Apologies to all- somehow,someway, yesterdays new blog disappeared. I know that Blogger had some technical issues that required them to "temporarily" remove all posts from yesterday on...I hope it gets put back up, because I thought the material was pretty good, all humility aside.

I like the idea of this blog being a forum for people who have a passion for pro wrestling to discuss it intelligently, without the fear of silly reprisals & pointless name calling-something I mentioned in yesterdays disappearing blog, but bears repeating to those of you who didn't get the chance to read it- intelligent opinions are always welcome, but people hiding behind aliases calling names & stirring shit really don't fit here- and so far, we have seen none of that here.

I know its gets mentioned alot about the "old days" of wrestling, when their were multiple different promotions, featuring a wide variety of talent, matches & angles........and alot of them were great, some good, & some well, just downright sad or awful.

Every promotion, at one time or another, has hit the wall in terms of its talent,its booker, its tv, or a combination of any or all the above.

From ages 8-13, I grew up in an area that, due to limited cable penetration, featured exclusively WWF tv shows. Now, my brother & I were very aware of the other "areas" (as they were called in the magazines we purchased religiously every month).

Things changed starting in 1985, when AWA hit the airwaves on ESPN, a cable network we actually had where I lived. This was before every piece of significant talent left,and the AWA,while a little more mat based than WWF, was still quite fun to watch.

But the world opened in 1987- my brother got married,moved into Hagerstown, which had far better cable system-were I could finally really watch the stars of the NWA on a regular basis,notonly from TBS, but  from the syndicated shows that were one nightly on Home Team Sports, a small regional sports station that morphed in MASN, which now covers both the Baltimore Orioles & Washington Nationals.

This also added the remaining UWF tv network ( which NWA had purchased, but they still did separate tv shows, at least thru the end of 1987) PLUS a variety of smaller "outlaw" type promotions that had shows on upstart cable networks- for example,TEMPO network carried ICW & NWF out New Jersey.

But the one show I looked forward to all week long was a syndicated program that featured look ins 7 highlights from the "areas" that I didn't get the benefit of seeing weekly- Pro Wrestling This Week, starring Joe Pedicino & theDean of Wrestling Announcers, Mr. Gordon Solie.

The show was done "magazine style", with Pedicino & Solie recapping the events that took place in a particular part of the country. Part of what made it exciting was,knowing that different guys whom work elsewhere moving to other places, which back then, silly as it sounds, created a certain buzz around the small promotion.

now, they did talk about the happenings in WWF, AWA, & NWA from the previous week, but I already knew what was up there: I tuned into see what was cooking in Memphis, Jerry Blackwell's Southern Championship Wrestling, Wild West Wrestling out of Dallas, and, of course, the somewhat infamous Central States Wrestling out of Kansas City.

It didn't truly occur to me, having grown up in the territorial system that was not quite yet totally destroyed, that I was watching minor league talent- it was quite normal still back then for guys to move around; however, I wasn't completely stupid- I knew who the top groups were :)

I did, however, noticed the appreciable difference in tv production quality while looking in at the PWTW clips from around the country- and to this day, no clip summed up the difference in production quality from WWF,NWA , & AWA quite like the clip I'm about to detail.

I recall a "special look" at a "Gigantic Battle Royale" having taken place the previous week in the Central States area, where the final three competitors were "Hustler" Rip Rogers, Ox "Master of The Heart Punch" Ox Baker, & Earthquake Ferris.

First of all, I think the ring was about 10x10- I don't think I've ever seen a ring so small before or since- and the overhead lights provided the total of the lighting, which was quite minimal; but the finish of the match has stuck with me ever since.

Ox was somehow eliminated, which left only Rip Rogers & Ferris, a 400 pounder who had worked for the AWA the previous summer. Ox was distracting Ferris, which led to Rogers flipped the big man over the top rope....and he literally disappeared. I'm not kidding, its was as if the Hustler was standing on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, and he sidestepped Earthquake & Earthquake fell into it.

Ironically , I don't think Earthquake Ferris ever did work anywhere else after that fateful night in Kansas City...I wonder..???

You have a small promotion to ell? Share it...

Until next time...
SSS