@ScyberPsylock lol, "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers & "Playboy" Buddy Rose come to mind. Somers was ugly AF and Rose (RIP) looked like someone slapped a blonde wig on 271 lbs (I mean 217 lbs!) of raw dough. Rose & Somers were an excellent heel tag team IMO. Rose was there in Florida the day Kevin Sullivan slapped reporter,Trudy Herd and transformed her into Luna Vachon.
@@shermswarthau5366 you ain't lying. Ioved Rose and Somers. Their feud with the Midnight Rockers in AWA is so underappreciated. Loved it when Buddy would get in the mic during intros and correct the ring announcer that he was now a "slim, trim 212lbs".
Where do they come up with these names just look at the original heavenly bodies even the later heavenly Bodies Jim cornette I mean they just look like average guys and the original ones will look worse than average you guys
Great documentary! I have heard Jim Cornette mention some of the folks shown in this video many, many times. It was nice to finally match the names to the faces. Well done, sir!
Al Green actually lived near me growing up, he'd let me and my dad deer hunt on his land. He knew I was wrestling in middle school and high school and would always ask me how I was doing in it. Genuinely nice guy, really tore me up when he passed away.
That Jerry Lawler comic strip "The Patriot" was the inspiration for the later WWF character The Patriot, portrayed by Del Wilkes. They even had the same finishing move, the Uncle Slam.
@@JennaLeigh It's likely that Wilkes worked for Lawler in the CWA before his time in GWF. Wilkes may even have asked permission from Lawler to use the character. They were together in AWA during the period when Lawler was AWA/World Class champ and Wilkes was working as The Trooper.
@@elc1960 gotcha! CWA is one of the territories I know next to nothing about- which is crazy since I'm from Alabama. I wish I'd had access to it as a kid!
That wrestler holding the title belt in that photo with Ron Carson (aka Dick Murdoch) was not Don Carson, but was in fact Bulldog Bob Brown, whose son Kerry Brown was a mainstay for Stampede Wrestling in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
Fantastic videos, I grew up on wrestling as a kid during the early to late eighties, so my knowledge of wrestling history is limited and you are especially teaching me how the territory system worked. Look forward to more!
Wrong about one thing: Two of the Fargo brothers WERE brothers: Jackie and Roughhouse, aka Jack and Henry Faggart. Donnie Fargo was Don Kalt, who had more ring names than you could count, and Johnny was Jon Wisniski, Johnny Valentine's real life son. And you are right, the other Fargo was indeed Louie Tillet. Donnie and Johnny only teamed up in the early 1970s in the NWF and in Pittsburgh PA.
I've seen macw in mags since I first started watching wrestling as a kid back in the mid '70's,but grownin up in Ct(wwwf/wwf/wwe territory)I didn't get to see macw til '84 and enjoyed every min of it
Without really saying it the documentary pointed out one of the main reasons for the promotion's decline; George Gulas. George was one of the worst wrestlers to ever set foot in the ring, but Nick kept trying to push "Little Georgie" as a major talent. That wound up turning off the fans as well as a lot of the wrestlers. In fact, he was booked against Harley Race for the NWA world title and even a wrestler as great as Harley couldn't drag a decent match out of him.
The greatest territory ever, most of WWE superstars of the 80’s and 90’s wrestled first in Memphis to learn the trade, the Memphis style of wrestling was violent and bloody and truly appeared real plus the fans were crazy. I grew up watching wrestling from TV5 studios as I lived outside of Memphis.
The Fabulous Fargo Strut is really well known, particularly in Memphis and the surrounding areas. Jeff Jarrett did it too; as did a few ECW guys as an homage.
Would it be possible to do a documentary on NWA Central States? I grew up in KC and watched All Star Wrestling on KBMA Channel 41 in KC in the 70's and 80's.
I remember Saul Weingeroff. Did Saul have a brother in the wrestling business in a different territory named George? You could expect Saul to throw out a fire ball occasionally.
Well most of this documentary was pretty on the money, but they failed to mention really what happene, Nick didn't sell his promotion straight out to Jarrett like the documentary says, it was a little more complicated than that, what really happened he sold the promotion to Buddy Fuller, and Buddy secretly just gave really was for Jarrett, so it was a little more underhanded than that, so that's how Jared got a hold of the promotion, Nick was really pissed off about it and try to sell them but it didn't do no good, George after that in the '80s try to run his own promotion which didn't do a little good either it was just running the small towns in Middle Tennessee, there's nothing as simple as it seems
The team listed here as The Medics also worked in other promotions under that name, and also in WWWF as The Masked Russians. They were in reality journeyman wrestlers Pedro Godoy and Juan Onaindia. People here might better remember Bill Golden's son Jimmy as longtime WCW mainstay Bunkhouse Buck.
You always hear that George Gulas was this tall, skinny, weakling kid, but in the pic with the baby face stars, he dwarfs Jackie Fargo, Jerry Jarrett, and especially Tojo, so I don't think that is being fair to George. Granted, he could have used some time in the weight room (or maybe just 100 pushups a day), but the other three could also. I remember seeing him wrestle as a tag team partner with a young Bobby Eaton, and they were a good tag team, but Nick tried way too hard to shove him down people's throats as a premier top babyface before he earned it. With him being the promoter's son, he was setting George up for failure. Had he wrestled under another last name or maybe under a mask and been a heel instead, I think he could have been much more successful. That being said, "Daddy said sell," will always be linked to George Gulas' name.
Crazy how much Kevin Sullivan let himself in just a few years. He’s ripped here in the photos by the mid eighties with the varsity club he already had a beer belly
The "Heavenly Bodies" tag team looked anything but heavenly😄
Your video adds to my knowledge. You're great, never give up!
@ScyberPsylock lol, "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers & "Playboy" Buddy Rose come to mind. Somers was ugly AF and Rose (RIP) looked like someone slapped a blonde wig on 271 lbs (I mean 217 lbs!) of raw dough. Rose & Somers were an excellent heel tag team IMO.
Rose was there in Florida the day Kevin Sullivan slapped reporter,Trudy Herd and transformed her into Luna Vachon.
@@shermswarthau5366 you ain't lying. Ioved Rose and Somers. Their feud with the Midnight Rockers in AWA is so underappreciated. Loved it when Buddy would get in the mic during intros and correct the ring announcer that he was now a "slim, trim 212lbs".
That was the idea. Some shit was better back then. Much more entertaining.
Gordon Solie was an awsome announcer. One of the best ever!!!!
Very well put together production.A lot of big names in this territory, unfortunately it's only remembered for, "Daddy said sell."
I wish there was more footage from that era online, especially Ron Wright in his heyday.
Thanks!
No that's not all it's remembered for. I'm sorry that's all you take from it.
We appreciate the hard work you put into your channel
Great videos
Thank you I appreciate it
I love documentaries about the old territories. :) thank you, great video.
Thanks I appreciate that.
Where do they come up with these names just look at the original heavenly bodies even the later heavenly Bodies Jim cornette I mean they just look like average guys and the original ones will look worse than average you guys
One of the great hidden gems of YWC .......You do some great research, keep it up man well worth the wait .
Thanks I appreciate the support!
The talent pool in the 1940's-50's Pro wrestling was super deep. Excellent history video on the NWA Mid-America.
Man you don't even need to be a wrestling fan to admire how great this channel's videos are put together. What amazing details! 👏
You really did your homework. Well done. Fan since mid 1970s
Way to recognize Lance Russell! That man was a legend
Lance Russell was The Zoo Keeper! He and Dave loved the fan,s and they loved them back
Great documentary! I have heard Jim Cornette mention some of the folks shown in this video many, many times. It was nice to finally match the names to the faces. Well done, sir!
Amazing job love these documentaries about the territories learn so much this is when wrestling was wrestling
Amazing work!
Thank-you
Al Green actually lived near me growing up, he'd let me and my dad deer hunt on his land. He knew I was wrestling in middle school and high school and would always ask me how I was doing in it. Genuinely nice guy, really tore me up when he passed away.
Really appreciate the hockey reference in these videos
I just wanna says thanks. These are so awesome. I’m listening while painting and watching the Bruins blow another game.
Lol thank-you!
this was great information good job
glad to finally see a new video! well done! :)
Hey, thanks!
That Jerry Lawler comic strip "The Patriot" was the inspiration for the later WWF character The Patriot, portrayed by Del Wilkes. They even had the same finishing move, the Uncle Slam.
Didn't Del Wilkes work as The Patriot for many years prior to his short WWF/E run? I remember seeing him on GWF episodes.
@@JennaLeigh It's likely that Wilkes worked for Lawler in the CWA before his time in GWF. Wilkes may even have asked permission from Lawler to use the character. They were together in AWA during the period when Lawler was AWA/World Class champ and Wilkes was working as The Trooper.
@@elc1960 gotcha! CWA is one of the territories I know next to nothing about- which is crazy since I'm from Alabama. I wish I'd had access to it as a kid!
That wrestler holding the title belt in that photo with Ron Carson (aka Dick Murdoch) was not Don Carson, but was in fact Bulldog Bob Brown, whose son Kerry Brown was a mainstay for Stampede Wrestling in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
Fantastic videos, I grew up on wrestling as a kid during the early to late eighties, so my knowledge of wrestling history is limited and you are especially teaching me how the territory system worked. Look forward to more!
That is awesome! thx for watching
Wrong about one thing: Two of the Fargo brothers WERE brothers: Jackie and Roughhouse, aka Jack and Henry Faggart. Donnie Fargo was Don Kalt, who had more ring names than you could count, and Johnny was Jon Wisniski, Johnny Valentine's real life son. And you are right, the other Fargo was indeed Louie Tillet. Donnie and Johnny only teamed up in the early 1970s in the NWF and in Pittsburgh PA.
Thanks for another Great, Informative, and Entertaining video!
Extremely well done!!
I've seen macw in mags since I first started watching wrestling as a kid back in the mid '70's,but grownin up in Ct(wwwf/wwf/wwe territory)I didn't get to see macw til '84 and enjoyed every min of it
I could watch these vids all day
Love these videos & thanks for all the hard work putting it all together!
Thanks for watching!
Without really saying it the documentary pointed out one of the main reasons for the promotion's decline; George Gulas. George was one of the worst wrestlers to ever set foot in the ring, but Nick kept trying to push "Little Georgie" as a major talent. That wound up turning off the fans as well as a lot of the wrestlers. In fact, he was booked against Harley Race for the NWA world title and even a wrestler as great as Harley couldn't drag a decent match out of him.
The famous saying from little Georgie “daddy say sell” lol 😂
I love these clips. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
The greatest territory ever, most of WWE superstars of the 80’s and 90’s wrestled first in Memphis to learn the trade, the Memphis style of wrestling was violent and bloody and truly appeared real plus the fans were crazy. I grew up watching wrestling from TV5 studios as I lived outside of Memphis.
So the Fargo strut was stolen by Ric Flair...nice!
What a great series! Thank you.
Finally found this I’ve been trying to find stuff like this....keep it up
Thanks, will do!
Mid 70’s I was very young but I remember this is the first wrestling territory I ever seen,particularly in Birmingham Alabama
I love these videos they are so entertaining
Thanks!
8:23 Well, we know where Ric Flair got his inspiration from with this dance...
The Fabulous Fargo Strut is really well known, particularly in Memphis and the surrounding areas. Jeff Jarrett did it too; as did a few ECW guys as an homage.
Yeah, Buddy Rogers. Just like he got pretty much everything else.
Would it be possible to do a documentary on NWA Central States? I grew up in KC and watched All Star Wrestling on KBMA Channel 41 in KC in the 70's and 80's.
I remember Saul Weingeroff. Did Saul have a brother in the wrestling business in a different territory named George? You could expect Saul to throw out a fire ball occasionally.
I did think Jackie and Roughhouse were brothers, but they were the only ones related.
George Gulas is a prime example that nepotism is essential to the history of wrasslin’
23:41 I've watched so many of these videos but I'm blown away Kevin Sullivan used to look like that every time.
Well most of this documentary was pretty on the money, but they failed to mention really what happene, Nick didn't sell his promotion straight out to Jarrett like the documentary says, it was a little more complicated than that, what really happened he sold the promotion to Buddy Fuller, and Buddy secretly just gave really was for Jarrett, so it was a little more underhanded than that, so that's how Jared got a hold of the promotion, Nick was really pissed off about it and try to sell them but it didn't do no good, George after that in the '80s try to run his own promotion which didn't do a little good either it was just running the small towns in Middle Tennessee, there's nothing as simple as it seems
The team listed here as The Medics also worked in other promotions under that name, and also in WWWF as The Masked Russians. They were in reality journeyman wrestlers Pedro Godoy and Juan Onaindia. People here might better remember Bill Golden's son Jimmy as longtime WCW mainstay Bunkhouse Buck.
I watched Gulas in Chattanooga in the 70s
I remember the split ...I was not in that area but I kept an eye on the Rankings in the Apter Mags .
I used to go to the Old Kiel Auditorium, in St. Louis, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I got to see the Funks, Harley Race, and many others.
Original Wrestling Documentaries.
I just subscribe to you.
Hello? Are there more documentaries coming?
Saul Weingroff had a son who was a great matt wrestler George Weingroff , who was legally blind
@26:00 Lester Welch wasn't Buddy's brother he was his uncle.
Haha. The Medics have the best gimmick. They belong in the mid '90s era WWF.
good video
Thanks
One more thing: It was the ROYAL Kangaroos who held the tag titles for this company, They were made up of Lord Jonathan Boyd and Sir Norman Charles.
Mid-America vs Mid-Atlantic vs Mid-South, which promotion was the best?
Joe Scarpa = Chief Jay Strongbow
Gulas was a crook promoter hardly ever pay wrestlers any money.
He also walked off and didn't pay hotel bills.
Len Rossi was my favorite wrestler…
You always hear that George Gulas was this tall, skinny, weakling kid, but in the pic with the baby face stars, he dwarfs Jackie Fargo, Jerry Jarrett, and especially Tojo, so I don't think that is being fair to George. Granted, he could have used some time in the weight room (or maybe just 100 pushups a day), but the other three could also. I remember seeing him wrestle as a tag team partner with a young Bobby Eaton, and they were a good tag team, but Nick tried way too hard to shove him down people's throats as a premier top babyface before he earned it. With him being the promoter's son, he was setting George up for failure. Had he wrestled under another last name or maybe under a mask and been a heel instead, I think he could have been much more successful. That being said, "Daddy said sell," will always be linked to George Gulas' name.
Crazy how much Kevin Sullivan let himself in just a few years. He’s ripped here in the photos by the mid eighties with the varsity club he already had a beer belly
Can you do the San Francisco wrestling territory
soon
Another thing when you did the Polynesian wrestling territory there was a original Samoa Joe
Joe Scarpa would later achieve widespread fame as Chief Jay Strongbow.
Buttnip Monroe?
The hell is wrong with Sputnik Monroe's chest that s*** on his chest
Gulas had burned so many people that they were glad to go to another promotion.
Your videos are great. I’m surprised you haven’t done an ECW video yet
Well he does the old school territories. ECW started as Eastern Championship Wrestling and it was only around 10 years.
I wonder if Monroe isn't were the red rooster copied for the idea
Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee were very big in the mid to late '70s & all through the 1980s. Gulas screwed Jerry Jarret deep & broke it off in him!
I love all your documentaries great work I've always wondered why old school wrestlers always look like s***
Gordon Solely is the greatest of all time..fyi
5'4" 200 pound jerry the midget king lawlee
I miss these shits. Can we do some modern ones? NOAH, PROGRESS, wcw, impact, roh, iwa-ms, and so on, and so forth
@@chuckgan a lot of people dont remember wcw.lol
@@LuchadorMasque wcw was on wasn't a regional promotion
@@alexmarquez9639 so
Wata - NA -bé ....not Watanna-by
Ooo
Double J is a b rated wrestler at best, no more no less.