Related Research Articles
George Emile Stipich was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Stan "the Man" Stasiak. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the 1970s, where he won the WWWF Heavyweight Championship in 1973. He was inducted into the Legacy wing of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
Terrance Dee "Terry" Funk was an American professional wrestler. Widely considered one of the most influential and greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Funk was known for the longevity of his career – which spanned more than 50 years and included multiple short-lived retirements – and the influential hardcore wrestling style he pioneered in the latter part of his career.
Guadalupe Robledo was a Mexican professional wrestler, best known by the ring name of José Lothario. He performed for such promotions as the NWA and the WWF.
Dorrance Earnest Funk, known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. The son of Dory Funk and brother of Terry Funk, he was the promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion.
Robert Deroy Windham, better known by his ring name Blackjack Mulligan, was an American professional wrestler and American football player. He was the father of wrestlers Barry and Kendall Windham, father-in-law of Mike Rotunda, and the maternal grandfather of Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt.
Jack Barton Adkisson Sr., better known by his ring name Fritz Von Erich, was an American professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and the patriarch of the Von Erich family. He was a 3-time world champion and a 6-time NWA United States Champion. He was the owner of World Class Championship Wrestling.
The NWA World Brass Knuckles Championship was a short-lived title promoted by National Wrestling Alliance NWA Mid-America territory from 1978 until 1981. The championship was used in specialty matches in which the combatants would wear brass knuckles. There were other such championships used in a number of NWA territories throughout the United States of America, including versions in the Florida territory, Amarillo, New England, the Mid-Atlantic region and in NWA Tri-State. Because the championship was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The championship was awarded after the chosen wrestler "won" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.
Dorrance Wilhelm Funk was an American professional wrestler. He is the father of wrestlers Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, and was a promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion.
Herbert Alan Gerwig was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Killer Karl Kox. Kox competed in the National Wrestling Alliance as well as international promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling, the International Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling during the 1960s and 1970s.
Claude Patterson is an American retired professional wrestler, known by his ring name Thunderbolt Patterson. He began his career in 1964 and wrestled primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. During the early 1970s, he was blacklisted by the National Wrestling Alliance for repeated appearances with outlaw promotions, his complaints of institutional racism and attempts to form a wrestlers' labor union.
Michael DiBiase was an American professional wrestler also known by his ring name "Iron" Mike DiBiase. The adoptive father of professional wrestler "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, he was married to Ted's mother Helen Hild, and was the grandfather of Mike, Ted Jr., and Brett DiBiase.
Manuel Ramos was an American professional wrestler, better known as Apache Bull Ramos. From his debut in 1956 until the 1970s, he primarily worked as a heel and had notable feuds with Bruno Sammartino, Dutch Savage, Jimmy Snuka, Terry Funk, and Mil Máscaras. He traveled to Japan, Korea, and Australia to wrestle.
Tetsuo Sekigawa was a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work under the ring name Mr. Pogo. He helped popularize hardcore wrestling in the 1990s with "death matches" in promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, W*ING and Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
Michael Davis, best known by the ring names Bugsy McGraw and The Skull, is an American retired professional wrestler. McGraw is known for his long beard and for his philosophical, crazed rants during wrestling interviews. He was a major star in significant territories during the 1970s and 1980s, including major runs in Vancouver, Australia, Florida, Dallas and Memphis.
The Florida version of the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship was a secondary professional wrestling championship defended sporadically in the National Wrestling Alliance's Florida territory, Championship Wrestling from Florida. As its name suggests, the title was contested in matches in which the participants wore brass knuckles and it existed from 1960 until the title was abandoned, no earlier than late 1984.
Danny McShain was an American professional wrestler. He competed in the southern United States from the 1930s to the 1960s.
The New England version of the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship was a secondary championship that was used and defended in the National Wrestling Alliance affiliated NWA New England promotion. Created in 2000, the title was used in specialty matches in which the combatants would wear brass knuckles. The championship was regularly used and defended within the promotion before being abandoned in late 2004. Throughout the history of the NWA, a number of NWA affiliated promotions used their own territorial brass knuckles championship, with the ones used in Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling based in Dallas, Texas and Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida being two of the most prominent.
Ramon Eduardo Rodriguez, better known by the ring name Ciclón Negro, was a professional wrestler who was originally from Venezuela. He toured Australia, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico and the United States. He achieved a good amount of popularity and recognition during the 1970s.
Western States Sports was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Amarillo, Texas in the United States. Founded by Dory Detton in 1946, the promotion enjoyed its greatest success in the 1960s and 1970s under the management of Dory Funk and, later, his sons Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, with its top performers including the Funks themselves and Ricky Romero. Western States Sports promoted professional wrestling events in multiple cities across West Texas including Amarillo, Abilene, El Paso, Lubbock, Odessa, and San Angelo, along with Albuquerque in New Mexico, Colorado Springs and Pueblo in Colorado, and the Oklahoma Panhandle. Sold by the Funks in 1980, the promotion closed in 1981.
The WCWA Brass Knuckles Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and promoted primarily in the Texas territory. Initially the championship saw wrestlers literally using brass knuckles during matches, but was later modified to simply be "No Disqualification" matches. The brass knuckles championship was promoted from 1953 through 1987, and was defended primarily in the Dallas–Fort Worth area as part of Southwest Sports, Inc. It continued to be used after the promotion changed its name to Big Time Wrestling and, finally, World Class Championship Wrestling. In 1987, a year after WCCW left the NWA and became the World Class Wrestling Association, the title was abandoned. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match.
References
- ↑ NWA Brass Knuckles Championship (Amarillo)
- ↑ Hoops, Brian (September 3, 2015). "ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (SEPT. 3): RIC FLAIR VS. TERRY FUNK TEXAS DEATH MATCH, GREAT MUTA VS. STING, TED DIBIASE AND STAN HANSEN WINS AJPW TAG TITLES". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 10, 2017.