Ken Patera

[Dylan Waco]

Yeah I just meant I was counting those Metro's as one place a piece for the purposes of my sanity.

 

Not sure about Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

 

I'll include Norfolk.

[Dylan Waco]

Looking at this he only nets a few "main events" with the Norfolk inclusion. Raleigh and Winston-Salem (with an 8500 seat arena btw) would really pad the results for Patera and I could see an argument for both, but absent an expert from the region making the argument I think it's best to leave them off for now.

[jdw]

Dylan: include Winston-Salem because it's part of the Greensboro metro.

 

It's akin to this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Beach_Co...tainment_Center

 

WWF @ Long Beach, CA - January 5, 1991 (9,600)

The Barbarian pinned Jim Brunzell

The Big Bossman pinned Bobby Heenan

Sgt. Slaughter pinned Jim Duggan

Demolition defeated the Bushwhackers

Saba Simba pinned Buddy Rose

Roddy Piper defeated WWF IC Champion Mr. Perfect via count-out

WWF World Champion the Ultimate Warrior defeated Randy Savage

 

Long Beach is part of the LA Metro. We just tend to ignore it when looking at LA results because the Sports Arena was fairly regular.

 

There's also this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaheim_Convention_Center

 

WWF @ Anaheim, CA - Convention Center - July 6, 1991 (7,500)

Jimmy Snuka defeated Louie Spicolli

Shawn Michaels fought WWF Tag Team Champion Brian Knobbs to a double disqualification

Ted Dibiase defeated Virgil after Sensational Sherri interfered

The Mountie pinned the Big Bossman after using his shock stick as a weapon

Bret Hart defeated Paul Roma

Bret Hart won a 20-man battle royal by last eliminating Sgt. Slaughter after Hulk Hogan made the save to counter the interference of Gen. Adnan; other participants included WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan, and many others

 

Which we also tend to ignore.

 

Neither were run super regularly, and attendance figures aren't consistently available.

 

But if data is consistently available for Winston-Salem, I'd treat it like Meadowlands and Nassau Coliseum: additional major arenas in one of the territories key metros.

 

Another equiv would be counting both Baltimore and DC/Landover for the WWF. Sort of the same Metro depending on how one looks at it, and both are big arenas.

 

John

[Dylan Waco]

In turn, Patera challenged Baba for the PWF Title, Baba & Jumbo for the Int'l Tag Title, and Inoki for the NWF Title (twice). So he didn't pull an airball in Japan.

 

John

 

John do you have dates/details for any of these matches readily available?

[jdw]

10/24/77 PWF Title: Giant Baba vs Ken Patera (10:29, 5:31, 5:50)

09/30/80 NWF Title: Antonio Inoki vs Ken Patera (14:53)

02/04/81 NWF Title: Antonio Inoki vs Ken Patera (12:37)

 

The 9/80 was Budokan with Backlund-Hansen as the co-main event. It's available.

 

I'll have to look at home to see if I have any info on where the other two matches were. Neither is available on tape as far as I know. I could try to see if Yohe's friend has it (or can track it down), but I don't want to push that one too often.

 

John

[Dylan Waco]

More later but here is a synopsis of Patera's career history challenging for major singles titles.

 

Major/World Title Matches:

 

Patera had six known NWA World Title matches, in four different territories, against four different champions. He challenged Terry Funk in Tulsa, Harley Race in Toronto and twice in St. Louis, Dusty Rhodes in The Omni in Atlanta and Ric Flair in St. Louis. The first of these matches was in 1976, the last in 1982.

 

Patera had thirty-eightknown shots at the WW(W)F World Title, against four different champions, with all but a handful of the matches occurring in major markets/arenas. He challenged Billy Graham once (small spot show in Portland, Maine), Hulk Hogan three times (Denver, Miami and the Philly Spectrum) , Bruno five times (three times in MSG, once in the Boston Garden and once at the Nassau Coliseum) and Bob Backlund twenty-eight times (four times in MSG, four times in the Boston Garden, three times in Landover, three times in Baltimore, two times in Toronto, three times in Pittsburgh, two times at the Philly Spectrum, two times in Springfield including a Cage Match, one time in Greensboro, one time in Providence, one time in St. Louis, one time in Albany, one time in New Haven and one time in Portland, Maine). The first of these matches was in Jan of 1977, the last in June of 1985.

 

Patera had one AWA title match against Otto Wanz in Green Bay in 1982.

 

Patera wrestled for the NWF title in New Japan Pro Wrestling twice, both times an opponent of Antonio Inoki (1980 and 1981).

 

Patera wrestled Giant Baba in a PWF Title in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1977.

[Dylan Waco]

I'm going to post a ton more later and will be working on a second batch of stuff (second tier market main events, semi-mains/feature matches on other A-market shows and then possibly title defenses of his various championship runs), but with the major market/arena metric here is one thing I've found that is interesting and deserves to be pointed out.

 

Patera main evented the Kiel in St. Louis, the Philly Spectrum, The Mid South Coliseum, Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens, Madison Square Garden and The Boston Garden at least ten times a piece. I don't know this, but I suspect he is the only wrestler in the history of the business to do this. That in and of itself is not grounds to get a guy in and is admittedly a somewhat arbitrary metric. However it is worth noting that these are probably six of the ten buildings people think of when they think of major wrestling buildings. At absolute worst they are six of the top fifteen people think of. I imagine if you looked at guys who have headlined any 6 arena combo of those top tier of buildings ten times or more you'd be looking at a list of Hall of Famer's.

[Dylan Waco]

John (or anyone else) I'm looking for more complete results of Patera's run in Japan. The 84 tour results are easy to come by, but I can't find anything from 77, 80, or 81 that gives any real detail. Mainly I'm looking to see if A. all three of the above title matches would qualify for the current main event metric and B. if there are any other matches from these stints that would qualify. With 84 he's got some main events, but he was really brought in as part of a tourney and from what I can tell he didn't main event any of the bigger venue shows. Someone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there as well.

[jdw]

John (or anyone else) I'm looking for more complete results of Patera's run in Japan. The 84 tour results are easy to come by, but I can't find anything from 77, 80, or 81 that gives any real detail. Mainly I'm looking to see if A. all three of the above title matches would qualify for the current main event metric and B. if there are any other matches from these stints that would qualify. With 84 he's got some main events, but he was really brought in as part of a tourney and from what I can tell he didn't main event any of the bigger venue shows. Someone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there as well.

Don't have results for 1977. The PWF Title match was at Iwate Prefecture Gym in Morioka. Not a major arena. The 10/21/77 NWA Int'l Tag Title match with Bobo Brazil against Baba & Jumbo was at Yokohama Prefecture Gym. In terms of size, it's larger than Korakuen Hall, but not as larger as their bigger Tokyo venues of that era: Budokan and Tokyo University Hall. [i know very little about University Hall... don't know if it's Yasuda Hall or some other building.] Anyway... the size of the building isn't massively relevant in All Japan - they didn't work a lot of large buildings. Getting a challenge against Baba, and challenging for the tag titles... not a bad push.

 

In 1980, he was just in to work one show: the Budokan headlined by Inoki-Patera / Backlund-Hansen.

 

1981 against Inoki was Osaka Prefecture Hall. That's one of their major buildings. Looking at Hisa's data from 1981, here are Inoki's matches there:

 

http://puroresu.com/personalities/inoki/re...esults1981.html

 

02/04/81 NWF Title: Inoki vs Patera

05/26/81 Inoki & Rhodes vs Hansen & Hogan

09/17/81 Inoki vs Andre

12/10/81 Tag League Final Night: Inoki & Fujinami vs Hansen & Murdoch

12/10/81 Tag League Final Night: Inoki & Fujinami vs Andre & Goulet

 

Yeah, that should give you an idea of the importance of the building.

 

I wouldn't say that Patera was a Major Player in Japan. But he was given a challenge to Baba right away. In turn, Inoki brought him in to be a featured main event opponent on a major card. That went well enough that he brought him over for the opening series of the following year, again to main event in a major arena. On some level, that would be the cap on his Career Year: second Inoki title shot coming out of it.

 

I do wish that second match were available.

 

John

[Dylan Waco]

Thanks for that John.

 

Found this over on Mid-Atlantic Gateway today

 

http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/resource...Richmond_15.htm

 

It's an article on the top fifteen cards in Richmond. Obviously they are opinion pieces but they include some nice history in them. Patera's name pops up on a list that has a pretty broad scope (Dec. 74-April 83). FWIW Patera is in the semi-main v. Johnny Valentine on the card he ranks 3rd and in the main event v. Jim Brunzell on the card he ranks 13th. He is also in an undercard six-man on the show ranked 8th, which was a stopover show for him between Tri-State and New York.

[Dylan Waco]

Now that Ken Patera has been placed back on the Observer HoF ballot, I wanted to do something to present a more focused case for him as a candidate. Eventually I will get around to a Gordy List, but first I wanted to do something coupled with the much larger data dump I’ve already done that would give people an idea of Patera’s degree of stardom, relative value to various promotions, positioning on cards, relevance, et. Ultimately I’ve decided to do three different things.

 

Firstly I’m going to list the name of each major title match in his career, including opponent and location if possible. I imagine it is possible people may have things to add or clarifications to make and they are welcome. I should clarify that by major title I mean exclusively titles that were or are considered “World” titles or absolute top tier championships for The United States and Japan. This means the WW(W)F, AWA, NWA, PWF and NWF titles were included. Top singles belts specific to territories like Memphis or Georgia were not included. Neither were valuable secondary titles or tag titles.

 

The second thing I’ve decided to do is to note all the main events Patera had in major markets and/or top arenas of the territories he worked in over the years.

This was a much more difficult task because depending on how you want to use the term “main event,” “major market,” or “major arena” you could come up with a ton of different numbers. Precisely because of the fact that I have a point of view coming in, I decided to try and be as conservative as possible.

 

For cities/markets/arenas I stuck to A. obvious major markets and wrestling venues (Kiel, MSG, Spectrum, et.) B. top towns of a particular territory (Honolulu, Tulsa) or C. towns that are considered “wrestling towns” or that I specifically had people argue should be included as representatives of largish markets (in the case of “wrestling town” the only inclusion that arguably would not get on the list otherwise was Charlotte – suggested towns included Columbus, Winston-Salem, Richmond and Norfolk). I left several arguable towns out of the equation including Raleigh, Roanoke (one of the larger arenas in MACW from what I can tell/have heard), Omaha, Las Vegas, Springfield (a pretty large venue for the WWF), Green Bay and any smaller shows held in major metro areas.

 

For main events the criteria was equally tricky. Because the data dump is already included in the thread, I did not recopy and paste every card in question. Instead I made note of the total number of main events Patera had in a town, followed by a parenthetical listing of possible qualifiers. Specifically, every tag match is noted, every time Patera worked for a World/top title is noted, every WWF expansion era match is noted and every time there is a possible “co-main event” it is noted. The co-main event issue was tough, but due to the nature of WWF booking during the era it was virtually unavoidable as there are lots of shows where you will see things like Bruno v. Patera in a Texas Death match on the same card as a Backlund or Graham title defense against someone like Tony Garea or Afa. Sometimes it’s even “closer” than that in terms of star v. star and harder to call (for example Bruno v. Sarge and Patera v. Pedro for the I-C title on a Backlundless show in 1980). Rather than pretend that Patera should get all or none of the credit, I erred on the side of listing the other possible major drawing card on the show.

 

It is worth noting that I applied this rule to the WWF, but barely at all to any other promotion where Patera worked. I did not apply it at all in Toronto (other than WWF expansion era matches) or St. Louis where he was often in co-main event slots. I did not apply it at all in Mid-Atlantic. I applied it maybe once or twice in the case of Memphis on loaded shows where he would work Lawler in title matches. I did not apply it all in the case of Georgia, Houston, Hawaii, Tulsa or Dallas. Most importantly I applied it only a few times in the case of the AWA – a place that was not terribly dissimilar from the WWF in terms of having cards with possible double (and even sometimes triple) main events – and a place where Patera’s numbers could have been heavily padded if I had applied anything close to the same standard I used with the WWF. I also did not include one of his three major title shots in Japan because it did not take place in a major arena (nor did I include any of his matches from his tour in 84 which was part of a tournament for NJPW).

 

The final thing I have decided to do is a follow up post building on the major market/main event model. For that “metric” I will try to include all Patera main events in secondary markets (the towns I listed as exclusions above and perhaps a few others), all title shots and defenses of major secondary/tag titles, and all previously excluded “semi-main events” in major towns (for example Patera v. Andre in Toronto or Patera v. Dusty at the first SuperBowl of Wrestling card). I have not started on this yet and expect that it will be even more time consuming than the major market/main event model. Still I feel it is important and I don’t think a person can make a fair assessment of Patera’s career without it.

 

For the purposes of this post I will include the first two pieces of the project, while acknowledging that it may be sometime before the third becomes available. All data is drawn directly from the data dump already amassed in this thread and credit should be given to Clawmaster, Graham Cawthon (thehistoryofwwe.com), Mike Mooneyham, Gary Will, The Mid-Atlantic Gateway, Puroresu.com, John Williams, Khawk, Goodhelmet, Loss, Bix, Dave Musgrave, Kris Zellner, Ohtani's Jacket, Prowrestlinghistory.com, GeorgiaWrestlingHistory.com, George Schire and anyone else who has provided me with research tools, results, suggestions, criticisms, or merely served as a listening board for my possibly somewhat whacky Patera related ranting.

 

Major/World Title Matches:

Patera had five known NWA World Title matches, in four different territories, against four different champions. He challenged Terry Funk in Tulsa, Harley Race in Toronto and St. Louis, Dusty Rhodes in The Omni in Atlanta and Ric Flair in St. Louis. The first of these matches was in 1976, the last in 1982.

Patera had thirty-seven known shots at the WW(W)F World Title, against four different champions, with all but a handful of the matches occurring in major markets/arenas. He challenged Billy Graham once (small spot show in Portland, Maine), Hulk Hogan three times (Denver, Miami and the Philly Spectrum) , Bruno five times (three times in MSG, once in the Boston Garden and once at the Nassau Coliseum) and Bob Backlund twenty-eight times (four times in MSG, four times in the Boston Garden, three times in Landover, three times in Baltimore, two times in Toronto, two times at the Philly Spectrum, two times in Pittsburgh, two times in Springfield including a Cage Match, one time in Greensboro, one time in Providence, one time in St. Louis, one time in Albany, one time in New Haven and one time in Portland, Maine). The first of these matches was in Jan of 1977, the last in June of 1985.

 

Patera had one AWA title match against Otto Wanz in Green Bay in 1982.

 

Patera wrestled for the NWF title in New Japan Pro Wrestling twice, both times an opponent of Antonio Inoki (1980 and 1981).

 

Patera wrestled Giant Baba in a PWF Title in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1977.

 

Major Market/Arena Main Events

199 total – 100 singles, 99 tag team

 

Yokohama - 1 main event (tag match)

 

Budokan Hall – 1 main event (NWF title match v. Inoki, same show as Backlund v. Hansen)

 

Osaka Prefectre Hall - 1 main event (NWF title match v. Inoki)

 

Calgary – 1 main event (1 tag match WWF expansion era)

 

Honolulu – 1 main event (tag match)

 

Indianapolis – 1 main event (tag match WWF expansion era)

 

Miami – 1 main event (WWF title match v. Hogan)

 

Cleveland – 2 main events (2 tag matches, both WWF expansion era)

 

Columbus (Ohio) – 2 main events (2 tag matches, both WWF expansion era)

 

Charlotte – 2 main events (1 tag match)

 

Houston – 2 main events

 

Richmond – 2 main events

 

Montreal – 3 main events (2 tag matches)

 

Edmonton – 2 main events (2 tag matches, both from WWF expansion era, one with Tito/Greg also on card)

 

Vancover – 2 main events (2 tag matches, both from WWF expansion era, one with Tito/Greg also on card)

 

Atlanta (Omni) – 2 main events (1 tag match during WWF expansion era with an awful house, 1 NWA title match v. Dusty Rhodes)

 

Nassau Coliseum – 2 main events (1 WWF expansion era tag match, 1 WWF title match v. Bruno)

 

Los Angeles – 2 main events (2 tag matches both during WWF expansion era, one with a poor house, the other with 15k plus)

 

Detroit – 2 main events (2 tag matches both during WWF expansion era, both sellouts including first Cobo Hall sellout in over a decade, first show also had Tito/Greg for I-C title)

 

San Diego – 3 main events (3 tag matches all from WWF expansion era)

 

Greensboro/Winston-Salem – 3 main events (1 tag match)

 

Norfolk (Metro) – 3 main events (1 tag match)

 

Providence – 4 main events (1 tag match, one title match v. Backlund)

 

Denver – 6 main events (3 tag matches, one WWF title match v. Hulk Hogan)

 

Winnipeg – 6 main events (6 tag matches, two on shows with Andre The Giant/Battle Royals)

 

Baltimore – 6 main events (one WWF expansion era tag, 3 WWF title matches v. Backlund)

 

Landover/Capital Centre – 6 main events (one WWF expansion era tag, 3 WWF title matches v. Backlund, one co-main event v. Atlas with Monsoon as ref on same show as Backlund title defense v. Afa)

 

Pittsburgh – 7 main events (3 WWF title matches v. Backlund one as co-main with Bruno/Larry, one WWF expansion era co-main v. Andre on show with Sammartino’s v. Orndorff/Heenan and JYD v. Piper, one double main v. Andre on show with Dusty/Graham, one double main v. Bruno on show with Backlund v. Sarge title match)

 

Dallas/Ft. Worth – 7 main events (5 tag matches, one during WWF expansion)

 

Chicago – 7 main events (5 tag matches, one on a show with Andre/Battle Royal, another on heavily gimmicked all tag match show, two matches from WWF expansion era)

 

St. Paul/Minneapolis – 8 main events (6 tag matches)

 

Bay Area – 8 main events (8 tag matches one on show with Battle Royal, one from WWF expansion era)

 

Salt Lake City – 8 main events (8 tag matches, one on show with Battle Royal)

 

New York (MSG) – 10 main events (4 title matches v. Backlund, 3 title matches v. Bruno, Texas Death Match v. Bruno on same show as Graham v. Putski title match, I-C title match v. Pedro on same show as Bruno v. Sarge, WWF expansion era match v. Andre on triple main event show with Tito/Greg for I-C Title and Piper/Orton v. Snuka/JYD)

 

Toronto (MLG) – 10 main events (3 tag matches all during WWF expansion era one in Cage as co-main w/ Tito v. Greg, the other as co-main with Snuka/Orton. One WWF expansion era singles main event w/tag title co-main. 1 NWA title match v. Harley Race, 2 WWF title matches v. Bob Backlund)

 

Boston Garden – 10 main events (2 tag matches during WWF expansion era one w/Tito v. Greg co-main, 4 WWF title matches v. Backlund, 1 WWF title match v. Bruno, 1 Texas Death Match v. Bruno on same show as Graham v. Strongbow Cage title match)

 

Philly Spectrum – 10 main events (3 WWF title matches, 2 v. Backlund and one v. Hogan during WWF expansion era. Two shows headlined v. Bruno with co-main event Graham title defenses v. Strongbow and Garea also on the show. Two shows headlined v. Bruno with co-main event Backlund title defenses v. Zbyszko and Arion. One co-main event I-C title defense v. Monsoon with Zbyszko v. Putski Texas Death Match)

 

Memphis (MSC) – 10 main events (3 tag matches)

 

Milwaukee – 11 main events (10 tag matches, one singles main event v. Hogan in the AWA on the same show with a Battle Royal)

 

Tulsa – 11 main events (6 tag matches, one NWA title match v. Terry Funk)

 

St. Louis (Kiel) – 11 main events (one tag WWF expansion era, 3 NWA title matches two v. Harley Race, the other v. Ric Flair)

[ohtani's jacket]

Patera wrestled at the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium not the Yokohama Prefecture Gym. Yokohama is a city not a prefecture. Tokyo University Hall was Nihon University Auditorium, a different university altogether. It was originally a sumo venue that was requisitioned by the Japanese military during the war and turned into a weapons factory. It was then appropriated by the Occupation forces and turned into an entertainment venue before being sold to Nihon University in 1958. The University rented it for public use up until 1977. It has since been torn down. Capacity was 10,000.

[KrisZ]

Yokohama Cultural Gym is also better known as Yokohama Bunka Gym

[ohtani's jacket]

Here are some of the other matches Patera had on tour in '77:

 

10/1/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Giant Baba/Tenryu (Furukawa, Miyagi?)

10/3/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Giant Baba/The Destroyer (Nagoya)

10/5/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Rocky Hata (Osaka)

10/9/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Giant Baba/Rocky Hata (Yanagawa. Fukuoka)

10/11/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta (Omura, Nagasaki)

10/26/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera vs. Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta (Akita)

11/4/77: Ken Patera vs. Rocky Hata (Suwa)

[ohtani's jacket]

Okay, I found the results for the entire Giant Series with match times, results and attendance. Do you need them translated?

[Dylan Waco]

Okay, I found the results for the entire Giant Series with match times, results and attendance. Do you need them translated?

If you've got them I'd love to have them.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'll do a few at a time.

 

All Japan 1977 Giant Series

 

 

10/1/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Giant Baba/Genichiro Tenryu (Koga Gymnasium, 3000)

10/2/77: Ken Patera def. Rocky Hata (Korakuen Hall, 2400)

10/3/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Giant Baba/The Destroyer (National Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, 4100)

10/5/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Jumbo Tsuruta/Rocky Hata (Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, 7500)

10/6/77: Ken Patera def. Samson Kutsuwada (Tsuyama Gymnasium, 2000)

10/7/77: Ken Patera def. Great Kojika (Shiga, 2000)

10/9/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Giant Baba/Rocky Hata (Fruit and Vegetable market, Yanagawa, 2000)

10/10/77: Ken Patera def. Rocky Hata (Kashii, Fukuoka, 2300)

10/11/77: Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta drew Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera (Omura, 2300)

10/12/77: The Destroyer def. Ken Patera (Karatsu, 2000)

 

Notes:

 

-- Patera mainevented the 10/9 and 10/11 shows. He was in the semi main on every other show except for 10/6 and 10/7.

-- Other gaijin on tour were Bobo Brazil, Wahoo McDaniel, Jay Youngblood, Rocky Tamayo, Kintaro Ohki and Kim Duk. Also on tour from the IWF were Animal Hamaguchi and Goro Tsurumi.

[Dylan Waco]

OJ, this is great stuff. I plan on posting the bigger thing I wrote above at Classics and at the Figure Four board this week, but I want to wait until you get all these results up. Please let me know if you think any of them should qualify for the "major market" list.

[ohtani's jacket]

Here's the next lot:

 

10/15/77: Ken Patera def. Great Kojika (Ehime, 3300)

10/16/77: Ken Patera def. Rocky Hata (Ehime, 2800)

10/18/77: Ken Patera def. Genichiro Tenryu (Yonago, 2000)

10/19/77: The Destroyer DCO Ken Patera (Tottori Municipal Gymnasium, 4000)

10/21/77: Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta def. Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera (Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, 4000)

10/22/77: The Destroyer DCO Ken Patera (Kawamata Town, Fukushima, 2000)

10/23/77: Ken Patera def. Rocky Hata (Nagai, Yamagata, 2800)

10/24/77: Giant Baba def. Ken Patera (Iwate Prefectural Gymnasium, 4000)

10/25/77: Ken Patera def. The Destroyer (Hanamaki, 2400)

10/26/77: Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta def. Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera (Akita, 2000)

 

Notes:

 

-- Patera mainevented the 10/21, 10/24 and 10/26 shows. He semi mained the other shows aside from 10/19, 10/23 and 10/25.

[ohtani's jacket]

OJ, this is great stuff. I plan on posting the bigger thing I wrote above at Classics and at the Figure Four board this week, but I want to wait until you get all these results up. Please let me know if you think any of them should qualify for the "major market" list.

I would say the major shows on tour were the cities where they ran 4000 seaters. So far that's:

 

10/3/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Giant Baba/The Destroyer (National Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, 4100)

10/5/77: Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera def. Jumbo Tsuruta/Rocky Hata (Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, 7500)

10/19/77: The Destroyer DCO Ken Patera (Tottori Municipal Gymnasium, 4000)

10/21/77: Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta def. Bobo Brazil/Ken Patera (Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, 4000)

10/24/77: Giant Baba def. Ken Patera (Iwate Prefectural Gymnasium, 4000)

 

Nagoya, Osaka and Yokohama are all major cities in Japan and the usage of sumo venues in Nagoya and Osaka is telling. The Nagoya show was headlined by a Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Wahoo McDaniel United National Heavyweight title match and the Osaka show was headlined by Baba vs. Ohki. Tottori is a bit of a surprise, but All Japan may have been popular in that part of the country. It was headlined by Brazil vs. Baba. Patera was fourth on the card behind Wahoo/Youngblood vs. Tenryu/Hata and Jumbo/Tamayo. Morioka is the capital of Iwate prefecture but not a huge city by Japanese standards. I suspect it may have been another part of the country where All Japan drew well.

[Dylan Waco]

I'm going to count Yokohama for sure. The others feel like stretches for the the major market/major arena metric, but will definitely be on the second category I'm starting on this week. Thanks again for doing this.

[ohtani's jacket]

And the last part of the tour:

 

10/27/77: Ken Patera def. Samson Kutsuwada (Sakata, 4000)

10/28/77: Bobo Brazil/Jumbo Tsuruta/Samson Kutsuwada def. Giant Baba/Ken Patera/Rocky Tamayo (Tajima, Fukushima, 3000)

10/29/77: Ken Patera def. The Destroyer (Kuroiso, 2800)

10/30/77: Ken Patera def. Genichiro Tenryu (Fujinomiya, 1600)

10/31/77: Giant Baba/Kim Duk def. Ken Patera/Rocky Hata (Nagano Municipal Gymnasium, 4000)

11/1/77: Ken Patera def. Great Kojika (Iiyama, 3000)

11/2/77: Ken Patera def. Samson Kutsuwada (Tsunan, Niigata, 2000)

11/3/77: Ken Patera DCO The Destroyer (Korakuen Hall, 2800)

11/4/77: Ken Patera def. Rocky Hata (Suwa, 4000)

 

Notes:

 

-- Patera was further down the card on the back end of the tour. Only one mainevent on 10/28 and semi mains on 10/30, 10/31 and 11/4.

-- The Sakata show in Yamagata was main evented by Wahoo/Youngblood vs. Tsutura/Hata. The Nagano show was main evented by The Destroyer vs. Bobo Brazil, and the Suwa show was main evented by Baba/Duk vs. Brazil/Tsuruta.

-- The Korakuen Hall show was apparently main evented by an Animal Hamaguchi/Goro Tsurumi vs. Great Kojika/Motoshi Okuma All Asian Tag Team Championship match, which I thought was cool.

[Dylan Waco]

I've added the Yokohama result. I am going to leave this open before I post it elsewhere for another day or two. If OJ or John want to look at his 84 Japan tour and see if anything there justifies inclusion please let me know. I've excluded it up until now, but if there is a real argument that something should be included I want to make sure it makes the cut.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm going to count Yokohama for sure. The others feel like stretches for the the major market/major arena metric, but will definitely be on the second category I'm starting on this week. Thanks again for doing this.

Yokohama, Osaka and Nagayo are the three biggest cities outside of Tokyo (which technically isn't a city but a metropolis.) Geographically, I think some of the other cities are worth considering because of how Japan works regionally, but it's your call. Remember, Japan is really only a collection of small islands and All Japan toured up and down the country as opposed to however many states US promotions covered. I don't think the 10,000 metric makes much sense for countries like Japan that didn't have indoor venues that size and I don't agree with Dave's argument about using open spaces like in Mexico. A lot of these country results were in markets or high schools. In the bigger cities or more well drawing areas, Baba seemed to rent out some decent capacity buildings, especially the sumo and boxing venues which wouldn't have been cheap. That seems like the metric to me.

[Dylan Waco]

I couldn't care less about the 10k metric for the purposes of this. I care about relevance of arena/market size. Yokohama, Osaka and Nagayo clearly fit, but unless I missed something I don't think he headlined shows any of those places on the tour you just ran down other than Yokohama. I'm open to arguments for other towns and the sumo/boxing hall buildings being used is a good thing to look out for, especially when I'm expanding things into the "second tier."