Dylan Waco

Not credible and muddied the super serious business of Pro Wrestling history. Not Dave Meltzer essentially despite having far more reach and influence on common or garden fans especially pre-internet. Yep. Plus could be some wrestlers that won't vote for him because they don't think he covered them or their territories well enough.

Found pretty complete listings for 75 and edited several more results of relevance

Episode Six! Dave and I talk about why pro wrestling is better than MMA. We have a few quirks again with talkshoe but nothing as an awful as the audio on the previous show or the loss of Maritimes show (which we will redo in the near future). Lots of talk on everything from the alleged bisexuality of Tank Abbot, to Diaz brothers riots, to my obligatory Buddy Rose references and more! http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkC...2658&cmd=tc

You will love the AWA Set.

Buddy Match Review One! Buddy Rose v. Curt Hennig - Portland TV 3-26-83 This went about 14 minutes bell to bell which is short by the standards of Portland main events. For my money it is an incredibly great match, and one of the better matches I've seen from anywhere in 83. It also might be the first really great singles match Hennig ever had which helps explain his consistent praise of Buddy even years later. It is also a match that is enhanced by the pre-match with Owen talking about Rose injuring Hennig's leg and the post-match Buddy stretcher job, but I think it stands on it's own two feet just fine. Match starts off with great action as Buddy ambushes Curt while he is still in his ring jacket. Curt bumps around big but naturally makes his comeback with Buddy returning the favor. These are two of the greatest bumpers in wrestling history and Buddy is one of the great Pearl Harbor guys in wrestling history so this whole opening segment plays to both guys strengths. I liked how they worked in early near falls as you can really buy that an early fall could come from the ambush or Hennig's fiery comeback. Hennig ends up taking over on the arm and it is some of most spirited simple limb work I can remember seeing. They work some good teased counters from Rose, Hennig gets to work some nice counters they come up for a flashy spot or two, et. It just really works well. Rose eventually escapes and sends Hennig over the top with a dropkick and they go into a nice stretch with Rose hitting some nice stiff offense, Hennig coming back and bumping Rose huge, some teased falls, et. The finishing run with Hennig eating the double knees on a splash attempt only to catch Rose up top building to the big top rope dropkick to Rose's arm/neck was awesome. As said before post-match stretcher job was great (as were the subsequent videos of Buddy in bed at home selling his whiplash injury). Hennig was fiery as fuck in this, both guys bumped great, Rose did some great selling (really loved him selling the shoulder after a shoulderblock to keep Hennig on the floor) and all the litle things well. This was just a great match in every sense.

1975 http://www.georgiawrestlinghistory.com/car...70s/1975-1.html Edit: The first six weeks of the year were spent wrapping up his brief run in Georgia. He actually had some relevant stuff here, namely wrapping up his program with The Assassin in Texas Death matches in Atl and Macon, some tag matches of note and a brief program with Abby. Still this year is really about his MACW run. 2/18/75 Raleigh, NC @ Dorton Arena Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel beat NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson Ken Patera beat Brute Bernard Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair beat Sandy Scott Blue Scorpion beat Joe Furr Mike Stallings beat Mr. Hayashi This is the first date I have for Patera in Mid-Atlantic. If I'm not mistaken he was brought in as a babyface, All-American type at this point. Looks like he worked Brute Bernard around the loop. 2/20/75 Greensboro, NC No dq match NWA champion Jack Brisco beat Wahoo McDaniel via pin in 21:00 NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson beat Mid Atlantic Tag Team Champions Tiger Conway Jr & Paul Jones when Gene pinned Conway in 19:00 after a body slam Mid Atlantic Tag Titles retired at this point. Dusty Rhodes dcor Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair Jerry Brisco beat Cowboy Parker Ken Patera beat Art Nelson Kevin Sullivan drew Tommy Seigler Sandy Scott & Tio Tio beat Frank Monte & Frank Morrell att: 7,812 Notable as his first Greensboro show though he is buried in the undercard. 3/3/75 Charlotte, NC @ Park Center Mid Atlantic Champion Johnny Valentine beat Paul Jones COR Ken Patera beat Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair dq Sandy Scott & Tommy Seigler beat Cowboy Parker & Art Nelson Frank Morrell beat Mike Stallings Bill Crouch beat Joe Furr THIS is the first result v. Flair that I can find. 3/6/75 Asheboro, NC @ Southwest Randolph Senior High School Gymnasium Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair vs Paul Jones Ken Patera & Sandy Scott vs Brute Bernard & Art Nelson Abe Jacobs vs Cowboy Parker Joe Furr vs Mr Hayashi Charlie Cook vs Frank Morrell The Scott's were a big deal in Mid-Atlantic so even though this is a spot show this is cool result that suggests they were trying to get him over pretty strong. 3/11/75 Raleigh, NC @ Dorton Arena Ken Patera & Paul Jones beat Super Destroyer & Johnny Valentine Blackjack Mulligan beat Charlie Cook Tommy Seigler beat Mr Fuji dq Frank Monte drew Kevin Sullivan Steve Keirn beat Ken Dillinger Tag match main event that would have meant a lot at the time as the other three guys in the match were pretty big regional stars. 3/15/75 Spartanburg, SC @ Memorial Auditorium Super Destroyer & Ric Flair vs Ken Patera & Tiger Conway Jr Brute Bernard vs The Avenger Cowboy Parker vs Klondike Bill Tio Tio vs Ken Dillinger El Gaucho vs Mr Hayashi 3/18/75 Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson beat Wahoo McDaniel & Sonny King Ken Patera beat Ric Flair Brute Bernard & Art Nelson drew Abe Jacobs & Bob Bruggers Blue Scorpion drew Charlie Cook First main event in the territory, followed by what was probably his first meeting singles match v. Flair [edit - no it wasn't]. Flair was the Mid-Atlantic TV champ at the time, but this isn't listed as a title match and the result seems to imply that Patera won clean - another sign that MACW saw value in him. 3/22/75 Winston-Salem, NC @ Memorial Coliseum Bearcat Wright & Sonny King vs Johnny Valentine & Super Destroyer Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair vs Paul Jones Ken Patera vs Blackjack Mulligan The Avenger & Bob Bruggers vs Brute Bernard & Blue Scorpion Steve Keirn vs Ken Dillinger Tio Tio vs Frank Monte Mr Hayashi vs Mike Stallings Patera v. Mulligan may have meant something at the time. Mulligan is one of those guys old school MACW fans in the area still talk about like crazy. 4/3/75 Norfolk, VA @ Scope Exhibition Hall Ken Patera & Swede Hanson beat Ric Flair & Johnny Valentine dq The Avenger beat Blue Scorpion Charlie Cook beat Brute Bernard Klondike Bill beat Frank Monte Frank Morrell drew Tio Tio Is this an adjoining facility to the Scope? The undercard doesn't look special, but that would have been a really big main event for a random house show. 4/5/75 Hampton, VA @ Hamton Roads Coliseum Super Destroyer beat Ken Patera dq Rufus R Jones & Swede Hanson beat Ric Flair & Blackjack Mulligan dq The Avenger & Abe Jacobs beat Brute Bernard & Art Nelson Blue Scorpion beat Kevin Sullivan Tio Tio beat Mr Hayashi Frank Monte drew Don Kernodle Who was SD in MACW? The tag match that proceeded it really seems like it would have been the real draw on the show. 4/18/75 Lynchburg, VA @ City Armory Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair vs Ken Patera Haystack Calhoun vs Brute Bernard Doug Gilbert & Cowboy Parker vs Abe Jacobs & Charlie Cook Frank Morrell vs LD Lewis Klondike Bill vs Joe Wilson No result here, just the scheduled card. I assume this was a Flair title defense. 4/20/75 Canton, NC @ YMCA Ric Flair & Johnny Valentine vs Paul Jones & Ken Patera Haystack Calhoun vs Blue Scorpion Brute Bernard vs Charlie Cook Bob Bruggers vs Cowboy Parker LD Lewis vs Frank Monte Pretty big main event match for what was almost certainly a really small spot show. Flair v. Patera is something of a go to match on the small shows. Friday, April 25, 1975 – County Hall – Charleston, SC 1) Kevin Sullivan defeated Frank Morrell 2) Klondike Bill defeated Bill Crouch 3) Swede Hanson defeated Brute Bernard 4) Rufus R. Jones & Ken Patera defeated Blackjack Mulligan & The Super Destroyer Main event in my home town where Blackjack is regarded as king. 5/9/75 Charleston, SC @ County Hall Super Destroyer vs Ken Patera Rufus R Jones vs Ric Flair Abe Jacobs & The Avenger vs Brute Bernard & Art Nelson LD Lewis vs Frank Monte Tommy Seigler vs Frank Morrell He worked some tag semi-mains and mains leading up to this show in my home town. Super D program carries on and finally we get... 5/15/75 Greensboro, NC @ Coliseum Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel beat Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson to win the NWA Tag Title in 33:00 when Jones pinned Gene Bullrope match Dusty Rhodes beat Blackjack Mulligan Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair beat Ken Patera dq when Patera tossed Flair over the top rope Swede Hanson & Bob Bruggers beat Mr Fuji & Art Nelson dq Sandy Scott beat Frank Monte Ox Baker beat Charlie Cook Don Kernodle beat Bill Crouch Pretty good placement for Patera on this card, though we are missing a figure. 5/19/75 Salem, VA @ Roanoke Valley Civic Center Mid Atlantic Champion Johnny Valentine beat Paul Jones via pin Ken Patera beat Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair dq Swede Hanson & Charlie Cook beat Art Nelson & Mr Fuji Vicki Williams & Honey Girl Paige beat Paula Kaye & Marie Leveau Kevin Sullivan beat Frank Morrell Don Kernodle drew Blue Scorpion att: 2,199 Notable as a show with a figure. Though devoid of context who knows if it is a good one? 5/22/75 Anderson, SC @ Recreation Center Mid Atlantic Champion Johnny Valentine vs Ken Patera Sonny King & Steve Keirn vs Doug Gilbert & Brute Bernard Jerry Blackwell vs Abe Jacobs Larry Sharpe vs Tio Tio Bob Bruggers vs Frank Morrell Valentine title defense in the main event. Show is pretty light over all, but still notable as the first shot Patera got at the regional belt. 6/9/75 Charlotte, NC @ Park Center Ken Patera & Sonny King beat Ric Flair & Super Destroyer Swede Hansen beat Brute Bernard Jerry Blackwell ddq Klondike Bill Greg Peterson beat Charlie Fulton Joe Soto beat Bill Crouch Another main event. I'm missing a lot of dates for Patera in here because the results aren't complete (MACW was running split crews at this point I think). 6/10/75 Raleigh, NC @ Dorton Arena Lumberjack Match Paul Jones beat Mid Atlantic TV Champion Ric Flair Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson vs Ken Patera & Rufus R Jones Brute Bernard vs Don Kernodle Ron Starr vs Charlie Fulton Don Serrano vs Frank Monte Patera and Rufus are such an odd pairing to me. 6/12/75 Anderson, SC @ Recreation Center Mid Atlantic Champion Johnny Valentine beat Paul Jones dq when Jones hit the referee Ken Patera beat Ole Anderson via pin Steve Keirn & Kevin Sullivan beat Art Nelson & Mr Fuji Larry Sharpe drew Don Kernodle Ken v. Ole in a singles match, possibly for the first time. 6/20/75 Richmond, VA @ Arena Super Destroyer beat Sonny King Ken Patera & Sandy Scott beat Boris Malenko & Brute Bernard Fence Match Steve Keirn beat Charlie Fulton Blue Scorpion beat Bob Burns Don Kernodle beat Bill Crouch Kevin Sullivan drew Joe Soto Keirn worked Fulton in a Cage?? 6/27/75 Lexington, VA @ VMI Field House NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson vs Paul Jones & Ken Patera Mr Fuji vs Klondike Bill Charlie Cook vs Larry Sharpe Danny Miller vs Joe Soto Don Serrano vs Bill Crouch At this point Patera is pretty clearly a plug in guy against whatever top heel/heels needs an opponent. That is hardly a bad role for a virtual rookie to have. 7/3/75 Greensboro, NC @ Coliseum Johnny Valentine beat Harley Race to win US Title NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson beat Andre The Giant & Paul Jones Rufus R Jones won 20 Man Battle Royal Ken Patera beat Mr Fuji Rufus R Jones beat El Goucho Boris Malenko beat Abe Jacobs Ox Baker drew Danny Miller 10:00 Klondike Bill & Sandy Scott beat Frank Monte & George Two Ton Harris Steve Keirn beat Joe Soto Ron Starr beat Don Serrano Attendance: 10,000+ BIg show, with a huge double main event, plus a battle royal. Patera v. Fuji probably meant little even as mid-card fodder. 7/28/75 Charlotte, NC NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson beat Paul Jones & The Avenger Ken Patera beat Jerry Blackwell Tony Atlas beat Charlie Fulton Little Louie beat Little John Larry Sharpe beat Greg Peterson Almost certainly irrelevant in the scheme of things but I thought I'd not Patera v. Blackwell! 8/1/75 Richmond, VA @ Coliseum NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson drew Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel 90:00 US Champion Johnny Valentine beat Ken Patera Tony Atlas beat Ric Flair dq Cowboy Lang & Little Louie beat Lord Littlebrook & Little John Art Nelson & Doug Gilbert beat Don Serrano & Bob Bruggers Ron Starr beat Blue Scorpion Steve Keirn beat Charlie Fulton 8/4/75 Charlotte, NC @ Park Center Paul Jones & Ken Patera beat NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson on a reverse decision dq Tony Atlas beat Frank Monte Abe Jacobs beat Larry Sharpe Abe Jacobs drew Kevin Sullivan Don Kernodle beat George Two Ton Harris 8/9/75 Hampton, VA @ Hampton Roads Coliseum NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson drew Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel 60:00 Ken Patera beat Ric Flair dq when Flair tossed Patera over the top rope Boris Malenko & Missouri Mauler beat Klondike Bill & Danny Miller Mr Wrestling Tim Woods beat Jerry Blackwell via pin Don Kernodle drew Bob Bruggers El Gaucho beat Bob Burns via pin Richmond would have been a big show as that was one of their bigger buildings. Workings second from the top v. Valentine would have meant a lot in that context. Another main event for The Andersons also speaks well of him. Flair match as semi-main in Hampton Roads would have meant at least something also as that was a 5k plus building and not a "spot show" town. Friday, August 15, 1975 – County Hall – Charleston, SC 1) Ron Starr defeated Don Serrano 2) Steve Keirn defeated Frank Monte 3) Boris Malenko defeated Klondike Bill 4) Ken Patera defeated The Missouri Mauler 5) World Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson defeated Wahoo McDaniel & Tony Atlas via CO 8/17/75 Asheville, NC @ Civic Center (Afternoon show) US Champion Johnny Valentine vs Wahoo McDaniel NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson vs Dusty Rhodes & Paul Jones Ken Patera vs Jerry Blackwell Mr Wrestling Tim Woods vs Frank Monte Steve Keirn vs Bob Bruggers Sandy Scott vs Joe Soto There are other Blackwell matches on spot shows. That seems to have been Patera's fall back opponent on shows that didn't have a lot of talent or where the other big names had strong opponents. Friday, August 29, 1975 – County Hall – Charleston, SC 1) Kevin Sullivan vs. Don Serrano 2) Steve Keirn & Ron Starr vs. John Smith & Bill Howard 3) Tiger Conway, Jr. vs. Jerry Blackwell 4) Gene Anderson vs. Ken Patera 5) Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ole Anderson Both of these are interesting results as Mauler and Gene were big stars in the Carolinas and a town that usually ran a single main event with an under card as a mixed bag looked to have used Patera v. them as a clear semi-main. 8/30/75 Roanoke, VA @ Civic Center Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel beat NWA Tag Team Champions Gene & Ole Anderson when Gene Anderson was knocked unconscious and was unable to continue. The NWA Tag Title did not change hands because the victory was not by pin fall or submission. Ken Patera & Tiger Conway beat Missouri Mauler & Boris Malenko dq Tony White (Atlas) beat Bill Howard (sub Brute Bernard) Klondike Bill beat Jerry Blackwell Bill Howard beat Bobby Williams Huge hole in terms of dates here but again I have very incomplete listings. 9/1/75 Charlotte, NC @ Memorial Stadium NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson beat Paul Jones & Wahoo McDaniel Ken Patera beat Boris Malenko dq Women’s Champion Fabulous Moolah beat Susan Green Tony Atlas beat Brute Bernard Larry Sharpe beat Don Kernodle Frank Monte drew Tony Rocco Big show with Patera in the semi-main. He seems to have had a mini-program with Boris going for a while. He continues working singles and tags with him around the loop through Sept usually in mains or semi-mains leading to... 9/7/75 Greensboro, NC @ Coliseum Dusty Rhodes beat US Champion Johnny Valentine dq Non Title Texas Tornado bout Wahoo McDaniel & Mr Wrestling Tim Woods beat NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson Rufus R Jones & Ken Patera beat Missouri Mauler & Boris Malenko Mr Wrestling Tim Woods beat Brute Bernard Spoiler II beat Swede Hanson Tiger Conway beat Doug Gilbert Art Nelson drew Klondike Bill 15:00 Greg Peterson & Tony Rocco beat Charlie Fulton & Bill Howard att: 9,352 Notable that Patera is third from the top, underneath two title matches, which I think shows where he stood in the MACW landscape at the time. This was a strong number. 9/19/75 Danville, VA @ City Armory Mid Atlantic TV Champion Paul Jones beat Gene Anderson Tony Atlas & Ken Patera beat Jerry Blackwell & George Two Ton Harris Don Serrano beat Mike Dubois Tony Rocco beat John Smith Charlie Fulton drew Greg Peterson 20:00 Stuff like this was common throughout Sept, though more often than not he was paired off against Boris and an opponent. There is this... 9/23/75 Raleigh, NC @ Dorton Arena US Champion Johnny Valentine beat Ken Patera Mid Atlantic TV Champion Paul Jones beat Gene Anderson Danny Miller & The Avenger beat Boris Malenko & Missouri Mauler Tony Atlas beat Jerry Blackwell Roberto Soto beat Larry Sharpe 9/28/75 Greensboro, NC @ Coliseum Paul Jones & Dusty Rhodes beat NWA Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson COR US Champion Johnny Valentine beat Wahoo McDaniel Bounty Match Ray Stevens beat Mr Wrestling Tim Woods dq Ken Patera beat Boris Malenko Spoiler II beat The Avenger Tiger Conway Jr beat Mid Atlantic Champion Ric Flair Danny Miller & Steve Keirn beat Jerry Blackwell & Mike Dubois att: 9,600+ Another big show. Patera v. Malenko was a feud of note, but clearly was not a top of the card feud on the A-shows if this is any indication. 10/6/75 Charlotte, NC @ Park Center NWA Champion Jack Brisco beat Paul Jones on a 3rd fall dq when Jones tossed Brisco over the top rope Ken Patera beat Gene Anderson (sub Ric Flair) Swede Hanson & Johnny Weaver beat Steve Strong & Art Nelson Larry Sharpe & Joe Soto beat Kevin Sullivan & Roberto Soto Tony Rocco beat Don Serrano Not much of note in October as he was doing some stuff with Malenko still and working utility slot in the upper mid-card. 10/30/75 Marion, NC @ McDowell High School Gym Texas Tornado Match Paul Jones & Ken Patera vs Spoiler I & Spoiler II Mr Wrestling Tim Woods & Sandy Scott vs Charlie Fulton & Mike Dubois Swede Hanson vs Joe Soto That main event sounds really interesting on paper. Friday, November 7, 1975 – County Hall – Charleston, SC 1) Larry Sharpe defeated Don Serrano 2) Klondike Bill defeated Joe Soto 3) Tony Rocca defeated Bill Howard 4) Roberto Soto defeated Mike DuBois 5) World Tag Team Champions Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson defeated Ken Patera & Rufus R. Jones This would have been a reasonably big shot for Patera as the tag belts were the top belt in the territory for much of MACW history. 11/9/75 Greensboro, NC @ Coliseum US Title tournament First Round Rufus R Jones beat Steve Strong Terry Funk beat Red Bastien Blackjack Mulligan beat Ken Patera Dusty Rhodes beat Boris Malenko Wahoo McDaniel beat Superstar Billy Graham Harley Race beat Tiger Conway Jr Paul Jones beat Ole Anderson Johnny Weaver (sub Mr Wrestling Tim Woods) beat Gene Anderson Second Round Terry Funk beat Rufus R Jones Dusty Rhodes beat Blackjack Mulligan Harley Race beat Wahoo McDaniel Paul Jones beat Johnny Weaver Semi Finals Terry Funk beat Dusty Rhodes Paul Jones beat Harley Race Finals Terry Funk beat Paul Jones to win the U.S. heavyweight championship att: 15,076 Huge show with the one night tourney. Patera goes out in the first round. 11/25/75 Raleigh, NC @ Dorton Arena Boris Malenko & Missouri Mauler & Steve Strong vs Paul Jones & Mr Wrestling Tim Woods & Ken Patera Tony Atlas vs Bill Howard Tiger Conway Jr vs Mike Dubois Swede Hanson vs Bill White He's got some matches w random partners v. Spoilers and stuff like this where he is on the top of the card on what was probably a low priority B show. 12/27/75 Hampton, VA @ Hampton Roads Coliseum US Champion Paul Jones beat Blackjack Mulligan Angelo Mosca beat Ken Patera Roberto Soto & El Rayo beat Steve Strong & Mike Dubois Danny Miller beat George Two Ton Harris Bill Howard beat Greg Peterson Cowboy Lang & Vicki Williams beat Sonny Boy Hayes & Leilani Kai This is the only MACW date I see for Patera in 75. Patera v. Mosca would have been promoted as a "strong man" match and probably would have had some value as a special attraction affair underneath a U.S. title match in a reasonably big venue for the promotion. That's the last date I have from Patera in 75 at the moment. Sort of similar to the AWA results in that he was positioned as an "up and comer" who headlined some shows on the circuit, but was never up top on the biggest shows. He did appear to have programs of perceived value with Malenko and Super Destroyer and even Flair. I've heard of an angle he did with Valentine from tv during this rough period but can only find one date with them paired off together. Overall this is still "pre-prime" Patera stuff, but it shows yet again that he was seen as a guy that could make some coin in the right setting against the right opponent. Edit: The stuff I edited in today shows that he really seemed to be on the verge of hitting the top tier in August but was pulled back some shortly thereafter. Either way I think the general conclusions that can be drawn remain the same.

Worth noting that there is a solid amount of late 70's Portland available and a very good bit of World of Sport.

It only hurts him because people haven't watched/don't know about his Portland run. Dr. Death's last major appearance on U.S. tv was getting his ass kicked in a legit fight by Bart Gunn (unless you count WCW in which case his last major appearance was working with "Oklahoma" and/or being involved in a god awful cage match with a 40-something punk rocker). Saito's last major appearance on U.S. tv was losing to Johnny B. Badd at Starrcade 95. Ultimo's last major run in the States was less entertaining and memorable than Blow Away Era Buddy. Now I'm not a booster for any of those guys in the HoF, but the point is those guys got votes to the point they were inducted and the weaker aspects of their career were ignored, forgotten or obscured by other things. With Buddy the issue is getting other people to see, seek out and acknowledge these "other things."

John is right. Eventually I plan to do a Gordy List on Buddy like I did on Blackwell. It's going to be harder going because of the dearth of easily available results from the Portland territory, but I'm going to do some newspaper archive research to at least see what is out there. My short term goal for the HoF regarding Buddy is to keep him on the ballot. First year is critical because he's clearly not going in right away, but I think it is quite possible he drops off if someone isn't pushing him and pushing him hard. I think he should be in but I anticipate the arguments against him and I think you have to be prepared to treat them seriously even if you don't agree. I'm not getting a vote any time soon, but that doesn't mean I can't do some research to help voters who bother to look into who they are (or aren't) going to vote for. I don't want this thread to be EXPLICITLY about the HoF candidacy though. Buddy has been talked about enough lately where he deserves a thread to discuss his career highlights and contributions regardless of that. I'll be posting Day one Buddy review tomorrow. I think tentatively my plan is post a review of a Buddy match every other day between now and the end of the next HoF selection period

Doh! Fixed

I mention him all the time, Will is a huge fan and so are others here so with him hitting the WON HoF ballot (finally) I figured I would give him his own thread. I'll start off by re-posting my comments from the HoF thread. I plan on adding a random match review or two a day for the time being. So yeah responding to Childs from the other thread asking about Buddy as an HoFer: Buddy is a better "work" candidate than most though I personally wouldn't vote for anyone solely on work (that I can think of anyhow). Having said that - and I've beaten this point into the ground by now - I think from the cumulative period from 77-84 he was the best wrestler in the World based on the footage we have. There are really only a small number of guys that I can even see in the debate with him (Lawler, Fujinami, possibly Terry Funk, maybe Jumbo in the eyes of some, sure Flair would get default votes) and I think they all had advantages Buddy didn't have. There are two things that hurt Buddy. The first is that so little of Portland has been seen and a lot of the voters are probably among the least likely people to go back and rewatch it. Loss made the point about HoF guys who are in on work being primarily in on reputation of being good workers and he is basically right. Buddy ALWAYS had that rep, but I think it's hard to contextualize that if you don't actually watch the footage (or didn't see it at the time). I've run into the same issue with Blackwell over at Classics as people have turned themselves into pretzels trying to shoot holes in his candidacy based on statements a simple review of the facts I have compiled would easily refute. The second problem is the Portland business model. Because Portland didn't run big arenas hardly ever it is going to be a hard sell to certain folks that Buddy was a draw. The fact that Dave himself regards Buddy as the biggest draw in Portland wrestling history and correctly noted that Buddy was the last real draw in San Francisco for Shire is something that means less to a lot of people than it should. I have seen some people suggest that Buddy basically anchored the equivalent of ECW, but that's not really a fair comparison for a variety of reasons: A. Portland Sports Arena was owned by Don Owen which meant 100 % of profits off ticket sales and concessions and no rental cost/security cost/et. Also unlike with ECW, the Portland Sports Arena didn't run once every three weeks - it ran at least once a week, often twice a week. Also, I THINK the capacity was higher than the ECW Arena (though not by much). Either way it was consistently a sell out during Rose's peak run and Owen not running bigger buildings had more to do with raw economics/bottom line than it did with fear of failure at the gate. B. By all accounts Portland got far better tv ratings than ECW ever did, even after they'd been moved into a later time slot (do to violence issues IIRC). C. Portland matches were 2/3 Falls. That may seem irrelevant but I don't think it was as the tv was formatted around this and it also meant that more pressure was on the good hands (i.e. Buddy) to keep things logical, fresh, exciting, et. D. Don Owen did occasionally run bigger venues (the anniversary shows, Piper/Buddy feud matches) and they always drew big houses for the area and big gates. E. The Pacific Northwest of that period was much less interconnected than the Northeast corridor where ECW ran - and MUCH less populated (especially at that time). F. Portland was a profitable territory, to the point where Don Owen was regarded as one of the two or three fairest payoff guys in the business (note that "fair" and "most money" are obviously not the same thing) and was still one of the richest men in the State of Oregon. Yes he made most of his money elsewhere, but the point is that by all accounts the Pacific Northwest wrestling territory was not a "money mark" promotion for Don, but a way to make even more money and he succeeded in that goal. I'm not sure ECW was ever a profitable wrestling business. G. Portland ran a real, weekly loop. ECW had venues they ran consistently (Asbury Park, Allentown, the ECW Arena), but never weekly, and never off of a single episode of tv. It would be nice if I could find hard numbers to support it, but the commonly accepted view is that Buddy did great business across the territory during his hot period. This is a view that Meltzer, Farmer and others who would know clearly accept as fact. H. Portland was a territory with history going back to the 20's and ran through until the early 90's. Being the biggest draw and anchor of that promotion is more significant than being the biggest draw or anchor of a promotion that lasted about as long as Buddy's entire peak run in Portland did. Looking at those raw facts the comp to ECW doesn't really work. But having said that, here is a fun thought experiment. Imagine ECW had a wrestling history going back to the 1920's. Imagine Shane Douglas comes in and after a few months was elevated to the top spot and by the middle of 94 is doing great business. Imagine Douglas works with a lot of also rans and up and comers always in 2/3 fall matches and always of good-to-great quality. Imagine many of them got over huge and were grabbed up by other promoters. Imagine many of them regarded Douglas as one of the best of all time and used him as a reference point when teaching young talent. Imagine that ECW ran a weekly loop, two ECW Arena shows a week, and did sellouts or near sellouts everywhere. Imagine Douglas quickly becomes the biggest draw in the history of the territory. Imagine ECW was raking in payoffs to the point where Douglas didn't want to leave because he could make more and spend less working for Paul Heyman (lol) than he could anywhere else. Imagine Douglas was loaned out to SMW and spiked business becoming Cornette's biggest draw (before ultimately putting Corny out of business after a wild in ring shoot promo ). Imagine Douglas was loaned out to Vince to work against Bret or Shawn and while the business didn't do as well as hoped it produced great matches. Imagine ECW was one of the hottest shows on tv during this period, drawing huge ratings in Philly and the other towns around the loop. Imagine this period lasted until 02 and by the end of the run ECW was running super shows in 10k plus buildings on occasion and drawing by far and away the biggest attendance figures and gates in the companies history with Douglas still hands down the biggest star in the territory. Imagine a lot of footage from the run wasn't originally available, but Douglas reputation was always as a great in ring talent, then years later when a Target LP guy shows up at his house he uncovers boxes of footage Douglas had taped himself. Imagine it became widely available and a consensus among those who watch the footage starts to form. Imagine that the consensus was that Douglas was arguably the best worker in the World for this cumulative run and also arguably the best worker in the World for several individual years during this run. Imagine Douglas left in 02 and moved to Memphis to form a tag team with Cody Michaels. Imagine they had a critically acclaimed series of matches with CM Punk and Colt Cabana though the promotion was on it's dying days and the bouts didn't do much business because nothing really was at the time. Imagine that upon his departure, ECW quickly started losing steam and became nearly irrelevant. Imagine he returned a few years later, fat and on drugs, still a good worker but to a territory that really didn't matter anymore - largely because there had been no one to fill his enormous shoes when he left. Now that's not really a fair comparison even then. For example Rose drew better figures in San Fran, than SMW ever drew do to building size IIRC. Still the point is does anyone doubt that Douglas would be considered a strong contender by Dave and co. if all of the above were true? I don't.

74 (incomplete) 1/5/74 St Paul, MN AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Red Bastien Mad Dog Vachon no contest Superstar Billy Graham Buddy Wolff beat Ken Patera Chris Taylor beat Redbeard Munson Reggie Parks drew Tony Rocco Greg Gagne beat Paul Perschmann First result of 74, besides he tv show from earlier in the day. 1/6/74 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Red Bastien 2/3 in 27:31 Billy Graham beat Ken Patera via pin in 18:53 Larry Heiniemi beat Tony Rocco via pin in 16:51 Reggie Parks beat Rene Goulet via pin in 16:17 att: 3,668 This is not a good number for Green Bay really. They carry on with the Graham feud around the horn. 1/18/74 Chicago, IL @ International Amphitheatre Ken Patera & Superstar Billy Graham were co-winners of the two ring $50,000 battle royal Chris Taylor beat Mad Dog Vachon dq Nick Bockwinkel drew Red Bastien Pepper Gomez drew Jimmy Valiant Bob Ellis no contest Ivan Koloff Ken Patera beat Rene Goulet Sailor Art Thomas drew Tony Romano Baron Von Raschke beat Billy Red Cloud Larry Heiniemi beat Bull Bullinski Sounds like the battle royal was built around Patera v. Graham at least once the bell rang. Would be interesting to see the footage from this period in complete though I don't think anything close to that exists. 1/19/74 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium 1 Fall, No Disqualification Crusher & Mad Dog Vachon beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens when Crusher pinned Bockwinkel in 16:20 Title did not change hands because Crusher did not pin the legal man in the ring Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera via pin Chris Taylor beat Moose Morowski by submission Greg Gagne beat Paul Perschmann via pin Geoff Portz drew Ric Flair att: 6,112 sellout Milwaukee is still ablaze for The Crusher. Graham v. Patera is something the company has no worries about running into the ground which suggests it was still getting good heat. 1/27/74 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Crusher must beat Stevens in 15 minutes or forfeit $5,000 The Crusher drew Ray Stevens 15:00 Ken Patera & Chris Taylor beat Larry Heiniemi & Buddy Wolff 2/3 Wahoo McDaniel beat Moose Morowski via pin Superstar Billy Graham beat Bull Bullinski via pin Geoff Portz beat Tony Rocco Bill Crouch beat Tom DeMarco Patera teaming with Chris Taylor seems like a Verne "legit athlete" fetish wet dream. 2/2/74 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium The Crusher & Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham & Larry Heiniemi on a 3rd fall dq in 21:12 Billy Robinson beat Ray Stevens via pin Buddy Wolff beat Wahoo McDaniel dq Chris Taylor beat Bob Remus via pin Greg Gagne drew Tony Rocco att: 6,045 Patera gets to headline in Milwaukee with The Crusher which was a big deal. They do slightly less than a sellout. 2/8/74 Chicago, IL @ International Amphitheatre Arm Wrestling Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham dq AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Red Bastien Baron Von Raschke beat Wilbur Snyder dq Chris Taylor no contest Jimmy Valiant Bob Ellis no contest Horst Hoffman Pepper Gomez beat Tony Romano Greg Gagne beat Paul Perschmann I love the fact that this headlined in Chicago as an arm wrestling match. 2/23/74 Sheboygan, WI @ Municipal Armory Billy Robinson & Ken Patera beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens on a 2nd fall dq Baron Von Raschke beat Red Bastien via pin in 14:02 Horst Hoffman beat Tony Rocco by submission with a claw hold Geoff Portz beat Bob Remus via pin in 15:22 att: 2,238 This would have been a neat main event. 2/28/74 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena Billy Graham beat Mad Dog Vachon dq at 11:37 when Vachon knocked down the referee Baron Von Raschke & Horst Hoffman beat Ken Patera & Chris Taylor 2/3 1. Hoffman pinned Patera 2. Patera beat Hoffman 3. Von Raschke pinned Patera Buddy Wolff beat Red Bastien via pin in 19:00 Ricky Romero beat Ric Flair (sub Rene Goulet) via pin at 6:02 after a drop kick Greg Gagne beat Bob Remus via pin at 17:57 after a drop kick att: 3,818 Patera was pretty consistently in semi-mains or mains during this run. This is notable as an oddball tag. You also start to get the feeling that Verne really wants Taylor to be a bigger star than he could ever be and may be trying to launch him into Patera's spot. 3/1/74 Cheyenne. WY Billy Graham beat Ken Patera Red Bastien & Greg Gagne beat Baron Von Raschke & Horst Hoffman Chris Taylor beat Buddy Wolff Ric Flair drew Bob Remus I love the randomness of a Cheyenne spot show with Flair v. Sgt. Slaughter underneath Buddy Wolf and Chris Taylor 3/14/74 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Nick Bockwinkel beat the Crusher Larry Heiniemi & Buddy Wolff beat Ken Patera & Wahoo McDaniel Ray Stevens beat Red Bastien Baron Von Raschke beat Geoff Portz Horst Hoffman beat Jim Brunzell Moose Morowski drew Rene Goulet Att: 4,000 This isn't much for Winnipeg. 3/27/74 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Center Billy Robinson beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne Crusher & Ken Patera beat Larry Heiniemi & Billy Graham Ripper Collins drew Ed Francis Sam Steamboat beat Len Shelly dq Neff Maiava beat Tony Borne Oddjob Tosh Togo Sakata beat Peace Brother I Another big Hawaii show. 3/30/74 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium Wahoo McDaniel beat Larry Heiniemi dq Baron Von Raschke & Horst Hoffman beat Ken Patera & Chris Taylor Buddy Wolff beat Sailor Art Thomas Ivan Putski beat Moose Morowski Sgt Jacques Goulet beat Paul Perschmann att: 5,853 Patera has missed a lot of shows during this period. I wonder if he was working elsewhere? Anyhow this is a good number for Milwaukee, especially without The Crusher. 4/4/74 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena No dq Match AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat The Crusher & Mad Dog Vachon when Bockwinkel pinned Vachon after hitting Mad Dog with brass knuckles Billy Graham beat Red Bastien Billy Robinson beat Baron Von Raschke dq when Raschke refused to obey the referee’s oeders to beak the hold from outide the ring Superstar Billy Graham beat Red Bastien in 18:00 Horst Hoffman beat Ken Patera Geoff Portz drew Greg Gagne 15:00 Ivan Putski beat Moose Morowski in 11:30 att: 6,200 4/7/74 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Billy Robinson beat Nick Bockwinkel Cage match The Crusher & Mad Dog Vachon beat Superstar Billy Graham & Larry Heiniemi 12:00 Baron Von Raschke beat Ken Patera Ivan Putski beat Rene Goulet Vivian Vachon beat Princess Jasmine Geoff Portz beat Prince Pullins Patera is falling down the cards a bit and working singles against his tag team opponents. 4/13/74 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Indian Strap Match Wahoo McDaniel beat Larry Heiniemi Nick Bockwinkel & Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera & Dusty Rhodes Buddy Wolff beat Ric Flair Handicap Match Ivan Putski beat Raoul Guzman & Pancho Vazquez Greg Gagne beat Rocky Montero Paul Perschmann beat Tom DeMarco att: 8,500 Really good number for Twin Cities or the territory in general at this point. Top two matches both look like huge deals. It's speculative, but I'm not sure I buy The lars v. Wahoo as the top draw on this show though I don't know the build to the Strap Match from tv. 4/20/74 St Paul, MN @ Auditorium Arm wrestling, referee George Gadaski Ivan Putski no contest Superstar Billy Graham Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz beat Baron Von Raschke & Horst Hoffman Nick Bockwinkel beat Ken Patera Greg Gagne beat Rene Goulet Bull Bullinski beat Dave Muir via pin att: 3,919 Putski is now working the arm wrestling gimmick. Getting paired off v. Bock on a Twin City card is hardly a demotion but it wasn't positioned strongly (or doesn't appear to be). This number is actually not bad coming a week after such a huge show. 5/3/74 Houston, TX @ Sam Houston Coliseum Superstar Billy Graham beat Jose Lothario 2/3 Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat AWA Tag Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens dq Ivan Putski vs Great Mephisto This is the first note I have of Patera working a Boesch show and it's in a good position to say the least. Patera is not working Verne's loop at all at this point. Looks to have been working Texas. 5/20/74 Fort Worth, TX Ciclon Negro vs Bob Roop Ken Patera & Bob Orton Jr. vs AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens Fritz Von Erich vs Blackjack Lanza Jose Lothario vs Roger Kirby Gran Markus vs Pierre Martin 5/23/74 Corpus Christi, TX @ Memorial Coliseum International Champion Ciclon Negro vs El Solitario AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens vs Red Bastien & Jose Lothario Bob Roop vs Ken Patera Blackjack Lanza vs Bob Orton Jr Gran Markus vs The Texan 5/24/74 Houston, TX @ Sam Houston Coliseum NWA Champion Jack Brisco vs Mil Mascaras 2/3 AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens vs Gran Markus & El Solitario International Champion Ciclon Negro vs Jose Lothario 2/3 Ken Patera vs Blackjack Lanza Red Bastien drew Bob Roop Bob Roop vs Pierre Martin 6/15/74 Milwaukee, WI @ Arena The Crusher & Baron Von Raschke were co-winners of a two ring 24 man $50,000 battle royal Nick Bockwinkel drew Wahoo McDaniel Baron Von Raschke beat Frank Nixon Superstar Billy Graham beat Oddjob via pin Larry Hennig beat Bull Bullinski via pin Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Blackjack Lanza & Paul Perschmann also in Battle Royal: Geoff Portz, Ray Stevens, Horst Hoffman, Andre Rousimoff, Larry Heiniemi, Chris Taylor, Buddy Wolff, Billy Robinson, Ivan Putski, Moose Cholak, Ken Patera. att: 10,550 Patera returns to work a big battle royal show in Milwaukee that does a huge number though he didn't have shit to do with it. This was his last AWA appearance for quite a while. Meanwhile more stuff I've found from the great state of Texas: http://www.legacyofwrestling.com/Dallas74.html http://www.worldclasswrestling.info/results/1974res.htm Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, April 16, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … Fritz Von Erich b. The Masked Texan to regain the American Heavyweight Title (2/3) … Bob Orton and Ken Patera (local debut) b. Stan Hansen and Roger Kirby … Joe Blanchard b. Doug Somers … Black Angus b. Mike Paidousis … Jack Lanza and Bob Roop drew … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) Note: Von Erich lost the American Title to the Texan “three weeks ago” in a “disputed bout.” Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, April 23, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … Blackjack Mulligan b. Red Bastien (DQ) … Bob Orton Jr., Bob Roop and Fritz Von Erich b. The Great Mephisto, Roger Kirby and Jack Lanza … Ken Patera b. Jerry Timmins … Doug Somers b. Pancho Lopez … Roger Kirby and Bob Orton Jr. drew … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) 4/29/74 Fort Worth Bob Roop beat Frank Goodish (Bruiser Brody, debut), lights out match Blackjack Mulligan beat Black Angus Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat Roger Kirby & Blackjack Lanza Great Mephisto drew Jose Lothario Bob Roop beat Doug Somers Bob Orton Jr beat Pierre Martin Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, April 30, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … The Great Mephisto and Blackjack Mulligan b. Black Angus and Bob Roop … Red Bastien and Jack Lanza wrestled to a double countout … Ken Patera b. Pierre Martin … Jose Lothario and Bob Orton drew … Roger Kirby b. Doug Somers … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, May 7, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … Jack Lanza b. Black Angus … Red Bastien and Bob Roop b. Blackjack Mulligan and Roger Kirby (2/3) … Ken Patera b. Joe Blanchard … Pierre Martin b. Pancho Lopez … Bob Orton Jr. b. Doug Somers … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, May 14, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco b. Jack Lanza (2/3) (third fall by DQ) … Gran Marcus b. Roger Kirby … Red Bastien and Bob Orton Jr. b. Joe Blanchard and Roger Kirby (Kirby was a substitute for The Great Mephisto, who was injured) … Ken Patera and Bob Roop drew … Pierre Martin b. Doug Somers … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) 5/20/74 Fort Worth (no results available) Ciclon Negro vs Bob Roop, International title Ken Patera & Bob Orton Jr. vs Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkle Fritz Von Erich vs Blackjack Lanza Jose Lothario vs Roger Kirby El Gran Markus vs Pierre Martin Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, May 21, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … Jack Lanza and The Masked Texan b. Red Bastien and Ken Patera (Texan was a substitute for Blackjack Mulligan) … Gran Marcus b. Cyclone Negro … Bob Roop b. Frank Goodish … The Great Mephisto b. Bob Orton … Roger Kirby b. Pierre Martin … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) Dallas, Texas: Tuesday, May 28, 1974 (The Sportatorium) … Red Bastien b. The Great Mephisto to capture the Texas State Heavyweight Title … Jack Lanza and The Masked Texan b. Gran Marcus and Bob Roop … Bob Orton b. Pedro Lopez … Ken Patera b. Roger Kirby … Tio Tio b. Paul Pershman … (promoter: Jack Adkisson) Pretty broad range of stuff in this first wave as Patera is all over the cards. The match Stevens/Bock with Orton as a partner sounds incredible on paper. 6/17/74 Fort Worth Either this show or the 6/24 show was the first Fort Worth card taped in color by KTVT for the newly-retitled Saturday Night Wrestling, which had previously aired in black-and-white as Main Event Wrestling. Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat Blackjack Mulligan & The Texan Jose Lothario drew Blackjack Lanza El Gran Markus drew Frenchy LaSalle Tio Tio beat Joe Cassidy Joe Blanchard beat Inca Peru 6/18/74 Dallas Red Bastien beat The Texan Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham, weightlifting Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan beat El Gran Markus & Jose Lothario Tio Tio drew Joe Blanchard Frenchy LaSalle beat Inca Peru 6/24/74 Fort Worth Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan Jose Lothario beat Frenchy LaSalle Terry Funk drew Tio Tio Kung Fu beat El Gran Markus Inca Peru beat Joe Cassidy Patera in main events here and they bring the Graham show on the road from the AWA. 7/1/74 Fort Worth Blackjack Lanza & Kung Fu beat Red Bastien & Ivan Putski Blackjack Mulligan drew Jose Lothario Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham, weightlifting Terry Funk beat El Gran Markus Frenchy LaSalle beat Inca Peru 7/2/74 Dallas Red Bastien & Andre the Giant beat Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan Kung Fu beat Ivan Putski DQ Ken Patera beat Frank Valois Jose Lothario beat Frenchy LaSalle Tio Tio beat Inca Peru 7/8/74 Fort Worth Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat Blackjack Mulligan & Kung Fu El Gran Markus beat Jose Lothario Golden Hawk beat Frenchy LaSalle Kung Fu drew Red Bastien Tio Tio beat Inca Peru 7/9/74 Dallas Blackjack Lanza beat Johnny Valentine Red Bastien beat Blackjack Mulligan DQ Jose Lothario drew Kung Fu Ken Patera beat Frenchy LaSalle & Inca Peru, handicap match El Gran Markus beat Tio Tio 7/15/74 Fort Worth Kung Fu won battle royal Red Bastien beat Frenchy LaSalle Kung Fu drew El Gran Markus Ken Patera drew Blackjack Mulligan Blackjack Lanza beat Tio Tio Golden Hawk beat Inca Peru 7/16/74 Dallas (Memorial Auditorium) Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera, special referee Bull Curry Red Bastien beat Terry Funk, Russian chain match Blackjack Lanza beat Ivan Putski Blackjack Mulligan beat Frenchy LaSalle Kung Fu beat Tio Tio El Gran Markus drew Golden Hawk 7/22/74 Fort Worth Tex McKenzie & Ken Patera beat Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan to win American Tag titles Jose Lothario beat Kung Fu Tex McKenzie beat Bobby Heenan El Gran Markus beat Frenchy LaSalle Golden Hawk beat Inca Peru 7/23/74 Dallas Blackjack Lanza beat Fritz Von Erich, "riot match" (falls count anywhere), two referees Blackjack Mulligan beat Frenchy LaSalle & Inca Peru, handicap match Tex McKenzie (sub for Red Bastien) & Jose Lothario beat El Gran Markus & Kung Fu Ken Patera beat Bobby Heenan Golden Hawk beat Pancho Lopez 7/29/74 Fort Worth Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan beat Red Bastien & Fritz Von Erich Ken Patera beat Kung Fu Tex McKenzie beat Bobby Garcia Scott Casey beat Inca Peru Joe Blanchard beat Golden Hawk 7/30/74 Dallas Blackjack Mulligan DDQ Ken Patera, lumberjack match Red Bastien beat Kung Fu Tex McKenzie & Scott Casey beat Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Garcia Joe Blanchard beat Inca Peru El Gran Markus beat Golden Hawk This deserves to be looked at in bulk as you have a strange run. They seem to establish Patera some by drawing out the Graham program over the course of several weeks. They also set up a Blackjacks feud during all this. Patera wins his first regional title here and it's also worth noting that he worked his future manager/rival Bobby Heenan on a rare undercard appearance here. Just a really interesting run to look at. Red Bastien beat Blackjack Mulligan DQ Ken Patera beat Blackjack Lanza Tex McKenzie drew Kung Fu Scott Casey beat Bobby Garcia El Gran Markus beat Golden Hawk Still at war with the Blackjacks. 8/12/74 Fort Worth Kung Fu beat Red Bastien, judo jacket match Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera Tex McKenzie & Jose Lothario drew Blackjack Mulligan & El Gran Markus Bobby Garcia beat Golden Hawk Scott Casey beat Joe Blanchard And evidently still Billy Graham too. After this Patera seems to slide down the card some and it's strange that I see no title defenses with Tex during this stretch, though they lost the belts somewhere along the way. Patera stays down the card for big parts of Sept. including a couple of matches way down the card v. Mosca near the end of the month. 10/8/74 Dallas Fritz Von Erich beat Blackjack Mulligan, cage match, no referee Blackjack Lanza & Angelo Mosca beat Red Bastien & Ken Patera Tex McKenzie drew Black Gordman Scott Casey beat Joe Blanchard Bearcat Brown beat El Gran Markus DQ This is the last Patera match I have from TX in 74. http://www.georgiawrestlinghistory.com/car...70s/1974-4.html Not going to CandP these because of the formatting, but he finished the year up in GA. First month or so was nothing of note working way down the card. He finishes up the year in a feud with the Assassin and brushes up against some other guys of note here or there. 74 was not as interesting a year as 73. The Graham feud carried over and carried over strong but Verne seems lost about how to use him after that even though he stays in something of a feature role. Texas figures are similar as he seemed to get a main event rub, got his first title win and feuded with some names but slipped into mid-card status by the end of the run. Georgia he started at the bottom and appeared to be creeping into a solid mid-card position toward the tail end of the year.

Results thanks to Clawmaster http://sportsandwrestling.mywowbb.com/forum2/10387-2.html Late 72-73 12/10/72 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Superstar Billy Graham beat Wahoo McDaniel dq when Wahoo hit Graham over the head with a chair Dusty Rhodes beat Don Muraco dq 10:21 Ivan Koloff beat Lani Kealoha via pin in 10:27 Ken Patera beat Rene Goulet via pin in 7:09 George Scott beat George Gadaski via pin in 12:22 Farmer Pete & Cowboy Lang beat Little Tokyo & Billy The Kid First date I have for Patera. Notable quirk is that Flair worked the tiny spot show the same day. This would launch a brief run v. Goulet in mid-cards with Patera getting what looks like the early end of the "Rheingans push." 12/13/72 Fargo, ND @ Civic Auditorium Ken Patera beat Larry Hennig dq Lani Kealoha beat Dick Murdoch Rene Goulet beat Ric Flair Technically his first "headline" match though it obviously is just a spot show. Patera disappears for a couple of months and essentially re-debuts in Feb. of 73. 2/20/73 Fargo, ND @ Civic Auditorium Don Muraco & Ken Patera & Billy Robinson beat Larry Hennig & Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch Reggie Parks (sub Wahoo McDaniel) beat Rene Goulet Billy Robinson beat Dusty Rhodes Jim Brunzell beat Johnny Heidman (sub Tinker Todd) Interesting that he always seems to headline in Fargo. 3/4/73 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Superstar Billy Graham beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne dq when Gagne tossed Graham over the top rope in 22:02 Wahoo McDaniel & Ken Patera beat Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch 2/3 Larry Hennig drew Reggie Parks Don Muraco beat Rene Goulet via pin Jose Carlos beat Armando Rodriguez via pin Att: Record Turnaway Crowd – 6,428 First really meaningful result. Less than six months into his career Patera teams with Wahoo against The Texas Outlaws in the semi-main underneath a Verne v. Superstar match that was obviously Gold at the Box office drawing what would be the biggest figure in Green Bay history up until the Sheiks v. High Flyers feud IIRC. 3/15/73 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Superstar Graham & Ivan Koloff beat Billy Robinson & Wahoo McDaniel Ray Stevens beat Don Muraco COR Dusty Rhodes beat Ken Patera dq Dick Murdoch beat Vic Rossitani Reggie Parks beat Jim Brunzell Rene Goulet beat Ric Flair Att: 6,000 Patera really did not work a complete schedule relative to other guys. This is an interesting result and something that would have been an interesting match to see at the time. 3/18/73 Sheboygan, WI @ Municipal Armory AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Wahoo McDaniel & Ken Patera 2/3 in 30:00 1. Wahoo was pinned 2. Wahoo pinned Stevens after a series of tomahawk chops 3. Bockwinkel beat Patera Don Muraco beat Ivan Koloff dq Ric Flair beat Big K Khosrow Vaziri drew George Gadaski Att: ”just under 3,200” I would imagine this was a good figure for a house show. 4/1/73 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Billy Robinson beat Superstar Graham dq at the 11:25 mark when Graham would not stop using rough tactics at the referee's count of five Nick Bockwinkel beat Don Muraco by submission in 29:38 Ivan Koloff drew Ken Patera 20:00 Arm Wrestling Superstar Graham beat Ken Patera Horst Hoffman beat Rene Goulet via pin at 11:18 Reggie Parks beat Vic Rossitanni by submission in 13:35 att: 6,189 Really unique to see a rookie working an arm wrestling gimmick against the drawing card of the show and then turning around and working a twenty minute draw v. Uncle Ivan. I was not expecting to see Patera as anything more than a utility player at this point and while I don't want to overstate his worth during this period, he was clearly being groomed and was treated as more than just fodder. 4/18/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena Wahoo McDaniel beat Superstar Billy Graham COR when Graham walked out on the match after taking a severe beating Ken Patera beat Dusty Rhodes COR when Rhodes ran out of the ring Ed Francis drew Sam Steamboat Ray Stevens drew Don Muraco Tony Borne beat Jimmy Snuka dq Neff Maiava beat Wild Bill Howard Sandy Parker beat Bambi Ball Patera seemed to make all the Hawaii shows which I assume were joint promoted with Verne. 4/25/73 Fargo, ND @ Civic Auditorium No Time Limit, No dq Match Superstar Billy Graham beat Wahoo McDaniel via pin Winner gets Tag Title shot against Bockwinkel & Stevens Ken Patera & Don Muraco beat Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch European Rules Geoff Portz drew Horst Hoffman after 4 rounds Reggie Parks beat Larry Hennig dq Really wonder what capacity was in Fargo. Those top two matches seem like they would have sold really well on the strength of the stips alone. 4/29/73 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens drew Billy Robinson & Wahoo McDaniel 60:00 Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera via pin at 9:30 5 Round European Style Match Horst Hoffman drew Geoff Portz Rene Goulet beat Jim Brunzell via pin in 12:06 att: 5,211 Patera wrestling Graham in Green Bay on the heels of Green Bay doing huge business with Graham on top. Attendance is down, but still fairly sharp. Main event must have been incredible. 5/11/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena Non Title Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens Arm Wrestling Superstar Billy Graham vs Ken Patera Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera via pin European Style Match Horst Hoffman beat Geoff Portz Rene Goulet (sub Larry Hennig) beat Jim Brunzell Double duty v. Graham working underneath what would have seemingly been a very strong drawing tag match. 5/14/73 Moline, IL @ Wharton Field House Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Robinson & Ken Patera beat Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens & Superstar Billy Graham Horst Hoffman drew Ric Flair Geoff Portz beat Greg Gagne Lord Littlebrook beat Wee Willie Wilson 5/16/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena Indian Death Match Wahoo McDaniel beat Billy Graham North American Champion Dusty Rhodes beat Billy Robinson dq Ivan Koloff ddq Ken Patera Sam Steamboat & Jimmy Snuka beat Mad Dog Vachon (sub Tarzan Tyler) & Lars Anderson Ed Francis beat Bob Ramstead Neff Maiava beat The Masked Man 5/17/73 Duluth, MN @ Arena Billy Robinson & Ken Patera beat Nick Bockwinkel & Rene Goulet (sub Ray Stevens) European Rules Match Horst Hoffman drew Geoff Portz Lord Littlebrook & Wee Willie Wilson beat Little Tokyo & Frenchy Lamont Rene Goulet beat Vic Rossitani 5/18/73 Decatur, IL Don Muraco & Ken Patera vs Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch The Crusher vs Ray Stevens Rene Goulet vs Vic Rossitani Jim Brunzell vs Geoff Portz Interesting and insane run as Illinois to Hawaii, to Minnesota to Illinois is just nuts. Even though these are just spot shows this is also notable because excluding the Hawaii show, this is the first sustained run of main events Patera has to his credit. 5/23/73 Fargo, ND @ Civic Auditorium AWA Tag Team Champions Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel beat Ken Patera & Billy Robinson Billy Graham beat Horst Hoffman Lord Littlebrook & Wee Willie Wilson beat Frenchy Lamont & Little Tokyo Geoff Portz beat Rene Goulet (sub Dick Murdoch) Greg Gagne vs Kenny Jay And another one in a small market a few days later. 6/2/73 Omaha, NE @ Civic Auditorium Superstar Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera & Reggie Parks on a 3rd fall dq Buddy Wolff beat Pat O'Connor Arm Wrestling Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera Joe Scarpello beat Rene Goulet Geoff Portz beat Bill Crouch (sub Lars Anderson) via pin On paper this feels like his biggest show to date. Underneath he has the arm wrestling match with Graham and then main events in a tag in a city that I THINK was pretty decent for them at the time. 6/6/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena Ed Francis beat Sam Steamboat 2/3 to win Hawaiian Title Billy Robinson beat Dusty Rhodes 2-0 to win North American title Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera & Don Carson 2/3 Neff Maiava beat Frankie Castro Jimmy Snuka drew Tony Borne The Alaskan vs Jack Bence Primarily noting this because it seems like a really insane card. 6/15/73 Peoria, IL @ Richwoods High School Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff vs Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Robinson Ken Patera vs Nick Bockwinkel Geoff Portz vs Rene Goulet Greg Gagne vs Reg Parks Kind of funny to think the first singles match these guys had was on a house show at a high school. 6/30/73 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Billy Robinson Superstar Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera & Bill Watts Larry Heiniemi drew Geoff Portz Bob Bruggers beat Rene Goulet Jim Brunzell beat George Grant Greg Gagne beat Bill Crouch This is one of those occasions where I would love to know the back story as Patera/Watts v. Ivan/Superstar is such an epic/bizarre match on paper. He has a series of mid-card match ups with Ivan Koloff in July on decent drawing shows building to 7/7/73 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center Nick Bockwinkel beat Ken Patera The Crusher beat Ivan Koloff Reggie Parks beat Larry Heiniemi dq Bob Bruggers drew Joe Scarpello Billy Red Cloud beat Joe Guzman This is his first Twin City main event. Interesting that they paired Crusher off with Ivan who had been paired with directly underneath. Bock v. Patera really doesn't feel like it would have been a singles headliner in St. Paul in 73, but I'm not so sure it wasn't. 7/13/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena No Time Limit The Crusher beat Superstar Billy Graham dq in 11:02 when Ivan Koloff interfered Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera 2/3 1. Koloff beat Patera in 9:57 2. Patera beat Koloff in 6:28 3. Koloff beat Patera in 2:42 Ricky Romero beat Roger Kirby 15:59 Reggie Parks beat Rene Goulet via pin with a back cradle hold in 20:39 Greg Gagne drew Bob Bruggers 20:00 att: 5,397 Solid number from Denver, with Koloff and Patera in the strong support role. 7/21/73 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Superstar Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff beat The Crusher & Wahoo McDaniel 2/3 in 31:15 Billy Robinson beat Larry Heiniemi COR 12:15 Nick Bockwinkel beat Reggie Parks via pin in 12:00 Ray Stevens beat Ken Patera via pin in 11:20 Geoff Portz beat Frank Diamond via pin in 7:15 Vic Rossitani beat Farmer Vick via pin in 8:00 Greg Gagne beat Jim Dalton via pin in 11:20 Bob Bruggers beat Jay French via pin in 8:55 att: 4,380 This is a stacked show in up top in hindsight. 7/25/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Superstar Billy Graham on a 3rd fall dq when Graham jumped off the top rope onto Gagne AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Ken Patera & Billy Robinson Ripper Collins & Ed Francis beat Neff Maiava & Sam Steamboat 2/3 to win Hawaiian tag title Hard Boiled Haggerty beat Ric Flair Bill Francis drew Bull Ramos This looks like a really fucking major show for Hawaii. 8/19/73 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Saloon Match The Crusher beat Superstar Billy Graham 17:17 Wahoo McDaniel beat Ivan Koloff via pin in 9:43 Red Bastien & Ken Patera beat Larry Heiniemi & Buddy Wolff on a 3rd fall dq in 28:00 Greg Gagne beat Vic Rositanni via pin at 21:42 att: 6,488 8/22/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena Ken Patera & Billy Robinson beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens on a 3rd fall dq when Bockwinkel hit Patera with a chair WWWF Champion Pedro Morales dcor Ed Francis Betty Niccoli & Ripper Collins beat Jean Antone & Paul Jones Sam Steamboat beat Hard Boiled Haggerty Bill Francis beat Tony Borne dq Hawaii main event may or may not be a big deal but I think it's interesting that they were booked last over Morales v. Francis. Patera/Bastien team is something unimaginable to me for some reason. 8/25/73 St Paul, MN @ Midway Stadium Billy Robinson beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne dq AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat The Crusher & Red Bastien Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera COR Larry Heiniemi drew Reggie Parks Buddy Wolff beat Billy Red Cloud Ivan Koloff beat Bob Bruggers Greg Gagne beat Vic Rossitani dq Att: 10,000 I'm guessing this was something of a "big Summer show" for the AWA. Patera v. Graham is obviously not the main event, but it comes across as a strong compliment to the top of the card match ups. 9/12/73 Honolulu, HI @ HIC Arena The Crusher beat Superstar Billy Graham Ed Francis beat Sam Steamboat to win Hawaiian Title Neff Maiava & Tosh Togo beat Tony Borne & Ripper Collins Nick Bockwinkel beat Ken Patera Ivan Koloff beat Al Madril Billy Francis beat Jack Bence Patera seemed to slip down the cards in Sept even in Hawaii, though that is a match that would have been fresh to Hawaii. 9/21/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena Ken Patera won a 12 man battle royal by eliminating Nick Bockwinkel & Superstar Billy Graham to earn $20,000 Billy Robinson beat Ray Stevens COR 11:10 Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera 9:22 Red Bastien beat Nick Bockwinkel 9:07 via pin Ricky Romero beat Ric Flair 8:50 via pin Geoff Portz drew Buddy Wolff 20:00 att: 7,660 I imagine this was close to a sellout in Denver? Battle Royal did strong as usual in the AWA. 9/22/73 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Pateravia pin in 13:10 after Patera beat Graham by dq in an arm wrestling match Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz beat Larry Hennig & Buddy Wolff 2/3 Nick Bockwinkel beat Red Bastien dq Handicap Match Ivan Koloff beat Bobby Vann via pin in 5:10 and then Raoul Guzman via pin in 12:35 Ric Flair beat Billy Howard 13:20 Att: 3,160 This had to have been a disappointing figure, but it's strange that they rotated him into a top slot for this show at this point in his run. Also strange that they are going back to Graham v. Patera which ran a few other times on this loop. 10/6/73 St Paul, MN AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Red Cloud The Crusher beat Superstar Billy Graham Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera Larry Hennig beat Reggie Parks Geoff Portz drew Buddy Wolff att: 4,589 I wonder if this was a good figure for this building? 10/20/73 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz (sub Red Bastien) beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens 2/3 Since Portz was not originally scheduled to be in the match, no title change occured. Weightlifting Contest Superstar Billy Graham attacked Patera and injured him before the contest Larry Hennig & Buddy Wolff beat Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Red Cloud 2/3 Ivan Koloff beat Reggie Parks via pin Tony Rocco beat Pancho Vasquez via pin Ric Flair beat Red Mendez via pin att: 6,169 Would be interesting to see how heavily this weightlifting contest was advertised. I would guess that would have been heavily hyped. 10/25/73 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena $50,000 Battle Royal Prize Wrestle off Superstar Billy Graham beat the Crusher dq when Crusher rammed Graham into the ring post AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Gene Kiniski & Wahoo McDaniel 2/3 1. Wahoo pinned Stevens 2. Bockwinkel pinned Wahoo 3. Bockwinkel pinned Kiniski Handicap Match Ken Patera beat Bill Kochen & Dave Muir (sub Ivan Koloff) Bobby Jones beat Roddy Piper 10:00 Tony Rocco beat Ric Flair 18:00 Att: 7,200 10/27/73 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium Dick the Bruiser & the Crusher beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens dq Billy Robinson beat Buddy Wolff Mitsu Arakawa beat Ken Patera Ric Flair beat Kenny Jay att: 6,112 sellout Really funny in hindsight how secondary Flair was to Patera having both come out of the same camp. 11/2/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena WWWF Champion Pedro Morales beat Ray Stevens 2/3 The weightlifting contest between Ken Patera & Superstar Billy Graham was cancelled when Patera was injured by Graham before the contest began Their subsequent singles bout was also cancelled Rocky Mountain Champion Ricky Romero beat Nick Bockwinkel Greg Gagne drew Tony Rocco Billy Red Cloud beat Ric Flair (sub Ivan Koloff) att: 5,700 11/3/73 Minneapolis, MN AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera dq Larry Heiniemi drew Reggie Parks Buddy Wolff beat Billy Red Cloud Ric Flair drew Tony Rocco Greg Gagne beat Dave Muir Graham v. Patera still running and from the looks of things is being positioned as a drawing card on the shows. 11/9/73 Decatur, IL @ Kintner Gym Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera dq when Patera tossed Graham over the top rope Geoff Portz beat Johnny Valentine Jr (sub Ivan Koloff) via pin Billy Red Cloud beat Prince Pullins (sub Larry Hennig) via pin Reggie Parks beat Ric Flair att: 1,550 Spot show main event. 11/10/73 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium Nick Bockwinkel drew The Crusher 15:00 Billy Robinson beat Ray Stevens COR Weightlifting Contest Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham by lifting 505 pounds Larry Heiniemi & Buddy Wolff beat Reggie Parks & Tony Rocco 2/3 Greg Gagne beat Rene Goulet 15:45 att: 6,112 Milwaukee was their hottest town at the time largely due to The Crusher being The Crusher. Interesting that they actually went through with the weightlifting challenge here or maybe no "attack" was reported in the results. 11/16/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena Billy Robinson & Ken Patera & Geoff Portz beat Nick Bockwinkel & Larry Heiniemi & Billy Graham 2/3 1. Patera pinned Bockwinkel 2. Bockwinkel beat Portz 3. Robinson beat Heiniemi Ken Patera beat Billy Graham dq in 2:41 when Patera would not stop choking Graham Greg Gagne beat Tony Rocco 21:04 Larry Heiniemi beat Reggie Parks via pin in 15:10 att: 4,778 Note: Ray Stevens no showed and the advertised main event of Stevens & Bockwinkel against Robinson & Portz had to be changed. Patera subbed into the top spot on a show that does okay. 11/30/73 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena No dq Match Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera Billy Robinson beat Ivan Koloff via pin Little Louie & Cowboy Lang beat Johnny Reb & Billy the Kid 2/3 Ricky Romero beat Bill Crouch Geoff Portz beat Tony Rocco att: 5,420 Patera v. Graham is now headlining several shows. This could probably be pointed to as Patera's first real "main event" program where he was positioned against a draw and as a draw. This does a good, but not outstanding number in Denver. 12/1/73 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Nick Bockwinkel via pin in 17:00 The Crusher & Ken Patera beat Superstar Billy Graham & Ivan Koloff 2/3 Billy Robinson beat Ray Stevens 13:45 Buddy Wolff beat Reggie Parks via pin in 14:20 Greg Gagne drew Tony Rocco 15:00 Rene Goulet beat Ric Flair via pin in 9:25 att: 7,777 One of the better Twin City shows of the year, perhaps second only to the outdoor show. This is pretty clearly a double main with Verne v. Bock being the top billing, but the red hot Crusher and the rookie pairing against Graham and Koloff as a very solid support semi-main. 12/7/73 Milwaukee, WI @ Auditorium AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Patera dq Reggie Parks drew Tony Rocco Sailor Art Thomas beat Ken Dillinger Rene Goulet beat Tom Demarco att: 6,084 Milwaukee show without Crusher still does well and Graham and Patera are still rolling in their slot. This continued for all of Dec with some tags w/Crusher v. Graham/Kollof littered throughout. 12/29/73 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Fence Match The Crusher & Mad Dog Vachon beat Superstar Billy Graham & Larry Heiniemi Buddy Wolff beat Ken Patera COR Vivian Vachon beat Princess Jasmine Greg Gagne drew Rene Goulet Ric Flair beat Bull Bullinski via pin Kenny Jay beat Tom Demarco via pin att: sellout 7,986 with over 4,000 turned away This is the last date I have from Patera in 73. Really feels like this was a one match show and Patera just happened to be in the semi-main. Also sucks for Patera that they transitioned from him/Crusher to Mad Dog/Crusher. Over all Patera's first year in the business was far better than I was expecting to find. Not a true main eventer, but positioned as an upper mid-carder for a big portion of the year and put into programs with guys like Koloff and Graham, with the Graham matches clearly positioned as drawing cards. The Hawaii results are interesting too. He wasn't a true big time player, but he was clearly being groomed by Verne to be a big star.

It would be interesting to go back and look at how SD ran throughout the year ratings wise depending on who was on top. I do know that SD has averaged 2.1 with Henry as champ. Shows without Henry as champ average a 1.9. That is not as negligible as it sounds

Honestly there are a shitload of awesome Buddy maches. I like him a lot in all The Rockers tags from 86. The Martel matches in 80 are great. I love the Hennig matches in 83. Really fucking love his stuff with Mando from San Fran. Awesome match with Chris Adams from Portland TV. Fuck just buy Will's Set, there are tons of awesome Buddy matches.

I am really pissed I didn't think of this

What's this in reference to? Buddy's San Fran run with Shire. He pretty much killed the territory at the end of his run, by running out one night and cutting a shoot promo mid ring about what a piece of shit Shire was.

Do you think Buddy should get in just for work? I think he has a better case than some of the "work" candidates like Hase and Saito (and of course Angle but that's a losing argument with the WON crowd). It also seems indisputable that he was the longtime centerpiece of a successful territorial promotion. But as you say, the numbers might not be there to make that argument as strong as it could be. I think of him as Lawler with 1/3 as long a career, but again, I'm not sure that's a winning POV given the voting base. Buddy is a better "work" candidate than most though I personally wouldn't vote for anyone solely on work (that I can think of anyhow). Having said that - and I've beaten this point into the ground by now - I think from the cumulative period from 77-84 he was the best wrestler in the World based on the footage we have. There are really only a small number of guys that I can even see in the debate with him (Lawler, Fujinami, possibly Terry Funk, maybe Jumbo in the eyes of some, sure Flair would get default votes) and I think they all had advantages Buddy didn't have. There are two things that hurt Buddy. The first is that so little of Portland has been seen and a lot of the voters are probably among the least likely people to go back and rewatch it. Loss made the point about HoF guys who are in on work being primarily in on reputation of being good workers and he is basically right. Buddy ALWAYS had that rep, but I think it's hard to contextualize that if you don't actually watch the footage (or didn't see it at the time). I've run into the same issue with Blackwell over at Classics as people have turned themselves into pretzels trying to shoot holes in his candidacy based on statements a simple review of the facts I have compiled would easily refute. The second problem is the Portland business model. Because Portland didn't run big arenas hardly ever it is going to be a hard sell to certain folks that Buddy was a draw. The fact that Dave himself regards Buddy as the biggest draw in Portland wrestling history and correctly noted that Buddy was the last real draw in San Francisco for Shire is something that means less to a lot of people than it should. I have seen some people suggest that Buddy basically anchored the equivalent of ECW, but that's not really a fair comparison for a variety of reasons: A. Portland Sports Arena was owned by Don Owen which meant 100 % of profits off ticket sales and concessions and no rental cost/security cost/et. Also unlike with ECW, the Portland Sports Arena didn't run once every three weeks - it ran at least once a week, often twice a week. Also, I THINK the capacity was higher than the ECW Arena (though not by much). Either way it was consistently a sell out during Rose's peak run and Owen not running bigger buildings had more to do with raw economics/bottom line than it did with fear of failure at the gate. B. By all accounts Portland got far better tv ratings than ECW ever did, even after they'd been moved into a later time slot (do to violence issues IIRC). C. Portland matches were 2/3 Falls. That may seem irrelevant but I don't think it was as the tv was formatted around this and it also meant that more pressure was on the good hands (i.e. Buddy) to keep things logical, fresh, exciting, et. D. Don Owen did occasionally run bigger venues (the anniversary shows, Piper/Buddy feud matches) and they always drew big houses for the area and big gates. E. The Pacific Northwest of that period was much less interconnected than the Northeast corridor where ECW ran - and MUCH less populated (especially at that time). F. Portland was a profitable territory, to the point where Don Owen was regarded as one of the two or three fairest payoff guys in the business (note that "fair" and "most money" are obviously not the same thing) and was still one of the richest men in the State of Oregon. Yes he made most of his money elsewhere, but the point is that by all accounts the Pacific Northwest wrestling territory was not a "money mark" promotion for Don, but a way to make even more money and he succeeded in that goal. I'm not sure ECW was ever a profitable wrestling business. G. Portland ran a real, weekly loop. ECW had venues they ran consistently (Asbury Park, Allentown, the ECW Arena), but never weekly, and never off of a single episode of tv. It would be nice if I could find hard numbers to support it, but the commonly accepted view is that Buddy did great business across the territory during his hot period. This is a view that Meltzer, Farmer and others who would know clearly accept as fact. H. Portland was a territory with history going back to the 20's and ran through until the early 90's. Being the biggest draw and anchor of that promotion is more significant than being the biggest draw or anchor of a promotion that lasted about as long as Buddy's entire peak run in Portland did. Looking at those raw facts the comp to ECW doesn't really work. But having said that, here is a fun thought experiment. Imagine ECW had a wrestling history going back to the 1920's. Imagine Shane Douglas comes in and after a few months was elevated to the top spot and by the middle of 94 is doing great business. Imagine Douglas works with a lot of also rans and up and comers always in 2/3 fall matches and always of good-to-great quality. Imagine many of them got over huge and were grabbed up by other promoters. Imagine many of them regarded Douglas as one of the best of all time and used him as a reference point when teaching young talent. Imagine that ECW ran a weekly loop, two ECW Arena shows a week, and did sellouts or near sellouts everywhere. Imagine Douglas quickly becomes the biggest draw in the history of the territory. Imagine ECW was raking in payoffs to the point where Douglas didn't want to leave because he could make more and spend less working for Paul Heyman (lol) than he could anywhere else. Imagine Douglas was loaned out to SMW and spiked business becoming Cornette's biggest draw (before ultimately putting Corny out of business after a wild in ring shoot promo ). Imagine Douglas was loaned out to Vince to work against Bret or Shawn and while the business didn't do as well as hoped it produced great matches. Imagine ECW was one of the hottest shows on tv during this period, drawing huge ratings in Philly and the other towns around the loop. Imagine this period lasted until 02 and by the end of the run ECW was running super shows in 10k plus buildings on occasion and drawing by far and away the biggest attendance figures and gates in the companies history with Douglas still hands down the biggest star in the territory. Imagine a lot of footage from the run wasn't originally available, but Douglas reputation was always as a great in ring talent, then years later when a Target LP guy shows up at his house he uncovers boxes of footage Douglas had taped himself. Imagine it became widely available and a consensus among those who watch the footage starts to form. Imagine that the consensus was that Douglas was arguably the best worker in the World for this cumulative run and also arguably the best worker in the World for several individual years during this run. Imagine Douglas left in 02 and moved to Memphis to form a tag team with Cody Michaels. Imagine they had a critically acclaimed series of matches with CM Punk and Colt Cabana though the promotion was on it's dying days and the bouts didn't do much business because nothing really was at the time. Imagine that upon his departure, ECW quickly started losing steam and became nearly irrelevant. Imagine he returned a few years later, fat and on drugs, still a good worker but to a territory that really didn't matter anymore - largely because there had been no one to fill his enormous shoes when he left. Now that's not really a fair comparison even then. For example Rose drew better figures in San Fran, than SMW ever drew do to building size IIRC. Still the point is does anyone doubt that Douglas would be considered a strong contender by Dave and co. if all of the above were true? I don't.

Rather than bog this thread down with more Blackwell-like research projects I'm going to start separate threads for guys over the course of the next few months. I'm working on a similar results analysis for Ken Patera right now. I'm going to try and do the same for Buddy as well with him making the ballot, but the lack of Portland attendance figures makes it tough.

I'm going to look at the live attendance figures for SD. Looking at the ratings it's actually pretty amazing how strong the last month has been. They've done 13 shows over a 2.0 all year - three of them in the last four weeks (and the four show was a 1.95 which is above the yearly average). Henry's push really started in July. That's when the trend upward started. What's really crazy is that since Henry won the belt RAW is only averaging around 1.0 better than SD. If you go back and look at the year I don't see a four year period that is anything close to that. Of course there are other factors like MNF, the way the brands have been mixed, et. but he's doing noticeably better on top than Orton was. I wonder how the box office looks

The Fabs will never even be put on the ballot because Lane is already in. I think there is virtually no way Jimmy gets in now unless it's by fiat and I think that highly unlikely.

Is it possible that no one has noticed this before? I mean...he's never even been on the ballot?? Is it possible Dave doesn't think Jimmy belongs? Personally I have a really hard time accepting ANY manager over Jimmy with the exception of Heenan.

Distinct possibility. They are supposed to be looking into it.

Am I missing something or is Jimmy Hart not in the HoF?

I haven't watched all the Maritimes footage I have from that year and I can already hear Will telling me "this isn't making the cut" but if Heel Joey Mags working unknown Southern promotion made the cut I figure it's worth pimping this: International Champion Rip Rogers vs. Big Stephen Pettipas It's on the Maritimes footage I have, which I think Will has. Good match with two of the most well regarded workers from the history of that territory (If talkshoe didn't lose it, both Andrew Lacelle and Dave Musgrave, heavily pimped both guys on the Maritimes show we just did). Only problem is I'm not sure if there is a date available. Musgrave might have it somewhere.