When Wrestling Was Rasslin' by Birkholz Wrestling Promoter Peter

Author:Birkholz, Wrestling Promoter Peter [Birkholz, Wrestling Promoter Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-06T08:00:00+00:00

photograph copyright Geoff Winningham

from Friday Night in the Coliseum

THE EVOLUTIONARY EIGHTIES

Much to the delight of the Houston Wrestling fans, the traditional Twenty-Two-Man Two- Ring Battle Royal started the year with a bang. The two-ring setup allowed the promotion to add hundreds of extra ringside seats, and it made every seat in the Coliseum a great one. This, along with raised ticket prices, made this event very successful at the box office. Having two rings also allowed the promotion to feature the annual two-ring six-man tag team battle, always a big favorite of Houston Wrestling fans!

There were a couple noteworthy debuts on January 4, 1980. One was Tom Prichard, who was no stranger to fans because he was my protégé for years. My duties and responsibilities with Houston Wrestling had been growing for years. Prichard was a young teenager who took over my former responsibilities, beginning with the job of Assistant Television Director of the Houston Wrestling show. It was exciting to watch Tom fulfill his professional wrestling dreams, since so many of us watched him grow up. When Tom launched his career, his younger brother Bruce became the new assistant. Both Tom and Bruce would go on to have careers with the WWE.

Manager James J. Dillon returned that same night with his newly-signed Japanese team of Mr. Hito and Mr. Sakurada. They found themselves surrounded by other great tag teams like Gino Hernandez and El Gran Markus, Jose Lothario and Mil Mascaras, the Von Erich brothers, the Twin Devils from Mexico, and the Funk Brothers.

One of the most exciting moments of 1980 was the debut of “Mr. USA” Tony Atlas, a good-looking black athlete with a tremendous physique. He was one of those rare athletes who, like Superstar Billy Graham before him, was both a body builder and a professional wrestler. He was chosen “Mr. USA” in one body building competition and carried that title into his professional wrestling career. Tony Atlas was a superstar on World Championship Wrestling, a television show aired in Houston on Ted Turner’s Superstation out of Atlanta, Georgia. Atlas was a tremendous hit with the Houston Wrestling fans, which served as a wake-up call to the Houston Wrestling promotion--we began to book more talent from the Atlanta office. In the ring, Tony Atlas became the number one contender to Harley Race’s World Championship belt. Fans enjoyed showdowns between World Champion Harley Race and “Mr. USA” Tony Atlas throughout 1980, which were responsible for some of the year’s biggest gates.

New stars from all over the wrestling world came to Houston, including WWF superstar Bruno Sammartino, Britain’s Lord Alfred Hayes, Russian Ivan Koloff, South Korean Pak Song Nam, Stan “Heart Punch” Stasiak, Mexican star Sicodelico (younger brother of Mil Mascaras), and World’s Junior Heavyweight Champion Les Thornton from Great Britain. Other newcomers included Australia’s Jonathon Boyd, Rick Oliver, Jerry Brown, Ted Heath, Bulldog Brower, Brian Blair, and the colorful Bugsy McGraw.

Boesch was also able to sign a showdown featuring two of the World Wrestling Federation’s biggest superstars, Bruno Sammartino and Superstar Billy Graham.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.