This was what little wrestling we got, in central Illinois, until cable...
That is 1982, which was the last time the WWA came to my neck of the woods. Their big shows were in Indianapolis and Chicago (in conjunction with the AWA, since Bruiser & Snyder co-promoted Chicago, with Gagne). NNot quite up to AWA standards. Sam Menacker had been a wrestler, in the 40s and 50s and was once married to women's champion June Byers (who followed Mildred Burke and was replaced by Moolah). Menacker wasn't a bad play-by-play guy; but he didn't quite have that sports announcer sound. He also inserted himself in angles, occasionally, like a feud with Bobby Heenan, before he left for greener pastures. By this point, the WWA was a place for old wrestlers to go to die and young wrestlers to get out of, as soon as possible. Bruiser was over with the crowds, but only did the big shows, and did the same routine. Snyder wrestled sporadically, often in tags. he was a good mentor to the young guys, such as there were. Around this time, you had Greg Wojokowski, as The Great Wojo. He was a shooter, with good size, but little or no charisma and a terrible promo. He also struggled with jazzing up his work and was better if he could work with someone on the mat. Paul Christy had been a long time babyface, but was playing heel, with Miss Bunny Love as valet. they were a real couple, but had about a 20 year difference, in age, though they were married until his recent death. Spike Huber and Steve Regal were a decent young tag-team, in the ring, but middling to average promos. You can see Jerry Valiant do a promo and he was a better worker than talker, which is why Johnny or Jimmy did the talking, when he was with the Valiant brothers. Jerry Graham Jr also wasn't a flashy wrestler, nor was he much of a promo. They also used a lot of copycat wrestlers. Sheik Abdullah was an Abdullah the Butcher knock-off, who didn't do much elsewhere. Ali Hassan was Jack Krueger, who had worked under his own name and variations of Ali Hassan, Abdullah Ali Hassan and the Iranian Assassin. he later worked as a ref, in the WWF.
In the early 70s, the WWA featured a more active bruiser & Snyder, th Crusher, baron Von Raschke, Bobby Heenan, the Blackjacks, the Valiant Brothers, Cowboy Bob Ellis, Paul Christy, Angelo Poffo, the Bounty Hunters, Dominic DeNucci and guys like Bruno Sammartino and Harley race would do shots for them, in Indianapolis and Chicago. Snyder had held the AWA World title, as well as the tag titles, while bruiser held the tag titles and the California WWA World title (also held by Classy Freddie Blassie, when he appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show, in 1962). Indy wasn't necessarily a big payday, though they drew bigger crowds in that era. Jim Cornette has spoken about when he discovered wrestling. His mother told him that she had seen a program he might like, with pro wrestling like she remembered, from the 50s. He watched it with her and it was Bruiser's All-Star Wrestling. It was many of the same performers who had worked in the 50s and 60s, plus Heenan, the best manager in the business. Corny became a fan and would watch the WWA, then Gulas and Jarrett, and eventually shoot photos at Jarett's shows. Bruiser used to repeat matches on his tv shows and you could see the same match 3 or more times and even old matches, from guys who weren't working in the territory.
We only got the WWA shows in advance of Bruiser promoting in Springfield, at Lanphier High School, as seen in the episode. Then, it would disappear, which is why I wasn't really a wrestling fan, yet. We had no other wrestling shows, as we couldn't tune in KPLR, from St Louis, for Sam Muchnick's shows (though I had classmates, with big antennas, who could and watched Wrestling at the Chase). Then, around this same time, the Poffos started broadcasting their tapes on Springfield's NBC affiliate, WICS, on Saturday afternoon, then Sunday midday, after a few months. It stuck around until about 1984, when the Poffos closed up and went full time, in Memphis (they did dual service, at first, then exclusively with Memphis).
This is what the Poffos gave us, about the time it started up on Springfield tv...
(The first match is ICW, the second is Memphis)
Crusher Broomfield became The One Man Gang, then Akeem, in the WWF. Ronnie Garvin's nickname was The One Man gang, from his time in Knoxville. I think it was Bill Watts who christened George Grey, aka Crusher Broomfield, as One Man Gang. They used to claim he was from Halstead St, in the South Side of Chicago, which was a rough neighborhood. That illusion was fine, if Skandor Ackbar spoke for him; but didn't work if he spoke, himself, revealing his Carolina accent.
They used to recycle old angles from other territories, especially Knoxville and Florida, where Garvin had worked, as well as Nashville, where the Poffos had worked (they also worked Knoxville). Broomfield was basically booked as a clone of Crusher Jerry Blackwell, from his time in Knoxville. he had been presented as a big old rasslin' farmboy, who gets taken advatage of, by the heels. he eventually is freed of his contract and turns babyface. Randy did the same thing with Broomfield. he acted as Randy's stooge, then was freed from his contract, after Ronnie Garvin defeats Savage in a match. That led to a great full episode tv match, between Randy and Crusher, for the ICW World Title. That was one of the earliest angles I watched. Meanwhile, Leaping Lanny and George Weingeroff were the tag champs, feuding with the Convertible Blonds, Gorgeous Gary Royal, Hustler Rip Rogers and Rick Starr (not to be confused with 50s and 60s star Tricky Ricky Starr, who did a ballet/homosexual gimmick). The titles were held up and put up in a tournament, with random pairings of wrestlers, some of which put enemies on the same team.
Bruiser and Snyder didn't really do much in the way of tv angles. They mostly presented matches and used interviews to promote local matches. Once in a while, they had an in-ring angle; but not as much as other promotions. The Poffos had in-ring and promo stuff, plus had far more action and high spots in matches than most of Bruiser's crew. The tv presentation wasn't great, but neither was Bruiser & Snyder's, after they were no longer using the Armory that was used in the early 70s.
Now, just a little further down the road, we got cable tv, but I didn't discover the timeslot for World Championship Wrestling, right away. It was a few months before I stumbled across it (the local paper only had network listings, for a while). That was a revelation, as you had bigger name stars and better quality matches, even for squash matches. You also had more creative booking, though Randy was pretty creative with what they did. problem was, anyone with talent didn't stick around long, in ICW. Rip Rogers and Ronnie Garvin owned a piece of the promotion, which is why they stayed as long as they did. Pez was gone by 83. Bob Orton Jr and Bob Roop had left before we got the tv, as they had been forgiven for running opposition to Fuller, in Knoxville. Garvin & Pez feuded a bit, including an angle where Pez injured Garvin's back, with a pipe, to cover up an actual back injury, that required Garvin to wear a back brace, in matches, and not take too many bumps. He started wearing a Tarzan-style singlet (one strap, across a shoulder, like Lawler's ring gear) and you could see the brace, underneath. His opponents would attack his back. he and Pez used to do a lot of mat wrestling spots, since Pez was a top collegiate amateur, in his day, along with George Weingeroff, at the Univ of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Those were great matches. Pez started as a babyface, but turned heel before we got the show. He was really obnoxious and used to annoy the heck out of the color commentator, Edgar Wallace. Walalce was a local lawyer and politician, in Lexington, KY, where the show was taped. Tim Tyler, the host and announcer, was the sportscaster on the station and a pretty good wrestling announcer. He gave it a nice sports feel, even with the craziness. Edgar was an overtly biased babyface fan, though not as obnoxious about it as David Crockett.
A lot of guys left by the end of 82, then they started using guys from Detroit, including the Sheik, himself. Angelo knew Farhat, having worked for him in Detroit, where he held his US title. Randy worked with the Sheik, but his best days were behind him. Then, they brought in a Mid-Atlantic undercard wrestler, Bill Howard, as Ratamyus, a supposedly demonic wrestler. he was a big guy, but it was all brawling and heel tactics and Randy did most of the bumping. Howard was never an uppercard guy in any major territory. The only two of the Detroit guys I liked were El Bracero and John Ruffen. Bracero was Jose Martinez, sometimes also called "Super-Mex) and used a lucha style, which was new to me. However, other than a couple of tag-team matches, he mostly ended up on the losing end of things. Ruffen was really good, with an exciting mat-based style and seemed like the liked his work. he had a tv title match against The Miser (Anglo under a mask) which was really good, though Miser retained the title. He was shot and killed, outside a bar, not too long after that. The other main Detroit guy was ex-football player Walter Johnson, who was a terrible wrestler; two left feet and no promo ability and little personality. He, thankfully, wasn't used for more than a month or two.
The Poffo stuff made me a fan, since Randy and Lanny were like watching comic book heroes and villains, and Garvin was a classic wrestler and fighter. Pez and Rip Rogers were good in the ring and full of personality and Weingeroff was so smooth, on the mat (middling promo and his vision made his interviews a bit uncomfortable to watch). Weingeroff was legally blind and tended to look at the wrong angle for the camera. He later had his vision improved, via surgery. Still, he did some amazing moves on the mat and they looked effortless. He spent more of his career working undercard, in mid-South and Dallas.
Rip Rogers and Pez Whatley...
Rip and Pez were put together as a team, in the tag team title torunament. Lany & Weingeroff had held the belts and there was a disputed finish against the Blonds. Around this time, Gary Royal had an alleged broken nose and was wearing a hockey mask to protect him, but Lanny tore it off and punched him in the face. The titles were put up in a tournament, as a result of the two teams' actions. The tournament had random pairings and Rip was teamed with Pez, while Gary Royal was teamed with Plowboy Pete and Rick Starr with Crusher Broomfield. Royal and Plowboy lost to Crusher and Starr, who moved on to face Pez & Rip, after they defeated Apache Lou Martinez and Bill Martin. Pez & Rip win and then face Leaping Lanny and Hoot Gibson, in the finals. The other side of the tournament had Lanny & Hoot Gibson get a bye, mainly because of not having enough talent. Ronnie Garvin was teamed with Chief Tapu (a Samoan babyface undercard guy) and faced The Great Tio (another, larger Samoan) and Tony Peters. Tio and Peters win and Ronnie Garvin later reveals, on tv, that Tapu is Tio's son and he threw the match. Lanny and Gibson defeat Tio and Peters to go to the finals. After that, Tio and Tapu started teaming. No one seems to be sure if they were father and son, brothers, cousins or related, at all. The also worked as the Manchurians and the Mongolians, as well as the Wild Samoans, in places where Afa and Sika were known, but did not appear. They had also wrestled in Australia and throughout the South.
Soon after the tournament, Royal was gone to Mid-Atlantic, where he held the World Jr Hwt title and Starr was kicked out of the group, because of the matches in the tournament and became a babyface. I seem to recall him getting a tv match with Randy, for the World title. He left soon after. I've never come across much about him and think he was mostly in outlaw promotions, like the Poffos and undercard, in the Tennessee area. I used to have a wrestling encyclopedia that had him confused with 1950s and 60s star, tricky Ricky Starr, who was much older. The Blonds were a Freebird knock-off, with any pairing of the three wrestling, though Royal and Rip were the usual combo, for much of the time. Pez then bleached his hair to actually appear blond. If memory serves, Royal was around up until the kicked out Starr, but not long after. Lot of guys left in 1982 and that's when the Sheik and his crew came in, for a bit, plus Ox Baker.
The whole thing ended when the Poffos brokered a deal with Jarrett for Randy to come in and take on Lawler, after the years of putting out challenges in their local advertisements and tv, to make fans think that the Memphis stars would be there. Lanny and Angelo also came in. Angelo acted as a manager and Lanny did singles and tags, with Randy, especially against the Rock N Roll Express, when Randy piledrived Ricky Morton on the announce table, in the Mid-South Colosseum. Pez Whatley left and turned up in Georgia and Mid-Atlantic, eventually getting put in a team with tiger Conway Jr, then turning heel and becoming Shaska Whatley. he later worked Continental, as Wlly B Hurt, even though everyone knew he was Pez Whatley. It became part of the gimmick, though it made no sense (Eddie Gilbert was booking this). Garvin went to Georgia and was tv champion, when Black Saturday came around. he continued with Championship Wrestling from Georgia (Ole's revised Georgia group, since Vince bought the controlling shares of Georgia Championship Wrestling) and then Crockett, when he took over the Saturday show. Weingeroff wrestled a bit in Memphis and Mid-South and Dallas, then seemed to leave wrestling behind, by the 90s (might have done some matches for UWFI, in Japan, though. I know Pez did). Rip worked Stampede, Georgia, and Kansas City, as well as on the upper card, in Continental, against a babyface Adrian Street, with Rip's wife and valet, Brenda Britton, mixing it up with Miss Linda. Tio and Tapu disappeared by the late 80s.
ICW also used some notable rookies. Tony Falk worked there, before working Memphis, doing a Boy George gimmick, which got him some attention. He also worked the USWA incarnation of Memphis and Dallas. He appeared in Season 1 of NWA Powerr, doing the Tony Falk's House of Waffles and Tire Irons gag commercials. Al Snow worked undercard, as a rookie, as well as in and around Ohio and Michigan, before working Smokey Mountain, in the 90s.