling Dory all over the country. [01:08:50] Speaker B: So I know at one time it was Terry. Well, it might have been Terry and the old man against the Briscoe brothers in one of the Thanksgiving. [01:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like. I forget what year it was. It was the early 70s, because I don't think Senior. What year does senior die? [01:09:09] Speaker B: 73. [01:09:10] Speaker A: Okay. So he had to be 72 or 71. [01:09:14] Speaker B: Just. I mean, right close to when Dory had to lose the title. It was very, very soon after. [01:09:20] Speaker A: Well, here's something that's a weird thing. Somehow they ended up booking a bunch of guys into Guatemala. It's like Tony Atlas and Larry Zabisco and Don Coronodo get sent down for Jose Azari's world title tournament in Guatemala. [01:09:36] Speaker B: Work. [01:09:36] Speaker A: A big show. It was the last big. The show that drew like 40, 000 people two days, drawing 40, 000 people in a world title tournament won by mil masteris. And I've never been able to get a satisfactory answer on how they ended up sending Crockett guys to Guatemala. [01:09:54] Speaker B: Wow. I don't know. [01:09:56] Speaker A: I mean, Azari never worked Missouri, worked Florida and he worked from a Gurk, but he never worked the Carolinas. And. But yeah, it was. It was just the strange thing when I saw that result, it couldn't be right. And I asked Tony Atlas about it. He said, yeah, we wrestled nothing. They sent us down to Guatemala to work that tournament. [01:10:14] Speaker B: What was the deal on the fixed boxing match that IWA was. Crockett was trying to get them shut down. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they did a. Sonny King was an ex boxer and they were headlining one of their Charlotte shows at the old fairgrounds. They were. They were doing it with a bot. It was. He was having a box boxing match and they went to the athletic commission and said, hey, they're holding a work boxing match. You need to shut this down because it's illegal to work a boxing match. [01:10:41] Speaker B: Right. [01:10:42] Speaker A: I'm sure that there are many that were. We had some. Another. Some interesting people working the other cards. Like Larry Zabisco was in working the working prelims early on. Gene Lewis, Johnny Eagles, who was Eddie Marlin's English cousin in Tennessee. [01:11:04] Speaker B: I always heard Johnny Eagles was a tough shooter. [01:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah, There always seemed to be a Brit in the territory. And he was their obligatory. He was their token, token British wrestler. He was good. I remember that guy. Joey Rossi was in for a while as a prelim guy. [01:11:23] Speaker B: Very familiar with Joey Rossi from Tennessee. Um, Pez Watley, Sylvester Ritter, who would later be the Junkyard. [01:11:32] Speaker A: Well, they were working. They were working. They were working the opposition, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were working. They were working the iwa. They weren't working Crockett like Johnny Eagles and Zabisco. But yeah, Sylvester Ritter was starting out. He actually had his first match in a group that Sonny King did that split off from the IWA in South Carolina. So he was running Outlaw. The Outlaw Thunderbolt had also run outlaw to the outlaw. Yeah, it just. It's just. It's just. You just dig into these results and you find. You keep peeling away layers and finding more stuff. [01:12:10] Speaker B: And a guy that guys, you saw him on Crockett's television all the time. Gene Ligon. [01:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah, he started out. He started out and. And then the Outlaws. [01:12:22] Speaker B: Troy Graham, who Tennessee fans would know. [01:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And a bunch of the guys from the old West Virginia territory, like Cuban Assassin Acevedo and Chief White Owl, they were working those outlaws when that terror. Because that territory closed up when the place they were filming it from burned down. This. The TV station burned down. They had to take over the arena to be the TV station. That territory folded so those guys are. Some of them went to go us and some of them went to the, went to the Carolina Outlaws. I never understood why, why Angel Acevedo never, never went to Crockett because he fits the bill. I mean we did get. Francisco Flores was working jobs at one point for Crockett at the end of the year and well, another interesting name that was working jobs was Dr. Fujinami. [01:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:18] Speaker A: So there's quite a few people that ended up being world champions that were, you know, between Zabisco and Doug Summers as the AWA tag champion Fujinami that were just working prelims now only in [01:13:30] Speaker B: Gene Anderson when they did they go to Georgia with the world. [01:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah, they, they did an angle where oh, we lost a lose and leave town match to Rufus Jones. This was after Oli had done the loaded cast gimmick and he had to leave and they took the titles with them because Olene Jean were going to book for Barnett. [01:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:50] Speaker A: And then one thing that isn't known as Gene was the one that Barnett wanted to book. [01:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I mentioned that when I did the Briscoe Bradshaw series on Jim Barnett that actually he hired Gene to book but it ended up being, ended [01:14:05] Speaker A: up being Oli as. Yeah, Gene had enough, went back to the Carolinas. Yeah. [01:14:09] Speaker B: And then Flair and Valentine beat them for the titles to, you know they [01:14:14] Speaker A: brought them back at the end of the year and you know they set up a heel program and oddly enough the Andersons are the baby faces. Well and they had done them, they'd done a match where I guess the Mongols thing they did at six man in Charlotte where the Andersons are the baby faces and teaming with Johnny Weaver against the Mongols and Malenko. [01:14:35] Speaker B: They're coming to the end of 76 and Terry's going to do his last title defense in the territory. And we'll certainly get to this when we talk about 77. But what, what was your thoughts about Harley as champion? [01:14:49] Speaker A: I thought Harley was great. I'd seen him earlier when he had the transitional run there and I mean he had amazing matches for, for a long time. It was always a treat when Harley was coming in because you're going to get a great match no matter who he's wrestling. And Harley Harley wrestled baby faces and heels. He wasn't a straight heel. He was more often wrestling a baby face but he'd wrestle the heels. But Harley go out and give you, you get a 45 minute to an hour match that was just off the charts. [01:15:24] Speaker B: How often had Harley come in as just Harley race Before he won the title. [01:15:29] Speaker A: Well, he had been in, like, in 74 for a short time. When they did the U. S. Title thing with Johnny Valentine, when they first started the title, that's who Johnny Valentine wanted from him. Yeah, I don't remember if he won the belt in Florida or if Harley did, but Harley did do shots in 74, and he comes back in 75. And that interim buried his champion in between. In between Funk and Briscoe and. But yeah, I mean, out of the world champions, Dory is the best one, as who I think is in my book is number one. He's the best I've seen. [01:16:11] Speaker B: Right. [01:16:12] Speaker A: And I. We got to see Nick Bachwinkle in 79, and I've put him at number two, but probably Harley at number three. Harleen Briscoe be tied for third. Number three, three. The next two spots is a tie between them. [01:16:26] Speaker B: That's interesting. That's interesting. Let's do their opponents. So who was the best opponent for Funk Jr. That you saw? [01:16:35] Speaker A: He had really good matches. He had a really. I saw a really good match with Gene Anderson. I saw a match with Luther Lindsay that was really good. I saw him wrestle up Oli. So I'm wrestling Wahoo. So I'm. Well, his best opponent was Jack Briscoe. [01:16:51] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [01:16:52] Speaker A: And we got that. We got that match several times, actually. [01:16:55] Speaker B: Of course, everybody did. Which was the premier match of the 70s. What. What about Bachwinkle? Who was his best opponent in. In Crockett? [01:17:03] Speaker A: Steamboat. [01:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:04] Speaker A: Wrestle Steamboat. He wrestled and wrestled Steamboat, wrestle Patera. Most of the matches I saw, I didn't see him wrestle Patera in person. I saw him wrestle Steamboat several times with Steamboat putting the TV title against the AWA title. [01:17:19] Speaker B: I don't want this to be too obvious a question, but did. Did you feel that Nick looked beatable when he wrestled Steamboat? Did you think look like Steamboat had a chance to win the AWA title? [01:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it looked like Steamboat could win it, but Buck Winkle did not look like a weak champion. He was not going to be a pushover. It was. They were. They were evenly contested matches with a lot of. A lot of back and forth. They both look tremendous. [01:17:43] Speaker B: But wasn't that the great art of the great NWA champions was that they didn't look weak, but they looked like they could lose the title? [01:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the great art of it. And I mean, Bob Winkle, even as AWA champion later on, as he got older, it's like, yeah, you could beat him, but he is crappy enough that he's gonna pull off the upset. So the thing is, you can kill Nick Bachwinkle. He'd do a job to auto wands. And he's still over setting. [01:18:12] Speaker B: Setting Funk Jr. To the side. Who was Briscoe's best opponents in Crockett, do you think? [01:18:17] Speaker A: I saw a tremendous. A lot of the same ones, but I saw a tremendous match with Briscoe and Jonathan Boyd. [01:18:23] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. [01:18:24] Speaker A: Which was like a. You know, Jonathan Boyd was scientific. He always in there with the royal kangaroos, him and Sir Frederick Charles. Norman Frederick Charles. But yeah, it was like. It was not somebody you'd expect to get a. They weren't tag champs, they weren't pushed. But I saw him wrestle Briscoe for an hour in Raleigh and it was just a. It was just an amazing match. And I met Jonathan Boyd later on, years down the road, and he remembered the match. Wrestling with brisk wrestling Briscoe and Raleigh is when it was career highlight. [01:18:57] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:18:59] Speaker A: Boyd. Boyd is an interesting character. I. I hope you got somebody when you get to those years covering up south, covering San Antonio when you get there that, that, that can tell you stories about him because. [01:19:12] Speaker B: Well, the guys that. Who really. That I've met so far and I might get some Texas guys who can talk about, but the Portland guys, he was up there. He and Norman Frederick Charles III were up there for a long time and they had tons of. Tons of great Jonathan Boyd stories. Mike Rogers and Frank Culbertson, they. They told me some for the 75 Portland show. But we'll. We'll get somebody for the Texas stuff for sure. [01:19:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I met him when he was working bouncing at a rock club after his career was over. And I recognized him and started talking to him. Oh, man, he's a character. So I don't know if all the stuff he told me was true, but it sure was entertaining. [01:19:55] Speaker B: So in the, in the 70s, where do you put 1976 as a Crockett year? [01:20:03] Speaker A: I wouldn't put it with 75 and I. I would put it below 75 and 77. Because 77, you have the. You have steamboat coming into the territory, setting up that program, the turn. And I'm forgetting what year it was. It was the turn of Paul Jones's Steamboat. Turned on Paul Jones turned on Steamboat. I think that might have been 78. [01:20:26] Speaker B: I think it was too. [01:20:29] Speaker A: That was a really good year. You had so many new faces coming in and, you know, some work, some didn't you'd have and some people like you have Jumbo did in 76. Jumbo did a shot. So I, you know, Jumbo didn't work this territory regularly, but I saw him a few times. But he made an impression even though I. He's a random Japanese guy that nobody knows at that time. [01:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:59] Speaker A: But 77, I think. 176. There was a lot of hot things like the program setting up the Anderson Player Valentine program. There's the angle, the. The Blackjack Mulligan angle. Or Andrews, Rufus Jones's politically incorrect cousin, which I don't know if I should say his name or not. [01:21:23] Speaker B: Well, I don't know. [01:21:25] Speaker A: Burr Head Jones. [01:21:26] Speaker B: Oh, Burhead Jones. Yeah. [01:21:28] Speaker A: Well, he's working prelims. Mulligan just drops knees on him on the floor over and over again. Set up a few with Rufus and then he stomps Rufus's crown. That was pretty memorable angle. And there was at one point there was talk about putting the US Title on Rufus that never. They never pulled the trigger on. [01:21:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:50] Speaker A: But 70, 76, it was a. I'd say pretty much every year that was from 75 to 79 were all strong years. I wouldn't put 76 up at the tip top. But, you know, you got five choices, so I don't know where it fits. It fits somewhere in the last three spots. [01:22:12] Speaker B: It was a good year. And you. You did a great job taking us through it and taking us on a tour of Jim Crockett Promotions in 76. And I appreciate you, Todd. Thank you so much for spending. [01:22:24] Speaker A: We didn't even talk about Tony Atlas. [01:22:25] Speaker B: We didn't. You want to get something in about Tony real quick? [01:22:28] Speaker A: Well, Tony. They found Tony was hanging around the matches and was a hotshot amateur wrestler. They actually paid him to train. He's the only person they ever did that for. [01:22:40] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:41] Speaker A: They brought him up to Charlotte. He thought he was coming up with for a day and they were bringing him up there to train him. So he comes up with like a change of clothes and a bag lunch and that's it. [01:22:52] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:53] Speaker A: They say he's working out the. He's living at the YMCA and training with the Andersons, mostly with Larry Sharp, with. With Professor Malenko. They basically. They saw him as a future superstar and somebody with a local connection. So he 75. He's basically working lower on the card, but he doesn't quite. 76 is when he really takes off and that investment pays off. It's too. I mean, he had a really good career. If he hadn't gotten his own way A lot of the time he probably would have had a much better career. But Mr. USA, he's still, he's worked an indie show in this area fairly recently. [01:23:37] Speaker B: I'm sure he's still over. [01:23:39] Speaker A: Yeah, he still looks like a million bucks. I bet I drove him when he worked some show up here one time and yeah, that's another character. There is not another one like in the world. [01:23:51] Speaker B: Well, man, listen, thanks for spending some time with me here at the ranch and I enjoyed sitting on your front porch with you and talking wrestling here for a good little bit. And I can't wait till we do another new, another show together. We'll do 77 coming up here later on. [01:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'm. I'm game for doing just about. Game for doing just about any of them. Just give me some time to prepare. [01:24:14] Speaker B: I will. [01:24:14] Speaker A: Todd thankfully covered most everything that I wrote down. [01:24:17] Speaker B: But I think we did. [01:24:18] Speaker A: I think I gave you about seven pages of notes. [01:24:21] Speaker B: You did. And I looked at that and I'm like, we'll get through this. You know, we'll get through this. But it's just exciting year. And again when you talk about all the different multi level booking, I mean there's a, a lot of things to talk about. I thank you so much for doing this with me and appreciate you, man. [01:24:39] Speaker A: Thanks for having me, Tony. [01:24:42] Speaker B: Hey everybody, I hope you enjoyed this trip back through the Time Tunnel to Jim Crockett Promotions 1976. That brings us to the end of another incredible journey through the Time tunnel. Today, episode 61 has officially wrapped up our deep dive into JCP. From the stacked Mid Atlantic cards to the stories from the territory, the rising stars, the foundation being laid for what would become one of the most important promotions of the entire decade and the decade to come. It really was a special year talking about 1976 in wrestling history. And I want to give a huge heartfelt thank you to our special guest analyst today, Todd Gossip. Todd's first appearance here on the Time Tunnel and he grew up right in the heart of Crockett country and was a die hard fan through the 70s, the 80s and beyond. And his personal stories and memories and insider perspective absolutely made this episode come alive and that's what I love. Todd, brother, thank you so much for stepping through the Time Tunnel with us. You knocked it out of the park on your first, your first visit today. If you enjoyed today's show, don't go anywhere just yet because I got a couple of quick things I really need to mention to you. If you're loving these trips back through the classic Wrestling History Territory era. Do me a huge favor. Right now, head over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on your app. Wherever you listen or YouTube. Wherever you are watching or listening, please hit that subscribe button. And while you're there, if you wouldn't mind, drop us a quick five star rating and a short review. That little action right there only takes just a few seconds, but it helps new fans and new listeners who would love this show find it every single week. We're the fastest growing podcast on wrestling history that's out there and I read every single review that comes in, every single comment that's made, every piece of feedback I consider. So thank you so much for doing that. If you want even more Time Tunnel content, bonus episodes, early access, monthly things and direct interaction with me, consider joining our substack. You can subscribe to the Daily Chronicle, which is my free Territory Era wrestling history newsletter that comes out every morning at 5am and if you want to support the work I do as a pro wrestling historian, that would be greatly appreciated. For just $5 a month or $50 a year, if you want to save 10 bucks a year, you can become a premium subscriber. The other day I dropped the entire introduction of my Dorie Funk Senior King of the Texas Death Matches book down to our premium subscriber on Dorie Funk Sr's birthday. Just as a thank you for supporting my work and for supporting the Time Tunnel stuff that we do. Also, I want to mention our first sponsor on the show here. Hey Grizzly Up Soap Company out of Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Madisonville, Kentucky. If you're a wrestling fan who works hard, trains hard or just wants to smell like a main event champion, it's time to Grizzly up Travis and Chastity. All cock handcraft, small batch, all natural soaps right here in Western Kentucky. Bold scents, rich lather and real ingredients that cut through the sweat and grime like a flying body press. I'm telling you. And I have been using the Kentucky Bourbon soap since I first started doing business with the Grizzly Up Soap Company. I love the Kentucky Bourbon. Oh man, it makes me smell good all through the day. And I want to tell you something I am excited to try because when I pull this they brought me a bag of soap and when I pulled this one out of the little bag, it immediately hit my nostrils like one of the most pleasurable experiences I've ever had. And that's Deadly Weapon. Deadly Weapon soap is amazing. I can't wait to use it. They also got frankincense and hemp. They got totally savage tobacco and bay leaf. And a whole bunch more wonderful flavors and smells to choose from. Again, Kentucky Bourbon and Deadly Savage. Those are my favorites. Your bathroom. My bathroom smells fantastic and so will you. So go check them out today. Grizzly up soapco.com that's Grizzly up soapco.com or stop by their shop in downtown Hopkinsville. Tell them Tony Richards and the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel sent you by. If you live anywhere in our area here, western Kentucky, southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Tennessee or northeast Arkansas. It's easy to get here, as you know, and so drop in to the Grizzly Up Soap Company or check them out online. Grizzly Up Soap Company.com and thanks for powering the legends of the squared circle here at the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel. So until next time, until we will come back and talk about the Gulf Coast Territory, 1976. Michael Norris will be here and it will be a huge episode about the year 1976. You don't want to miss us talking about the British Bulldogs and the Poffo brothers, Landy and Randy in that amazing shoot confrontation that they had there in Gulf coast that involved blackjacks and handguns and all kinds of stuff. And we will outline all of that next week as we go down the time tunnel to 1976 in Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling. Until next time, remember, if you want better neighbors, be a better neighbor. This is Tony Richards from the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel live at the Richards Ranch in Western Kentucky, Saying so long everybody from the Bluegrass State. [01:30:42] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast. Tune in for another great episode next week, interviewing wrestlers, referees and media of personalities that have made the sport of professional wrestling great. We'll release a new episode soon. Don't you dare miss it.