On this day in wrestling history 1/01

[Guest Sassquatch]

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY FOR 1/01

 

1979 - On a New Years night spectacular at the Omni in Atlanta, Jack & Jerry Brisco defeated Dory & Terry Funk to win the Georgia tag team titles

 

1982 - Sam Muchnick promotes his final wrestling show ever at the St. Louis Arena before the largest sports crowd ever in the building--19,819 fans,headlined by Ric Flair retaining the NWA title beating Dusty Rhodes in a two out of three fall match. Muchnick, who would probably rank very high on any list of the greatest wrestilng promoters who ever lived, had begun promoting St. Louis in the 1940s, and had averaged 8,000 paid attendance per show over four decades of promotion in the same city, and had made St. Louis the city that was known as the wrestling capital of North America. Muchnick was also the main power and glue that made the National Wrestling Alliance the largest conglomerate of different promotions ever in the pro wrestling industry as NWA President for much of the 50s and 60s. Most people credit the decline and ultimate destruction of the NWA to Muchnick being forced out of the Presidency in a power play in the mid-70s, which allowed the different promoters more leeway to do more angles that ultimately many would say killed the credibility of the title, since most point the glory days of the belt as the period in the early 70s when Muchnick booked champions Dory Funk Jr. and Jack Brisco. Muchnick's biggest drawing card, Dick the Bruiser, won the Missouri State title from Ken Patera on that show, while long-time booker and former world champion Pat O'Connor also had his retirement match beating Bruiser Bob Sweetan. It was just two years later that the St. Louis Wrestling Club, which under Muchnick was considered the most stable promotion in the country, had destructed from in-fighting among the various principles, Bob Geigel, Verne Gagne, Larry Matysik, Harley Race and O'Connor, who were left in charge but there was no final boss. Ultimately, Vince McMahon in late 1983 was able to get what was Muchnick's traditional TV outlet on KPLR-TV, and his first major promotional conquest in his expansion was stealing the existing TV time and running opposition to what was considered the NWA's flagship promotion. . . In one of the most famous matches of the era, Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) captured the WWF junior heavyweight title that Tatsumi Fujinami had vacated to both go heavyweight, and to give Sayama the spotlight as junior heavyweight champion, beating Dynamite Kid in a bout to determine the vacant title. Over the next few months, Sayama, at 165 pounds, changed the face of wrestling in Japan as no wrestler under 200 pounds had ever been taken as a serious star up to that point, and his stardom with Kid eventually paved the way to opening up the world of lighter weight wrestlers in the United States more than a decade later.