This is going to be some things I remember growing up, things that stood out and still do as great wrestling memories. Since I have tons of memories and can't write em all at once. I'll pick a few at random and run with it.
Discovering Southwest Championship Wrestling.
It was 84 or 85, sunday evening I was about to start auto mechanics school at Truman College in Chicago. the tv guide had listed "Lucha Libre(Wrestling" on a spanish station that Bob Luce used to run his tv show on. I'm like wrestling? At midnight? oooook. So I stay up to catch it, and whoa was I blown away.
The intro to Southwest Championship Wrestling started, said they were in a place called "The Junction" in San Antonio and then steve Sak's voice disapeared and the spanish guy took over, so I had no clue what the hell he was saying.
What I saw was the most hard hitting wrestling program date(at that time, besidses WCCW w/the Freebird/Von Erich feud going). My dad who was half asleep on his way to back from the bathroom is like "hey, what the fuck you watching this late at night"? I told him and he came into my room and watched with me as I told him" I never seen this show before".
Southwest to me was like brawlers heaven. it was my first look at the Sheepherders as they showed a clip of them against the Road Warriors who i was familiar with for their at the time current AWA run.Eric Emnry turned on Lord Johnathon Boyd's army, bruiser Brody cut off an interview cause Tank Patton shoved him and Brody beat the shit out of him. Yes, I was hooked on Southwest Championship Wrestling.
They were on tv in Chicago for about eight weeks. I watched every week and then they cancelled without warning. I dug thru and had found the station's address and wrote them, asking why instead of it playing when it was still listed in the tv guide we got the national anthem and the station turning off. Following week, here came the show again, I jumped up and down for joy and four weeks later, they yanked it again, LOL! Whjen i started trading tapes one of the first tapes I traded for was a southwest tape from that time period. With Shawn Michaels doing the US Express with Paul Diamond. Promotions like that to me are simply magic that has long since been goneI'm glad on my wrestling Gold 5 disc set there's southwest stuff on it. tully blanchard vs Wahoo McDaniel and Dick Slater vs Dory Funk Jr are on this set. still awesome to watch. I wish Dory would write about his match w/Slater from SCW. I'd love to read the insight on it from him.
Jerry'the king'Lawler
I had seen glimpses of Lawler on AWA tv and on a show called "Pro Wrestling This Week"(which was a great show that helped me get into other territories in wrestling). He and Bill Dundee being AWA World tag team champs I myself liked. Just like I really liked when Nick Bockwinkel went to Memphis or Southwest for appearances. Seeing lawler beat Curt hewnnig to become AWA World Champion it was a jolt in a way for me...But then....
Chicago had different wrestling shows on at different times and we actually had a 5 hour block of it on saturday nights. Watt's UWF, WCCW,AWA, NWA World Wide Wrestling, the forementioned Pro Wrestling This Week. On a show of World Class on a early saturday evening they showed a video of lawler coming to World Class. This mind ytou was before the internet was created and I didn't know anything about "insider" sheets as they're known as. So my immediate response as a fan was "who man, this is going to be real interesting".
Like when I'd see Bruiser Brody be a fan favorite in World Class but a heel in AWA, the contrast of Lawler's very first appearance in World Class was to me, shocking..here comes the AWA World Champion right in the heart of Von Erich Territory and telling the World Class World Champion Kerry Von Erich, "Texas ain't the whole world, and I am, the real, world heavyweight champion".
Something that simple and easy got so much heat, and this was before Ric Flair first came into the WWF as the 'real' world champion.
The following week came the famous "one punch knockout" by Lawler on Kerry. week by week you saw this build and every week it got more exciting and had me, as a fan who needed a shot in the arm, on the edge of my seat and waiting for five o'clock on saturday night to roll around. I also liked how they at least tried to get different promoters from Continental, memphis, etc to sign on and recognize the AWA title as the world championship. Besides lawler one match that stands out from that period that I myself enjoyed was CWA (Memphis) champion Sid Vicious vs Kerry Von Erich in Dallas. to me that's such an under rated match but then again, my views differ from many others especially the current generation of fans who 98% of the time have no clue about the guys I talk about who laid the path for who they see today.
That was a time I really really enjoyed being a fan of wrestling. Times like that can't ever be duplicated in today's enviroment.
Superclash 85
This is the one show by far, that ranks as the best wrestling show I ever went to. I've been to plenty others after this but none, have ever been on the level of this. I was going to auto mechanics school at the time and me and the guy who was taking auto body(detailing, painting, etc while i was doing the engine mechanics course) always talked wrestling. So when we both saw the commercial on AWA wrestling for Superclash. We went over to a ticket selling place during lunch and bought two bleacher seats, which we found out when we got there, were right near a beer stand, perfect!
AWA advertised it, NWA World Wide Wrestling plugged it, World Class advertised it so you had a true cross promotional deal going here with three different companies all advertising one show on their respected tv shows. How often have you seen that?
We boight our tickets before any matches were announced, we knew Comisky Park? It was going to be an awesome lineup and it was. Every week new matches were announced and our smiles just got bigger because we already had our tickets on our wallets.
Kimala vs Jerry 'Crusher' Blackwell in a body slam match, Ric Flair vs Magnum T.A., Kerry Von Erich vs Jimmy Garvin, Road Warriors vs Freebirds, Harkey Race & the Long Riders vs a japanese team. Stan Hansen vs Rick Martel, and more, tell me that isn't a main event line up.
This show literally blew me away because of all the hype, the matchups, the fact it gave the effect of a 'supershow'. I loved every match on there and I have yetr to any wrestling show anywhere come up with that kind of caliber matchups all on one show. I had a great time and yeah, I drank alot of over priced beer that night, lol. but i'd do it again because this was a show that real wrestling fans could appreciate.
