Written by Darbie Gatorade

When I am bored I often have to deal with an unsuspecting flow of creative juices. Someone recently challenged me to come up with some fantasy booking ideas and I sometimes get carried away. What started out as a fun little game ended up being a 42-match marathon. When you read down this list of matches, please remember that wrestlers are assumed to be in their prime.

In my mind this is the ultimate wrestling show (which would end up being a full blown weekend of incredible matches). In fact I have split the madness up into three nights, with three strategically booked cards, each with multiple epic main events. I took a lot of time organizing the cards so the shows would flow in a manner that would keep the fans attention. It’s not as easy as it looks, considering I set a rule that I could only use a wrestler once for the entire weekend. This my attempt at fantasy booking.

Look at each match, close your eyes, and imagine how the match would play out in your head. You might find your own creative juices flowing. You’re encouraged to leave comments at the bottom of the page. Please use your imagination when you read this article and enjoy yourself!

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Promoting the Promoters
Originally published in August 2004
Written by Darby Gatorade

Vince McMahon Sr. & Jr.: The McMahons are undoubtedly the “cream of the crop” as far as Wrestling Promoters go. Vince Sr. got started in the Northeast with his partner Toots Mondt with a promotion called Capitol Wrestling. Vince Sr. eventually broke off from the NWA in 1963 and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation; following in the footsteps of the AWA, which broke off in 1960. The New York territory was known as the place to be for American wrestlers, and it was the place to make the most money. Booking Madison Square Garden in a city like New York was beneficial to everyone involved! Of course Vince Sr. sold the WWF to his son, Vince Jr, who took the company to new heights and eventually put just about everyone else out of business. Despite that, Vince Jr. has done a lot for wrestling and single handedly brought it into the homes of a huge percentage of fans around the world. After many accusations of steroid abuses and exposes’, the Mcmahons renamed their organization – from WWF, World Wrestling Federation to WWE – World Wide Entertainment, (WWE).

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Written by Shockage via the OWW Genesis Forums

We are all now well aware of the events that lead to the death of AWA. Bad choices in booking and promoting, the inability to follow the changing times, the need for older mat based only wrestlers being on top, and selfish demands on money all helped to destroy AWA. If one was to look at AWA, they had a big name of stars that were still there in AWA, and had the talent and ability to be huge. We will look at 1988; the last year that AWA had a chance to stay afloat had they made different choices.

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Originally published on December 3, 2003
Written by OWW columnist Kenneth Coker

Editor’s note: This column is being republished in tribute to the 8th anniversary of the death of Larry Booker (aka Larry Latham or Moondog Spot in the world of professional wrestling) .

Larry passed from this life, on Novemeber 27th, 2003 at a building where he had performed probably thousands of times, The Mid-South Coliseum.  He was only 51 years old.

It is certainly a sad day for not only Memphis Wrestling, but wrestling in itself, as one of the greats has left us.  There are some things I’d like to point out about Spot, and his impact on my youth, and some accomplishments of his, as well.

Larry never really left his home base of West Tennessee. Despite all the success, he still called the Dyerburg community home, a place which my father and my family is from.

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Years ago, when Vince McMahon bought out Stampede Wrestling, the seeds were planted for the future Hart Foundation stable.  As part of the agreement for buying Stampede Wrestling, Stu Hart made sure that Vince McMahon also hired Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Davey Boy Smith to work in the WWE.

Almost Didn’t Happen

The stable (and much of wrestling history) would not have happened had Bret Hart followed through on his desire to quit the WWE early on his career. When Jim Neidhart and Bret Hart were first hired into the WWE, they were singles wrestlers. Jim Neidhart was managed by Jimmy Hart, while Bret Hart was given a cowboy gimmick. He hated the gimmick so much that he threatened to leave the WWE.  Fortunately for everyone, the writers changed their minds and allowed Bret Hart to turn heel and form a tag team with Jim Neidhart.

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After four years in the making, Stan Hansen’s autobiography, “The Last Outlaw,” is now available at Crowbar Press (www.crowbarpress.com).

Stan Hansen’s account of his wrestling career is a veritable guidebook of professional wrestling in Japan.  In “The Last Outlaw,” he tackles every subject imaginable as he educates and entertains readers with his stories about the promoters and their promotions, how the Japanese promoters operate their business behind the scenes, touring the country on the wrestling bus, the nightlife in the big cities, and how the sport in Japan differs from that in the U.S.

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Manager’s Corner: “Classy” Freddie Blassie
Originally published on September 16, 2003
Written by Kenneth Coker

He was a man who kept giving. He was a man despised by many fans in the United States and overseas for his “Classy” Freddie Blassie character. Yet, when the curtain went down, Freddie Blassie, real name, Fred Blassman, was one of the most charitable men to ever step into a wrestling arena.

Freddie Blassie began his wrestling career at the ripe age of 17. Blassie, the son of blue collar working class parents, worked two jobs at this point in his life, serving as a butcher, while feeding his wrestling obsession during the evening.

During World War II, Blassie made the ultimate sacrifice, and gave of himself. Putting his life on the line, as part of what Tom Brokaw has called “The Greatest Generation” during that conflict.

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My First Student of Professional Wrestling
By Dory Funk Jr.

Jumbo Tsuruta is the only wrestler ever outside the family to master the spinning toe hold, and is the only one who can throw the same fore arm smash every bit as hard as I do. His moves were so perfect that we did a special slow motion production of his three best suplexes, belly to belly, German suplex, and double arm suplex to use as an open for the television show in the Amarillo Territory.

Jumbo Tsuruta was sent to Amarillo by All Japan Pro-Wrestling President Giant Baba to train for professional wrestling. Jumbo was my first student. Even though his time in Amarillo was short, Tsuruta made many friends who never forgot his kindness.. He learned everything by just doing it. He told me his English was not so good and he really didn’t want to do interviews. I told him, you must do interviews, you are going to be interviewed and the announcer is going to ask you about your opponent, “You must say something.”

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The Top 20 Heels of All-Time
Originally published on April 15, 2004
Written by Darby Gatorade

In my humble opinion, heels are the hardest workers of all in wrestling. Any shmuck can go out as a babyface and get cheered, but in order to get the crowd to REALLY hate you, and have them wishing that the babyface shmuck would tear your head off, you have to understand the ins-and-outs of wrestling and the psychology from start to end. I’m just a fan, but I recognise that it’s not as easy as it looks. The reaction a heel gets is often refered to as “heat” and in many cases, you either have it — or you don’t have it. These are some of the wrestlers and factions that exemplify that definition.

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The Top 20 Babyfaces of All-Time
Originally published on March 31, 2004
Written by Darby Gatorade

Note about photo: The von Erich family…. left to right: Kerry, David, Mike, Chris (with belt), Kevin, and Fritz.

The von Erich Family: Fritz von Erich was a major heel in the 60s & 70s as a typical Nazi sympathizer, which was easy heat back then. Once Fritz settled in Texas he and his wife started having kids, a whole crop of boys who would grow up to be the State’s most popular wrestlers. Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris von Erich were adored by all the fans that came to see them at the famed Sportatorium for events promoted by their father with World Class Championship Wrestling. With every huge babyface, you need a heel (or heels) to go up against them. For the von Erichs, this was the Fabulous Freebirds, who came from Georgia; and you bet your ass they used that to get under the Texas-fans skin.

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