Thursday, January 31, 2008

Sunday, January 27, 2008

In Pro Wrestling History (Credit: Wrestling Legends)

1914 - Walter Miller defeats Eugene Tremblay to win the World Lightweight Title in Fort William, Ontario, ending Tremblay's second reign.

1940 - Pantaleon Manlapig defeats Sandor Szabo in Salinas, California for the San Francisco Pacific Coast Heavyweight Title, ending Szabo's sixth reign.

1949 - Lee Henning wins his fourth San Francisco Pacific Coast Heavyweight Title, ending the 10th reign for Sandor Szabo in San Francisco, California.

1950 - Yvon Robért defeats Whipper Billy Watson to win the Toronto British Empire Heavyweight Title in Montreal, Quebec. This began Robért's third reign and ended Watson's ninth.

1951 - Tarzan Kowalski defeats Bill Longson in Kansas City, Kansas for the Heart of America (later known as Central States) Heavyweight Title.

1952 - Ivan Kalmikoff and Duke Keomuka defeat Miguel Gúzman and Rito Romero to win the vacant Texas Tag Team Title in Houston, Texas.

1954 - Wilbur Snyder and Sandor Szabo defeat Lord James Blears and John Tolos to become the first International Television Tag Team Champions in Hollywood, California.

1961 - Sam Steamboat defeats Dick Hutton for the Hawaii Heavyweight Title in Honolulu, Hawaii.

1963 - Buddy Rogers makes his first defense of the WWWF World Heavyweight Title, defeating Buddy Rogers in New Haven, Connecticut.

1964 - Dominic DeNucci defeats Ray Stevens for the San Francisco NWA United States Heavyweight Title in San Francisco, California, ending Stevens' fourth reign.

1965 - The WWWF held an event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The results:
- The Golden Terror defeated Steve Stanlee.
- Don McClarity defeated Smasher Sloan.
- Sweet Daddy Siki defeated Luke Graham.
- Wahoo McDaniel defeated Boris Malenko.
- Dr. Jerry and Eddie Graham defeated Haystacks Calhoun and Miguel Pérez.
- Bobo Brazil and Gorilla Monsoon fought to a 20-minute time-limit draw.
- WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino and Bill Watts defeated
Gene Kiniski and Waldo Von Erich by disqualification.

1965 - The Mad Russian and El Shareef defeat Luther Lindsay and Pepper Martin to win the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title, ending Lindsay and Martin's second reign.

1969 - Stan Pulaski and Chris Tolos defeat Butcher and Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, Nebraska for the Midwest Tag Team Title.

1969 - Assassin #2 (Tom Renesto) and The Professional (Doug Gilbert) defeat Alberto and Ramon Torres to win the Georgia Tag Team Title, ending the Torres' fourth reign.

1972 - Dean Ho and Fritz Von Erich defeat Thunderbolt Patterson and Johnny Valentine for the American Tag Team Title in Dallas, Texas.

1972 - El Mongol wins his eighth A Georgia Heavyweight Title, defeating Buddy Colt in Macon, Georgia, ending Colt's third reign. At the same event, Flash and Rocket Monroe defeat Bob Armstrong and Bill Dromo for the Macon Tag Team Title.

1974 - The Wrestling Pro defeats Dick Dunn to win the Alabama Heavyweight Title in Dothan, Alabama, beginning the Pro's third reign and ended Dunn's third.

1975 - Bobo Brazil defeats The Sheik in Detroit, Michigan for his seventh United States Heavyweight Title, ending Sheik's seventh reign.

1978 - Championship Wrestling from Florida hosted the "Superbowl of Wrestling" at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, with 12,000 fans attending. The show was given its name because it took place just over a week after Super Bowl XII. It was headlined by a world title unification match between WWWF Champion Superstar Billy Graham and NWA Champion Harley Race. The results were:
- Keith Franks (Adrian Adonis, subbing for Black Angus) pinned John Ruffin
after a neckbreaker.
- Bobby Duncum pinned Don Serrano after a shoulderbreaker.
- Americas Tag Team Champion Chavo Guerrero pinned Tank Patton after a
neckbreaker.
- Joyce Grable won a ladies' battle royal. Also in the match were: Suzette
Ferriera, Leilani Kai, Pepper LaBianca, Wenona Little Heart, Tandy Rich,
Terry Shane, and Vicki Williams.
- Ivan Putski defeated Ox Baker by TKO with a full nelson.
- Rocky Johnson defeated Killer Karl Kox by reverse decision. Kox had won
the match by pinning Johnson after hitting him with a foreign object, but
Jack and Jerry Brisco came to the ring and informed the referee as to what
happened.
- Jack and Jerry Brisco defeated Florida Tag Team Champions Ivan
Koloff and Mr. Saito, when Jack pinned Koloff with a cradle, to win the
title. This ended Koloff and Saito's third reign and began the Briscos'
sixth.
- Southern Heavyweight Champion Pedro Morales pinned Lars
Anderson with a cradle.
- Mike Graham and Steve Keirn defeated United States Tag Team
Champions Jimmy and Johnny Valiant, when Keirn made Johnny submit with a
sleeper hold, to win the title.
- NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Champion Dusty Rhodes defeated Ken Patera by
countout.
- WWWF World Champion Superstar Billy Graham and NWA World Champion Harley
Race fought to a 60-minute time-limit draw in a two-out-of-three falls
title unification match. Gorilla Monsoon and Don Curtis were the
alternating special referees for the match. Graham defeated Race by
submission with a bearhug in the first fall, and Race pinned Graham with
suplex from the apron into the ring in the second fall. The time limit
expired during the third fall, just as the count was beginning for Race
having Graham covered after knocking him out with a sleeper hold.

1978 - The Dynamite Kid wins the British Welterweight Title in Preston, England, defeating Jim Breaks, ending his fourth reign.

1978 - The Black Avenger and Don Wayt defeat Gama Singh and Igor Volkoff in Vancouver, British Columbia to win the Canadian Tag Team Title.

1979 - The Angel and The Assassin defeat Dusty Rhodes and The Spoiler, after Spoiler turned on Rhodes, for the Tri-State United States Tag Team Title.

1982 - Roger Kirby and Jerry Valiant (Guy Mitchell) defeat Eddie Gilbert and Ricky Romero for the Central States Tag Team Title in Wichita, Kansas.

1983 - The Fabulous Kangaroos (Johnny Heffernan and Don Kent) defeat Ron Bass and Barry Windham to win the Global Tag Team Title in Miami, Florida.

1983 - Kwick-Kick Lee (Akira Maeda) defeats Wayne Bridges for the European Heavyweight Title in London, England.

1984 - Angelo Mosca, Jr. defeats Iwan Koloff to win the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title in Shelby, North Carolina.

1986 - Jerry Lawler defeats Lars Anderson in Singapore for the Polynesian Wrestling Polynesian Pacific Heavyweight Title, ending Anderson's fourth reign.

1988 - The WWF held an event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The results were:
- Scott Casey pinned José Estrada after a shoulderbreaker. This match
aired on the February 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling.
- Sam Houston pinned Danny Davis with a small package. This match aired on
the March 14 edition of Prime Time Wrestling.
- Butch Reed (with Slick) pinned The Junkyard Dog with a roll-up and a
handful of tights, after JYD chased Slick into the ring.
- Omar Atlas pinned Dusty Wolfe with a roll-up. This match aired on the
February 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling.
- The One Man Gang (with Slick) pinned Don Muraco (with Billy Graham),
after Butch Reed interfered and hit Muraco with Slick's cane while the
refere was distracted.
- Bam Bam Bigelow (with Oliver Humperdink) and WWF Champion Hulk Hogan
defeated Ted DiBiase and Virgil (with André the Giant), when Bigelow
pinned Virgil with a splash after Hogan hit the legdrop.
- The Young Stallions (Jim Powers and Paul Roma) defeated Barry Horowitz
and Steve Lombardi, when Powers pinned Lombardi after a powerslam.
- Jim Duggan pinned King Harley Race (with Bobby Heenan), by reversing a
crossbody off the top rope.
- Ron Bass pinned Hillbilly Jim with a double-underhook facebuster. This
match aired on the February 19 edition of Prime Time Wrestling.
- The Islanders (Haku and Tama) defeated The British Bulldogs (The
Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith) by disqualification, when the Bulldogs
used a leash on their opponents that was originally brought to the ring by
Bobby Heenan.

1989 - Mighty Inoue defeats Joe Malenko to win the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title in Osaka, Japan.

1979 - Seiji Sakaguchi defeats Johnny Powers in Okayama, Japan to win the NWF North American Heavyweight Title, ending Powers sixth, and final, reign with the belt.

1980 - Mr. Fuji defeated Invader I in Bayamon, Puerto Rico to win the WWC North American Heavyweight Title, ending Invader's second reign.

1985 - WWF ran three separate house shows in one night, which wasn't unusual for this period in the business. What was unusual was that WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan didn't headline, or even appear, on any of the show. One event in Vancouver, British Columbia was headlined by Andre The Giant & Blackjack Mulligan vs. Big John Studd & Ken Patera, a second event in Cincinnati, Ohio was headlined by Junkyard Dog & Ivan Putski defeating Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff, and a third event in Canton, Ohio was headlined by Tito Santana defeating Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine by countout.

1987 - At a WWF television taping in Tampa, Florida at the Sundome, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) defeat The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Manager Jimmy Hart knocked out Dynamite (who was injured and couldn't wrestle) with his megaphone before the match, and heel referee Danny Davis paid no attention to the Hart Foundation illegally double teaming Smith before counting the pin following a Hart Attack. This ended the Bulldogs' only WWF World Tag Team Title run, and was Bret Hart's first WWF championship of any kind.

During the same taping, three editions of Piper's Pit were taped. In the first, Andre The Giant turned heel, revealing Bobby Heenan to be his new manager, and challenged Hulk Hogan to a title match, tearing off Hogan's shirt and crucifix. In the second edition, Hogan accepted Andre's challenge, setting up the main event to Wrestlemania III. In the third edition, Roddy Piper revealed that he would retire following his match with Adrian Adonis at Wrestlemania

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Wrestling

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

In Georgia, a smackdown over wrestling safety, by Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times - 31st December 2007

Some fear the proposed regulations could put smaller arenas out of business in a state that reveres the sport.

ATLANTA -- Eddie "Iceberg" Chastain, a 385-pound wrestler with a shaved head and a red goatee, calls himself the Being of Inconceivable Horror.

In the ring, he wields a fork -- just like his mentor, Abdullah the Butcher. He pummels his opponents with cross-face forearms, levels them with clotheslines and crushes them with avalanche splashes.

But outside the ring he has begun to show a softer side.

"You know, it's not actually my intent to hurt my opponent," he said in a telephone interview last week. "I never actually stabbed anybody with a fork."

Chastain is worried about his future as a wrestler in Georgia. Officials with the state's Athletic and Entertainment Commission, citing health and safety concerns, have proposed a strict set of regulations governing bouts. A physician, two emergency medical technicians and an ambulance must be ringside at all times, a costly measure that promoters say would force many small operations out of business.

Many of the rules are also at odds with wrestling's most cherished traditions. Wrestlers would no longer be allowed to physically or verbally threaten the audience. They could not engage in "unsportsmanlike or physically dangerous conduct." They could not even rub their own bodies with lotion.

"It's as if the officials who drew up the rules don't understand the concept of wrestling," said Bill Behrens, bookings director for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. "Wrestling is fiction. It's a passion play of good versus evil. Rules that attempt to tell us how to stage our show don't make sense."

Drawing up rules for how colossal, muscle-bound men should pretend to tear each other's heads off is, it turns out, a delicate matter. About 70 wrestlers and promoters, including legends such as Claude "Thunderbolt" Patterson, filled a recent commission meeting in Atlanta to offer critiques of the proposed regulations.

Unlike boxing and mixed martial arts fighters, they said, wrestlers simulate a fight with a predetermined outcome. Some argued their performances were more akin to ballet, theater and pop shows.

"We should be subjected to no more regulations than Hannah Montana," said Rob Fields, a 299-pound ordained minister who wrestles as Rob Adonis, referring to the Disney show about a girl who leads a double life as a pop singer. "Sure, Hannah Montana is singing, and we're slamming. But it's all make-believe."

Although the fighting is staged, wrestlers do not always successfully dodge the forks, baseball bats, axes, sledgehammers, frying pans and folding chairs that come their way. Many have the scars to show it.

J.J. Biello, chairman of the state commission, says he has watched professional wrestling matches since he was 12, and that comparisons to Hannah Montana are ludicrous.

"Yes, it's staged -- but that doesn't mean it's not rough," he said. "I've seen blood."

Over the years, he said, bouts have become increasingly flamboyant and wrestlers more powerful. He has seen a wrestler hurl a folding chair into the audience and blood dripping from wrestlers' heads.

"The more violence, the more things that blow up, that sells more tickets," he said. "We're just trying to make it safe."

Georgia legislators have attempted to tighten wrestling regulations since 2001, but safety became a particularly hot-button issue in 2007 after Chris Benoit, known as the Rabid Wolverine and the Crippler, killed his wife, son and himself at their suburban Atlanta home in June. Tests showed he had about 10 times the usual amount of testosterone in his system.

Local wrestlers point out that Benoit, a Canadian who held the world heavyweight championship in both World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment, committed his crimes outside the ring. They fear the proposed rules -- which do not apply to operations with assets exceeding $25 million, such as World Wrestling Entertainment -- would mark the end of their shows in Georgia, long a hotbed of small-town wrestling.

During the 1970s and 1980s, communities across the state ground to a halt from 6:05 to 8:05 p.m. on Saturdays as residents watched Georgia Championship Wrestling on WTBS. Even former President Carter's mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was reputed to have a favorite wrestler: Johnny Walker, aka Mr. Wrestling II.

"Not having wrestling in Georgia would be like New York not having baseball," said Bob Ryder, owner of www.1wrestling.com, who noted that the move reversed a national trend toward looser regulation. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, coined the term "sports entertainment" to differentiate the discipline from sports, such as boxing, and to avoid tighter regulations. Until then, most professional wrestlers tried to hide that their battles were staged.

Although about 25 states have some kind of wrestling regulations, Ryder said, the rules Georgia officials are proposing would be the most strict.

Wrestling experts reserve particular scorn for the language of Georgia's proposed regulations, which they say would treat the referee as the ultimate arbiter of the fight. Part of the mystique of wrestling, they say, involves the referee pretending not to notice when the bad guy breaks the rules.

Riling the audience, they say, is also a vital part of the show.

"When the crowd screams 'You suck! You big doo-doo head!' what is the bad guy supposed to say?" Behrens asked. " 'I respect you as an audience?' "

After hearing from wrestling legends from across the state, the commission decided to delay its vote on the rules until February. In the meantime, wrestlers and promoters have formed the Georgia Wrestling Promoters Advisory Committee to try to devise an alternative proposal for new regulations.

This close-knit community of professional wrestlers -- most of whom have day jobs as plumbers, mortgage brokers, heating and air guys, or delivery drivers -- say it is worth a certain amount of self-policing to save their shows.

Already they have begun to compile a list of rules, such as imposing regular mandatory drug tests and requiring that mats be clean to prevent staph infections.

"It's kind of like when your mama tells you to go out and pick a switch from the yard," said Jerry Palmer, a firefighter who owns NWA Anarchy, an independent professional wrestling promoter in Cornelia, Ga. "If you choose one that's too small, she picks her own. If it's too big, well, you'll get beat with it."

jenny.jarvie@latimes.com

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Wrestling


Tuesday, January 01, 2008

WWE 2008 DVD release schedule, By ERIC GARGIULO - phillyBurbs.com - 31st December 2007

The WWE released their list of scheduled DVD releases for 2008. Keep in mind that this is all subject to change. However, an early look reveals some surprises, some obvious choices, some expensive collections, a lot of nostalgia, and maybe the biggest surprise of all.

The WWE will be producing documentaries on some of the current superstars. The list includes Triple H, John Cena, and Edge. All of the DVDs should contain some great matches from the three over the course of their careers. The Edge DVD in particular should be a must-buy for the TLC matches that will likely be included.

Every year the WWE showcases a historic superstar that is not necessarily on their roster. Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, and the Ultimate Warrior have all been spotlighted whether they wanted to participate in the documentary or not. In 2008 WWE will be going down two roads that nobody had expected. For the first time one of their biggest stars ever will be acknowledged by the company. The other is a superstar that has never wrestled for the WWE and currently wrestles for their competition.

“Macho Man” Randy Savage has been persona non grata with Vince McMahon and the WWE since he left for WCW. The Savage mystery has been one that is talked about quite a bit by people within the wrestling industry. Vince McMahon seems to forgive everyone he has had any heat with, if it can benefit his company. At one time Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Eric Bischoff, Jesse Ventura, and Roddy Piper were some of Vince’s biggest enemies. Yet when the dust settles, Vince always does what is good for business and buries the hatchet.

Randy Savage is one of the biggest stars that the WWE ever had. Randy Savage still has a lot of fans and there has been a demand for Savage to return to the WWE for quite some time. Rumor has it that Vince hates Savage so much that every time Savage’s name has been suggested for the Hall of Fame, Vince gives a dirty look and changes the subject. It is well known that it is never a good idea for any WWE employee to bring up the name Randy Savage in Vince McMahon’s presence.

There are some really juicy rumors as to Vince hates Savage with such a passion. Since nobody has ever confirmed any of those rumors it would be unfair for me to write about them. If true, you could almost understand and admire Vince for putting business second to his own feelings and morality.

It is unclear whether the DVD is the first step to an open door for the former WWF World Heavyweight Champion. I can guarantee you that there are a lot of fans out there that would love to see Savage back in the WWE culture. A Hall of Fame induction is long overdue for such an important part of company history.

WWE will also be releasing a DVD spotlighting former WCW World Champion and current TNA star, Sting. This is a strange one as I have no idea why the WWE would want to promote the biggest star of their rival. All the WWE has to do is wait a few years for Sting to retire and I am sure they could get him to be a part of a DVD. Doing it now makes me wonder if Sting really is going to re-sign with TNA after all.

Other highlights include DVDs on the Hardys, the Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, a 20-disc Summerslam anthology, and the best of Starrcade.

WWE has done a great job of assorting a collection that appeals to everyone. It is no coincidence that quite a bit of the DVDs will be marketed towards their nostalgia fans. Even the ex-WCW/NWA fans that have disappeared may have to come out hiding for these DVDs. 2008 looks like it is going to be a great and an expensive year for WWE DVD fans.

Eric Gargiulo writes about pro wrestling, MMA and more in his blog, The Camel Clutch. He can be reached by e-mail at egargiulo@phillyburbs.com. Eric's "Pro Wrestling Radio" airs on WBCB 1490 AM every Saturday from 12:05-1PM/EST and can be heard live online at http://www.wbcb1490.com

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