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Wrestling, B.V. [Before Vince]

R

retrothoughts

Before Vince McMahon made professional wrestling nationally popular in the early 1980's, every part of the country had their own regional or local wrestling telecast, usually every Saturday.

For example, in 1973, Gordon Solie hosted "Championship Wrestling from Florida", produced in Tampa, and also shown in all of the state's major cities. At the same time, Harry Thornton hosted a wrestling TV show live every Saturday on Channel 12 in Chattanooga, TN, where he also hosted a "Morning Show" weekdays. And let's not forget such other regional wrestling shows as Lance Russell's in Memphis, or the pre-national WWWF TV shows that Vince himself hosted in the late 1970's, back when his father owned the company.

Of course, the idea of those regional and local wrestling telecasts was to let the fan favorites [faces] or the heat-generating bad guys [heels] win a fast, easy [squash] match, and, afterwards, tell the viewers what they're going to do to whomever they're feuding with [cut a promo] at the auditorium [house show] that night or a few nights from then. But it was when Vince McMahon took it national that the emphasis went more toward pay-per-view, with less of those squash matches.

Anybody have their own views on televised wrestling shows? I have one to start. I remember back in 1973 when a heel tag-team on the Chattanooga wrestling show got some sort of "fan package" that turned out to be a pacifier [a baby's sucking toy], which ticked them off. The aforementioned Harry Thornton read an accompanying written note saying that the pacifier was "for 'The Three Stooges'." And all this was "over the top" when "over the top" wasn't cool...at least not until Vince McMahon came along.

Hope you have your moments or thoughts to share.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by retrothoughts on 11/05/05 03:39 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> And let's not forget such other
> regional wrestling shows as Lance Russell's in Memphis,
>
> Hope you have your moments or thoughts to share.
>

I remember Lance Russell's program which was also carried on stations (at least one at different times in my life) in the Evansville, IN area until the late 80s. His cohost (at least, during my formative years, early 80s) was Memphis weathercaster Dave Brown (WMC-TV).

Of course, Mr. Russell's circuit was made (in)famous by the "Feud" between comedian Andy Kaufman and Jerry "The King" Lawler which erupted on David Letterman's "Late Night" on NBC after the two had wrestled in Memphis in April, 1982.

I vividly remember Saturday mornings, after American Bandstand, WTVW-7-(then ABC) in Evansville would air Mr. Russell's program. Later, I think it moved to WFIE-14-NBC for a while before it was dropped.
 
> Before Vince McMahon made professional wrestling nationally
> popular in the early 1980's, every part of the country had
> their own regional or local wrestling telecast, usually
> every Saturday.
>
> For example, in 1973, Gordon Solie hosted "Championship
> Wrestling from Florida", produced in Tampa, and also shown
> in all of the state's major cities. At the same time, Harry
> Thornton hosted a wrestling TV show live every Saturday on
> Channel 12 in Chattanooga, TN, where he also hosted a
> "Morning Show" weekdays. And let's not forget such other
> regional wrestling shows as Lance Russell's in Memphis, or
> the pre-national WWWF TV shows that Vince himself hosted in
> the late 1970's, back when his father owned the company.
>
> Of course, the idea of those regional and local wrestling
> telecasts was to let the fan favorites [faces] or the
> heat-generating bad guys [heels] win a fast, easy [squash]
> match, and, afterwards, tell the viewers what they're going
> to do to whomever they're feuding with [cut a promo] at the
> auditorium [house show] that night or a few nights from
> then. But it was when Vince McMahon took it national that
> the emphasis went more toward pay-per-view, with less of
> those squash matches.
>
> Anybody have their own views on televised wrestling shows?
> I have one to start. I remember back in 1973 when a heel
> tag-team on the Chattanooga wrestling show got some sort of
> "fan package" that turned out to be a pacifier [a baby's
> sucking toy], which ticked them off. The aforementioned
> Harry Thornton read an accompanying written note saying that
> the pacifier was "for 'The Three Stooges'." And all this
> was "over the top" when "over the top" wasn't cool...at
> least not until Vince McMahon came along.
>
> Hope you have your moments or thoughts to share.
>


Alabama had Continental Wrestling from Birmingham on WBRC-6. The best part was the good old-fashioned blood feuds that WWF/E has never been able to get right. The Tony Anthony/Tom Pritchard matches were classics. This died sometime in the mid-90s(1994?) and all the guys went on to be horribly misused in WWE and WCW (well, except Jeff Jarrett, who's gotten way more recognition than he ever deserved).

After that, we had ECW on WABM-68 (which was an A1 affiliate at the time) and SMW came on somewhere, but nothing truly local until this year. Wrestle Birmingham airs Friday night(technically early Saturday) at 12:05am on 33/40. It features a lot of the old Continental names, but the matches are nowhere near as good. Great for the occasional nostalgia fix, though.
 
I used to love watching the wrestling from Texas. I am not sure what the name was but it was the one with the Von Erich's in it.

In real life they were one "f'd" up family. All the kids but Kevin wound up dead. 3 died of natural but unusual circumstances and the others killed themselves. Kevin is the only one left.

I loved Sunshine and how she hated Precious and I think Missy Hart was introduced here too as a rival to Sunshine.

Great stuff that was.<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> I used to love watching the wrestling from Texas. I am not
> sure what the name was but it was the one with the Von
> Erich's in it.

That would be World Class Championship Wrestling. Come to think of it, about the same time Vince McMahon was going national with WWF, around 1983 or so, World Class went national as well, first in syndication [it was shown in Tampa], then on ESPN around 1987, before being bought out by the company that owned USWA, which, at the time, was the Memphis wrestling company's brand name.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by retrothoughts on 11/05/05 11:10 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> Before Vince McMahon made professional wrestling nationally
> popular in the early 1980's, every part of the country had
> their own regional or local wrestling telecast, usually
> every Saturday.

[snip]

> Hope you have your moments or thoughts to share.


Indianapolis had WWA, which was run by Dick the Bruiser. They held their shows at the Tyndall Armory. The shows were broadcast at various times on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on WRTV/6. The ring announcer, commentator, and locker room interviewer was David McLane.... who went on to start Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and another women's fed that ran recently (Women of Wrestling, maybe?) Bruiser was the champion most of the time and was billed as "The World's Most Dangerous Wrestler." Other frequent appearances were made by Bobo Brazil, Bruiser Brody (who was billed as King Kong Brody in WWA), Dr. Jerry Graham, Rooster Griffin, Leon Redbone, the Moondogs, Calypso Jim (who now wrestles as Bobo Brazil, Jr.), Spike Huber, and El Bracero. Good memories from that time.

This show disappeared and was later replaced by "Bruiser Bedlam" which originated out of Detroit. Bruiser was involved in the show but was for a reason which I don't remember "not allowed to wrestle" while the cameras were rolling.
 
> WCCW actually had national syndication *before* the WWF.
>
Don't forget the great state of Missouri had two great tv shows:

Wrestling at the Chase out of St. Louis, MO. on KPLR Channel 11

and

All Star Wrestling out of Kansas City, MO.

There was also a short lived promotion run by Larry Matsyk on KDNL Channel 30

Now I know that the WWF took over the KPLR timeslot in 1984

Did the WWF Superstars of Wrestling show grew out of that timeslot?
 
The absolute best was Memphis wrestling with Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

In the 70s and 80s, the show was one of the highest rated local tv shows in the country. It ran on WHBQ TV from 1959 to 1977. During the mid-70s, WHBQ's Eyewitness News was the #1 newscast in the market. In 1977 wrestling moved to WMC-TV. Lance Russell who was WHBQ's program director and Dave Brown, WHBQ's weatherman also moved to WMC-TV. Soon after, WMC-TV's Action News 5 became the #1 newscast, a postion they still hold. Could there be another market where local wrestling was so big that it had an impact on news ratings?

Nick Gulas who promoted wrestling in the Mid-South in the 60s and 70s believed that every city in his territory should have their own wrestling tv. Even though they used the same Memphis wrestlers, Huntsville, Nashville, Birmingham, and Chattanooga all had their own TV studio wrestling shows. Grady Reeves in Huntsville and Sterling Brewer in Birmingham were also very good announcers along with the previously mentioned Harry Thornton in Chattanooga. For some reason I don't think the other two big towns in the Gulas territory (Louisville and Evansville) ever had their own shows. At one time even some smaller Gulas towns like Florence, AL and Jackson, TN had their own local shows.

Southeastern Wrestling in Knoxville on WBIR-TV with host Les Thatcher was also very good between 1974 and 1980.

Memphis still has a local studio wrestling show on WLMT-TV. Sometimes it can be entertaining, but the WWE or (whatever they are called) has ruined wrestling.
 
> Indianapolis had WWA, which was run by Dick the Bruiser.
> They held their shows at the Tyndall Armory. The shows were
> broadcast at various times on Saturday and Sunday afternoons
> on WRTV/6.

...a half-hour edit of this one ran Sundays at Noon on WCIU/26 in Chicago, often with the legendary independent promoter Bob Luce replacing the on-site commentary and inserting local promos with the same wrestlers. It appeared immediately after Verne Gagne's AWA "All-Star Wrestling" at 11...

> The ring announcer, commentator, and locker room
> interviewer was David McLane.... who went on to start
> Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and another women's fed
> that ran recently (Women of Wrestling, maybe?)

...Lane was one of the worst announcers I ever heard. Then again, his voice only appeared on WWA material in Chicago when Bob Luce couldn't overdub his own commentary. G.L.O.W. might actually have lasted longer had Lane's voice actually not been on it...

> Bruiser was
> the champion most of the time and was billed as "The World's
> Most Dangerous Wrestler." Other frequent appearances were
> made by Bobo Brazil, Bruiser Brody (who was billed as King
> Kong Brody in WWA), Dr. Jerry Graham, Rooster Griffin, Leon
> Redbone, the Moondogs, Calypso Jim (who now wrestles as Bobo
> Brazil, Jr.), Spike Huber, and El Bracero. Good memories
> from that time.

...Brody also held that "King Kong" nickname in the AWA as well, also in deference to Afflis; somewhat ironic, since they let Jerry "The Crusher" Blackwell pick up Reggie Lisowski's handle while the latter was still in the promotion, setting up a "Crusher vs. Crusher" feud. Maybe Afflis (and Luce) would have run Gagne out of Chicagoland had the AWA tried a "Bruiser vs. Bruiser" feud?...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://www.radio4all.net/
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>
 
...Wisconsin in the '70s was strictly Verne Gagne AWA territory. I first watched it on KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac and WLUK/11 in Green Bay, and later on WVTV/18, WCGV/24 and WTMJ-TV/4 in Milwaukee, WKOW/27 Madison, WXOW/19 La Crosse and WAOW/9 Wausau. The obvious Wisconsin connection was The Wrestler that Made Milwaukee Famous, The Crusher (Reggie Lisowski). It wasn't until WLRE/26 in Green Bay signed on in 1980 that any other promotion was seen in the area; the Poffos' Kentucky-based ICW showed up on Channel 26 with some Monday prime-time shows and a couple of house shows in Oshkosh and Green Bay, but didn't last very long. WLRE also ran "Wrestling at The Chase" from KPLR/11 St. Louis, but I don't recall any NWA cards in Green Bay or Appleton at that time. The WWF was seen on USA Cable, but they didn't try any house shows in Wisconsin until around 1985, when they tried to promote some shows at Dane County Coliseum in Madison as being "in the Milwaukee area." They were largely laughed out of Milwaukee for that until Gagne cut Lisowski loose and he started showing up at WWF cards...

...the WWF show in Chicago on WFLD/32 was also laughed at upon its debut in 1984 because, for some inexplicable reason, they were running promos for cards in Sacramento(?!!?)...by the time WWF started running in Chicago, both Jim Crockett's "World Wide Wrestling" and Fritz Von Erich's "World Class Championship Wrestling" (both affiliated with the NWA at this point) were running on WPWR/60 on Saturday afternoons, and the Spanish-language station that shared time on the same channel, WBBS/60, ran the Spanish-tracked version of "Southwest Championship Wrestling" (just split from the AWA and occasionally using Mid-South ring talent) on Sunday late nights...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://www.radio4all.net/
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>
 
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