WON HOF 2013 discussion

[mookeighana]

I did not see Larry Hennig in there against Pedro Morales. Unless I missed it, I'm sure they had some title matches during Pedro's reign.

When Pedro was Champion, there was one in my list. Here were the interactions between the two that I saw in the 73-74 period:

 

WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - November 12, 1973

WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig at 12:45 when the match was stopped due to blood

 

WWWF @ Harrisburg, PA - Zembo Mosque - November 26, 1973

WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales, Andre the Giant, & Manuel Soto defeated Stan Stasiak, Larry Hennig, & Frank Valois in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match; final fall was decided when Andre pinned Valois with a flying bodypress

 

WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 10, 1973

Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig in a lumberjack death match with the Boston Crab (same show where Bruno beat Stasiak for the title)

 

WWWF @ Lewiston, ME - December 11, 1973

Pedro Morales & Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Blackjack Lanza & Larry Hennig

 

WWWF @ Boston, MA - Boston Garden - December 17, 1973

Pedro Morales & Andre the Giant defeated Larry Hennig & Stan Stasiak

 

WWWF @ Albany, NY - Washington Avenue Armory - January 11, 1974

Pedro Morales defeated Larry Hennig via disqualification at the 19-minute mark

 

WWWF @ Philadelphia, PA - Arena - January 26, 1974

Pedro Morales, Gorilla Monsoon, & Chief Jay Strongbow defeated Don Leo Jonathan, Larry Hennig, & Stan Stasiak

 

WWWF @ Springfield, MA - Boys Club - February 16, 1974 (1,500)

Pedro Morales vs. Larry Hennig

 

WWWF @ Trenton, NJ - Civic Center - March 14, 1974

Pedro Morales & Gorilla Monsoon vs. Larry Hennig & Stan Stasiak (Best 2 out of 3 falls)

 

WWWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - April 1, 1974 (sell out)

Pedro Morales pinned Larry Hennig at 11:04

 

Could be due to incomplete records or they were on non-WWWF shows?

[Hollinger.]

I did not see Larry Hennig in there against Pedro Morales. Unless I missed it, I'm sure they had some title matches during Pedro's reign.

Graham lists just one match against Pedro, and my list dropped anyone who only had 1 over the course of a year, just to clean it up a bit. I'm guessing there were more, but only one is documented there.

[mookeighana]

I updated the multi-name counts some (i.e. Executioners = Studd/Kowalski, Bepo=Nikolai) and fixed some spelling variants.

 

[Hollinger.]

I really should just leave all of this stuff to Chris. He's way more organized.

[Matt D]

Chris, I forget. Do you have a central place (blog, site, etc) that you keep this stuff?

[mookeighana]

Chris, I forget. Do you have a central place (blog, site, etc) that you keep this stuff?

Eventually, it should end up on my website (indeedwrestling.com) which has most of the larger projects I've worked on; this stuff I've been posting on twitter (which isn't a central place) and on my blog (indeedwrestling.blogspot.com).

 

I really should just leave all of this stuff to Chris. He's way more organized.

Hardly. I was just motivated today after spending a week without access to a computer.

[JerryvonKramer]

Later on tonight I want to flesh out the picture of what Koloff was doing in between these New York runs. I don't think it's possible to mount a serious case for Ivan based on New York alone -- if it was, we'd be talking about Professor Tanaka for the HoF.

 

We need to see what he was doing in the other territories: in his AWA run, in Mid-Atlantic, in Georgia, in Florida and where he was on the card for the St. Louis or Houston shows. I am willing to put some legwork in starting a few hours from now, but if someone wants to make a jump-start go for it.

[Hollinger.]

Yeah, I was honestly expecting to come out of this with a better looking picture of Koloff.

[jdw]

I see the comment "Lesnar's only on because of MMA" and I don't think that's accurate. People are ignoring that he was a NCAA heavyweight champion. Amateur credentials count for something with the WON HOF.

I don't think that amateur credentials count for anything in the WON HOF.

[Matt D]

I see the comment "Lesnar's only on because of MMA" and I don't think that's accurate. People are ignoring that he was a NCAA heavyweight champion. Amateur credentials count for something with the WON HOF.

I don't think that amateur credentials count for anything in the WON HOF.

 

Even with the pros? You didn't think Angle got in, in part, because he made the whole fraternity look look good and more legitimate?

[jdw]

Any idea why they didn't have Koloff challenge Morales?

Hard to tell. He'd run on top a lot in the WWWF from late 1969 through early 1971 when doing the title change. He seems to have headed out. They kept Stasiak around to put over Pedro on the MSG after losing the title to Bruno. Graham was a different beast since he held the belt so long: he stuck around to put over Dusty (who failed to take the title from him), and eventually Bruno (who he took the title off)... but seems to have bailed when getting phased down from that.

 

We're obviously missing a lot of Ivan results. He looks to have gone "somewhere", then did a tour of Japan for JWA, then turned up in Vancouver for a run before settling in the AWA for that long Oct-1971 through Jan-1974 run. My recollection is that folks seemed to like the AWA as a good territory to work, money not bad and travel not too much of a pain in the ass say relative to Mid South. Someone like Beyers (The Destroyer / Dr. X) was perfectly happy to opperate out of there from some point in Aug-1967 through Dec-1972. He worked some other places, like Japan and hitting LA for short stretches, doing a world tour from late 1970 through mid-1971. But his home base was generally the AWA. He certainly wasn't a main eventer the whole time. There were other guys who stuck around working for the promotion rather than bounce all over the place. So Ivan's run in the AWA tended to line up with Pedro's run with the title.

[mookeighana]

I few years ago, I threw together a whole bunch of AWA records from the Clawmaster

 

Here are the challengers to the AWA Champion from that source. (Note, I filtered explictly on singles matches involving "AWA Champion"; if the championship was not explicitly noted, I would have missed the match.)

 

[JerryvonKramer]

http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=687&page=20

 

http://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?bef...1&details=4

 

1968:

 

Where was he?

 

Working for MLW in Toronto and in Quebec.

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event.

 

Sample card:

Date Sunday, 1968/09/22

Venue Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

1 Fred Atkins vs. Murray Cummings ended without a winner as a time limit draw (20 minutes)

2 The Assassin and Tiger Jeet Singh defeated Eric the Red and Dewey Robertson (20 minutes)

3 Flash Gordon defeated Bull Johnson (11:02 minutes)

4 Duke Noble vs. Joe Christie ended without a winner as a time limit draw (15 minutes)

5 Argentina Apollo and Whipper Billy Watson defeated Bull Curry and George Momberg (12:02 minutes)

6 Ivan Koloff defeated Bulldog Brower by disqualification (16:11 minutes)

 

Notable opponents:

 

Whipper Billy Watson, Bulldog Brower, Eduard Carpentier

 

1969:

 

Where was he?

 

In the early part of the year, still in Canada, working monthly St. Louis shows, later in the year WWWF

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event or semi-main.

 

Sample cards:

Date Friday, 1969/05/16

Venue St. Louis, Missouri (United States of America)

1 Luis Martínez and Frankie Hester defeated Mitsu Arakawa and Tor Kamata

2 Stan Pulaski defeated Terry Martin

3 Harley Race vs. Wilbur Snyder ended without a winner as a time limit draw

4 Bob Ellis and Terry Funk defeated Dick the Bruiser and Bob Geigel

5 Pat O'Connor defeated Ivan Koloff by disqualification

6 Blackjack Lanza defeated Édouard Carpentier

 

Date Friday, 1969/11/14

Venue Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (United States of America)

1 Frank Hickey vs. Jim Grabmire - winner unknown

2 Gino Brito vs. Waldo Von Erich - winner unknown

3 Dr. Bill Miller and Johnny DeFazio vs. The Sicilians (Lou Albano and Tony Altimore) - winner unknown

4 Baron Mikel Scicluna vs. Frank Holtz - winner unknown

5 Dominic DeNucci vs. Killer Kowalski - winner unknown

6 WWWF International Tag Team Titles Match

Battman and Antonio Pugliese vs. Mitsu Arakawa and Prof. Toru Tanaka © - winner unknown

7 WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Ivan Koloff

 

Notable opponents:

 

Bruno Sammartino, Dory Funk Jr, Bob Giegel, Pat O'Connor, Gene Kiniski

 

1970:

Where was he?

 

WWWF all year

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event or semi-main

 

Sample cards:

Date Sunday, 1970/03/29

Venue Deer Lakes High School in Russellton, Pennsylvania (United States of America)

1 Johnny DeFazio vs. Waldo Von Erich

2 Battman vs. George Steele

3 WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © vs. Ivan Koloff

 

Date Friday, 1970/10/23

Venue Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York (United States of America)

Audience 17.491

 

1 2 out of 3 Falls Match

Sky Low Low and Little Brutus defeated Jamaica Kid and Sonny Boy Hayes (16:07 minutes)

2 Baron Mikel Scicluna vs. Tony Marino ended without a winner as a time limit draw (20 minutes)

3 2 out of 3 Falls Match

Eddie Graham and Jack Brisco defeated Johnny Rodz and Carlos Peradas (14:45 minutes) by 2 falls to 0

4 Ivan Koloff defeated Gorilla Monsoon by countout (6:05 minutes)

5 Geeto defeated Victor Rivera by countout (13:37 minutes)

6 Chief Jay Strongbow defeated Crusher Verdu (4:35 minutes)

7 Texas Death Match - WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Bepo (14:30 minutes)

 

Notable opponents:

 

Bruno Sammartino, Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Arnold Skaaland, Billy Robinson

 

More soon.

[JerryvonKramer]

1971:

 

Where was he?

 

WWWF until July, Vancouver during the summer, AWA from October

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event.

 

Sample cards:

Date Friday, 1971/01/08

Venue Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York (United States of America)

1 Vincente Pometti defeated Lee Wong (13:34 minutes)

2 Jack Evans defeated Jean DuBois (10:15 minutes)

3 Sky Low Low and Little Brutus defeated Joey Russell and Frenchy Landau

4 Blackjack Mulligan defeated Tony Marino (8:07 minutes)

5 Bepo vs. Gorilla Monsoon ended without a winner as a double countout (4:13 minutes)

6 Canadian Wolfman vs. Manuel Soto ended without a winner as a time limit draw (20 minutes)

7 Bruno Sammartino defeated Arnold Skaaland (5:27 minutes)

8 WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Pedro Morales defeated Ivan Koloff © (23:18 minutes) - TITLE CHANGE!!!

 

Date Friday, 1971/03/05

Venue Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (United States of America)

1 Frank Holtz vs. Johnny DeFazio ended without a winner as a double countout (9:50 minutes)

2 Hurricane Hunt defeated James Dillon (12:25 minutes)

3 Victor Rivera defeated Joe Turco (10:31 minutes)

4 2 out of 3 Falls Match

Baron Mikel Scicluna and Jim Grabmire defeated Dominic DeNucci and John L. Sullivan (14:55 minutes)

5 Gorilla Monsoon defeated Eric the Red (10:06 minutes)

6 Texas Death Match

Bruno Sammartino defeated Ivan Koloff (15:45 minutes)

 

Date Monday, 1971/08/16

Venue Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)

1 Eric Froelich vs. Pat O'Brien ended without a winner as a time limit draw

2 Fred Barron defeated Mike Webster by disqualification

3 Tex McKenzie defeated Soldat Gorky

4 Duncan McTavish defeated Frank Marconi

5 Gene Kiniski and Ivan Koloff defeated Dean Higuchi and Steven Little Bear

 

Date Saturday, 1972/12/02

Venue Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States of America)

1 Cowboy Lang and Farmer Pete defeated Little Tokyo and Billy the Kid

2 Larry Hennig vs. Rene Goulet ended without a winner as a time limit draw

3 Don Muraco defeated The Big K

4 Texas Outlaws (Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch) defeated George Scott and Joe Scarpello

5 Wahoo McDaniel defeated Ivan Koloff by disqualification

6 AWA World Heavyweight Title Match

Verne Gagne © defeated Nick Bockwinkel

 

Date Thursday, 1972/12/28

Venue Moorhead, Minnesota (United States of America)

1 Dennis Stamp defeated Jim Brunzell

2 Reggie Parks defeated The Big K

3 Billy Robinson defeated Dusty Rhodes

4 Ivan Koloff vs. Nick Bockwinkel ended without a winner as a time limit draw

 

Notable opponents:

 

Pedro Morales, Bruno Sammartino, Wahoo McDaniel, Rene Goulet, Nick Bockwinkel

 

-----------

 

So that's why he didn't challenge Pedro much:

 

After dropping the title, it looks like he continued fueding with Bruno until going to Vancouver in the Summer and resurfacing in the AWA.

[JerryvonKramer]

1972:

 

Where was he?

 

AWA all year

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Semi-main.

 

Sample cards:

Date Saturday, 1972/01/29

Venue Auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States of America)

1 Lars Anderson defeated George Gadaski

2 Dr. X defeated Chris Markoff

3 Dusty Rhodes defeated Bull Bullinski

4 Ivan Koloff defeated Don Muraco

5 AWA World Tag Team Titles Match

Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens © defeated The Crusher and Red Bastien

 

Date Saturday, 1972/04/15

Venue International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois (United States of America)

1 Paul Christy defeated Treach Phillips

2 Moose Cholak defeated Chris Markoff

3 Wilbur Snyder defeated The Big K

4 Dusty Rhodes defeated Bull Bullinski

5 Billy Robinson vs. Ivan Koloff ended without a winner as a no contest

6 The Blackjacks (Blackjack Lanza and Blackjack Mulligan) defeated The Crusher and Bill Watts

 

Date Friday, 1972/09/01

Venue Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois (United States of America)

Audience 12.000

1 Rene Goulet defeated Don Muraco

2 Ramón Torres defeated Angelo Poffo

3 Art Thomas defeated Hans Hermann

4 Bobo Johnson defeated Little Bruiser

5 Baron Von Raschke defeated Billy Red Cloud

6 Handicap Match

André the Giant defeated Larry Hennig and Butcher Vachon

7 Dusty Rhodes defeated Wahoo McDaniel

8 AWA World Tag Team Titles Match

Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens © defeated Billy Robinson and Wilbur Snyder

9 AWA World Heavyweight Title Match

Verne Gagne © defeated Ivan Koloff

10 Steel Cage Match - Special Referee: Jersey Joe Walcott

The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser defeated The Blackjacks (Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza)

 

Date Wednesday, 1972/12/13

Venue Richwoods High School in Peoria, Illinois (United States of America)

Audience 1.500

1 Bob Bruggers vs. Joe Scarpello ended without a winner as a time limit draw

2 Dawn Lemke defeated Kay Noble

3 The Big K defeated Bob Kappel

4 Billy Graham defeated George Scott

5 2 out of 3 Falls Match

Wahoo McDaniel defeated Ivan Koloff

 

Notable opponents:

 

Red Bastien, Don Muraco, Billy Robinson, The Crusher, Verne Gagne, Wahoo McDaniel, Nick Bockwinkel

 

------

 

His position on the card has definitely slipped in 1972. He doesn't look like he was challenging Verne much for the title and is almost always in the semi-main in big shows -- he is in main events on smaller shows.

[KrisZ]

After Ivan left WWWF in 1971, I got him going to JWA, PNW, AWA which was his home through the end of 1973.

 

Now in late 72 throughout 1973 he worked quite a bit in St. Louis & Honolulu main eventing some of the time.

 

Ivan started working for Dick the Bruiser in January 1974 but didn't last too long eventually working some shots for AWA until leaving for JCP in March where he stayed for 11 months before going to New Japan then coming back and going to IWA in March 1975. Koloff in IWA was one of the top heels with Ernie Ladd but would only stay 5 months when he saw the writing on the wall there and left.

 

Koloff was one of the lucky guys who worked opposite of the NWA that when he wanted to come back into the fold he was able to get work but he had to start working for Harry Thornton in Chattanooga for a month until WWWF brought him back home in October. Ivan stayed there until July 1976 where he would make New Japan his homebase for the rest of the year not working anywhere in North America the last 5 months of 1976.

 

Ivan became quite the North American traveler from January-April 1977 as he split time between WWA, San Francisco, Eastern Canada, & CWF which is where he eventually made his homestead in May meanwhile working shots for St. Louis & Bob Luce in Chicago for the next year. May 1978 saw Ivan make his way to GCW for the first time and stayed through the end of September. Ivan worked some TV's for WWWF though building up his return which he made in October and by this time Ivan had made his body completely different than what he was 2 years earlier as he toned up dropping a lot of bulk while gaining stamina and agility.

 

Ivan would stay for the next few months into 1979 but went back to GCW early in 1979 before making it home again in April and would stay there up until June 1980. Watts would bring in Koloff a little bit during this time as well to main event some shows also. Ivan went to Florida in June staying there through the end of September but is most known in this period for being one of the special referees in the Dusty/Ole steel cage drama at the Omni on July 20th. Ivan would return to JCP in October where he would make his home the next 2 years. This was Ivan's biggest run there probably as he had a big main event feud with Jimmy Valiant over the NWA World TV Title in all the top cities not to mention his feud with Ric Flair months before he won the NWA title.

 

Ivan went back to GCW in October 1982 where he was a top singles heel for the first time there until early 1983 when he started teaming with Iron Sheik feuding with a reunited Texas Outlaws (Dusty & Murdoch) until April when he went back for his last run with WWF. Ivan stayed in WWF through the end of November and went back to JCP where he stayed the next 5 years. Ivan then spent the rest of his career bouncing around from WWC to AJPW to random indies.

[JerryvonKramer]

1973:

 

Where was he?

 

In December 72, he starts on the monthly St. Louis cards again while still with AWA. In April, he goes to Japan on the IWE Dynamite series tour, back in the AWA by June, working the monthly dates again for St. Louis by December and also starts working for WWA while maintaining AWA as his "base".

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event or semi-main, sometimes mid-card

 

Sample cards:

Date Saturday, 1973/01/20

Venue Auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (United States of America)

Audience 6.112

1 Jim Brunzell defeated Johnny Heidman

2 Rene Goulet defeated Bob Bruggers

3 Bill Watts defeated Nick Bockwinkel

4 2 out of 3 Falls Match

Billy Robinson and Don Muraco defeated Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch

5 Ivan Koloff defeated Verne Gagne

 

Date Friday, 1973/02/02

Venue St. Louis, Missouri (United States of America)

Audience 10.544

1 Ronnie Etchison defeated Benny Ramírez

2 Dan Miller defeated Ricky Renaldo

3 Terry Funk and Dory Funk defeated Sonny Myers and Steve Bolus

4 Harley Race defeated Jack Pesek

5 Bill Miller, Ivan Koloff and Invader vs. Pat O'Connor, Rufus R. Jones and Jack Brisco ended without a winner as a time limit draw

6 NWA World Heavyweight Title Match

Dory Funk Jr. © defeated Johnny Valentine

 

Date Tuesday, 1973/05/15

Venue Omiya Skate Center in Saitama, Saitama (Japan)

Audience 3.500

1 Isamu Sakae vs. Tsutomu Yonemura ended without a winner as a time limit draw

2 Takeshi Oiso defeated Jiro Inazuma

3 Bob Ramstead defeated Sung Yung Kang

4 Tadaharu Tanaka defeated Tarzan Tyler

5 The Canadian defeated Isamu Teranishi

6 Mighty Inoue and Great Kusatsu defeated Lars Anderson and Édouard Carpentier

7 Cage Match

Rusher Kimura defeated Mad Dog Vachon (22:18 minutes)

8 2 out of 3 Falls Match - IWA World Heavyweight Title Match

Strong Kobayashi © defeated Ivan Koloff (8:59 minutes) by 2 falls to 1

 

Date Saturday, 1973/06/30

Venue Auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States of America)

1 Greg Gagne defeated Bill Crouch

2 Jim Brunzell defeated George Grant

3 Bob Bruggers defeated Rene Goulet

4 Geoff Portz vs. Larry Heiniemi ended without a winner as a time limit draw

5 Billy Graham and Ivan Koloff defeated Ken Patera and Bill Watts

6 AWA World Heavyweight Title Match

Verne Gagne © defeated Billy Robinson

 

Date Saturday, 1973/10/06

Venue St. Paul, Minnesota (United States of America)

Audience 4.589

1 Buddy Wolff vs. Geoff Portz ended without a winner as a time limit draw

2 Larry Hennig defeated Reggie Parks

3 Ivan Koloff defeated Ken Patera

4 The Crusher defeated Billy Graham

5 AWA World Tag Team Titles Match

The Heenan Family (Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens) © defeated Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Red Cloud

 

Date Friday, 1973/12/07

Venue St. Louis, Missouri (United States of America)

1 Hans Schmidt and Bob Orton defeated Ronnie Etchison and Steve Bolus

2 Baron Mikel Scicluna defeated Billy Red Lyons

3 Danny Hodge defeated Don Duffy

4 Blackjack Lanza vs. Ron Fuller ended without a winner as a no contest

5 Bill Miller, Ivan Koloff and Terry Funk defeated Pat O'Connor, Bobo Brazil and Bearcat Wright

6 NWA Missouri Heavyweight Title Match

Harley Race © defeated Black Angus

7 Battle Royal

Bobo Brazil defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna and Bearcat Wright and Bill Miller and Billy Red Lyons and Black Angus and Blackjack Lanza and Bob Orton and Don Duffy and Hans Schmidt and Ivan Koloff and Pat O'Connor and Ron Fuller and Ronnie Etchison and Steve Bolus and Terry Funk

 

Notable opponents:

The Crusher, Verne Gagne, Jack Brisco, Rufus R. Jones, Strong Kobayashi, Rusher Kimura, Ken Patera, Bill Watts

 

-----------

 

Seems to be stuck in a holding pattern in AWA in the semi-main, much as he was in 1972. He was in the main events for most of the IWE tour, but back in AWA the feud with Ken Patera seems to have been a mid-card affair. St. Louis seem to have been doing a lot of battle royales in December 1973 -- Larry Matysik must have been hating it.

[Dylan Waco]

Koloff's matches with Patera were a spin off of Patera's feud with Graham which was considered fairly hot and significant. I'd call it a semi-main feud.

[JerryvonKramer]

1974:

 

Where was he?

 

Finally leaves AWA in January and works some dates for WWA in Feburary before joining Mid-Atlantic in March, stays with them for the rest of the year.

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event

 

Sample cards:

Date Wednesday, 1974/02/20

Venue National Guard Armory in Warsaw, Indiana (United States of America)

1 José Martínez vs. Ken Dillinger

2 Bobby Bold Eagle vs. Bobby Heenan

3 Ivan Koloff vs. Wilbur Snyder

4 Pepper Gómez and Bob Ellis vs. The Valiants (Johnny Valiant and Jimmy Valiant)

 

Date Tuesday, 1974/04/09

Venue Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina (United States of America)

1 Abe Jacobs defeated El Gaucho

2 L.D. Lewis vs. Pedro Godoy ended without a winner as a time limit draw

3 Johnny Weaver and Haystacks Calhoun defeated Jim Dalton and Bruce Swayze

4 Ivan Koloff and The Super Destroyer defeated Ole Anderson and Gene Anderson

 

Date Monday, 1974/06/03

Venue Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium in Fayetteville, North Carolina (United States of America)

1 Gene Lewis defeated Ed Wiskowski

2 Tiger Conway Jr. defeated George Harris

3 Abe Jacobs and Sandy Scott defeated Rip Hawk and Ric Flair

4 Ivan Koloff defeated Paul Jones by disqualification

 

Date Thursday, 1974/10/31

Venue Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia (United States of America)

1 Sandy Scott defeated Ken Dillinger

2 Danny Miller defeated Frank Morrell

3 Avenger and Johnny Weaver defeated Brute Bernard and Art Neilson

4 Tiger Conway Jr. defeated Chuck O'Connor

5 Wahoo McDaniel, André the Giant and Paul Jones defeated Johnny Valentine, The Super Destroyer and Ivan Koloff

 

Date Thursday, 1974/12/26

Venue Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina (United States of America)

1 Klondike Bill defeated Mike Paidousis

2 Tommy Seigler defeated Frank Morrell

3 Sandy Scott defeated George Harris

4 Tiger Conway Jr., Swede Hanson and Danny Miller defeated Rip Hawk, Art Neilson and Chuck O'Connor (17 minutes)

5 The Fabulous Moolah defeated Susan Green (10:40 minutes)

6 NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Title Match

Paul Jones defeated Ivan Koloff © (13 minutes) - TITLE CHANGE!!!

7 Johnny Valentine defeated Wahoo McDaniel by disqualification (25 minutes)

 

Notable opponents:

Wilbur Snyder, Ole and Gene Anderson, Paul Jones, Wahoo McDaniel, Andre

 

-----------

 

The move to MACW seems to have been a shot in the arm for Ivan as he's firmly back in the main event. Successful tag-team with Super Destroyer here and a feud with Paul Jones over the TV title. Ivan is probably number 2 heel behind Johny Valentine, but he's in the main event on most of the cards.

[Bix]

Kris, what do you have in the way of Australia results, both for Ivan and in general?

[KrisZ]

Very little but I haven't really done the research on that area.

[JerryvonKramer]

1975:

 

Where was he?

 

Leaves MACW in February and moves to IWA stays there until August. Some random Tenessee cards in September (Fullers?) before moving back ot the WWWF in October for the rest of the year.

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event

 

Sample cards:

Date Monday, 1975/02/17

Venue Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (United States of America)

1 Andre Carpentier vs. Bull Gregory

2 Ali Baba vs. Chief White Owl

3 Argentina Apollo and Luis Martínez vs. Love Brothers (Hartford Love and Reginald Love)

4 IWA World Tag Team Titles Match

Geto Mongol and Bolo Mongol © vs. Gino Brito and Dino Bravo

5 George Becker vs. Rip Hawk

6 Eric the Red vs. Mighty Igor

7 Ox Baker vs. Tex McKenzie

8 Bulldog Brower vs. Ernie Ladd

9 Ivan Koloff vs. Thunderbolt Patterson

 

Date Saturday, 1975/05/03

Venue 'Old' Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina (United States of America)

1 Battle Royal

Argentina Apollo vs. Bolo Mongol vs. Dino Bravo vs. Eric the Red vs. Geto Mongol vs. Gino Brito vs. Hartford Love vs. Luis Martínez vs. Nelson Royal vs. Reginald Love vs. Rip Hawk vs. ???

2 Bulldog Brower vs. Mighty Igor

3 IWA International/World Heavyweight Title Match

Ivan Koloff vs. Mil Máscaras ©

 

Date Saturday, 1975/09/20

Venue Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee (United States of America)

1 Don Carson and George Gulas defeated Rip Hawk and Otto Von Heller

2 Bicentennial Kings (Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey) vs. Tojo Yamamoto and Tommy Rich ended without a winner as a time limit draw

3 Jackie Fargo and Pepper Gómez defeated Intern #1 and Intern #2

4 No Disqualification Match

Mongolian Stomper and Ivan Koloff defeated Bob Armstrong and Robert Fuller

 

Date Monday, 1975/11/17

Venue Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York (United States of America)

1 Manuel Soto defeated Davey O'Hannon

2 Francisco Flores defeated Frank Monte

3 Kevin Sullivan vs. Pete Sánchez ended without a winner (20 minutes)

4 Pat Barrett defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna

5 Billy Robinson defeated Johnny Rodz

6 Dominic DeNucci defeated Spiros Arion by disqualification

7 Ivan Putski defeated Bugsy McGraw

8 Ernie Ladd defeated Haystacks Calhoun by countout

9 WWWF World Tag Team Titles Match

The Blackjacks (Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza) © vs. Tony Parisi and Louis Cerdan ended without a winner

10 Special Referee: Gorilla Monsoon - WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Ivan Koloff by disqualification

 

Date Monday, 1975/12/15

Venue Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York (United States of America)

1 Pete Sánchez defeated Johnny Rodz

2 Pat Barrett defeated Manuel Soto (10:25 minutes)

3 Antonio Inoki defeated Frank Monte (8:41 minutes)

4 Tony Parisi and Louis Cerdan defeated Spiros Arion and Baron Mikel Scicluna

5 Ivan Putski defeated Blackjack Lanza (11:50 minutes)

6 Billy Graham defeated Dominic DeNucci (0:09 minutes)

7 Ernie Ladd and Bugsy McGraw defeated Kevin Sullivan and Haystacks Calhoun

8 WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Ivan Koloff

 

Notable opponents:

Thunderbolt Patterson, Ernie Ladd, Mil Mascaras, Bob Armstrong, Bruno Sammartino

 

-----------

 

Ivan looks like he was treated as a big deal in IWA, and that makes sense; the feud with Mascaras looks like it ran for some time. Back in the big time in NY, he's brought in as a challenger for Bruno again. Looks like Ivan's 74-5 is stronger than his 72-3 AWA run -- at least on paper and in terms of positioning on the card.

[JerryvonKramer]

1976:

 

Where was he?

 

WWWF until July ... but then the data stops. KrisZ reliably informs us he was in New Japan at this time -- if anyone has late 76 NJPW card listings, now would be the time to share some of them.

 

What was his positioning on the card?

 

Main event

 

Sample cards:

Date Saturday, 1976/01/31

Venue Philadelphia Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States of America)

1 Davey O'Hannon defeated Tom Stanton

2 Francisco Flores defeated Mike Paidousis

3 Bobo Brazil defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna

4 Gorilla Monsoon defeated Bugsy McGraw

5 Ivan Koloff defeated Ivan Putski by countout

 

Date Saturday, 1976/02/28

Venue The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States of America)

1 Johnny Rodz defeated Mark Tendler

2 Baron Mikel Scicluna defeated Kevin Sullivan

3 Louis Cyr defeated Pat Barrett

4 Bugsy McGraw vs. Ivan Putski ended without a winner as a time limit draw

5 Dominic DeNucci defeated Crusher Blackwell

6 NWA World Women's Title Match

The Fabulous Moolah © defeated Kitty Adams

7 WWWF World Tag Team Titles Match

Ernie Ladd and Billy Graham vs. Tony Parisi and Louis Cerdan © ended without a winner as a double disqualification

8 WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Ivan Koloff by disqualification (14:32 minutes)

 

Date Saturday, 1976/07/10

Venue Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts (United States of America)

1 José Gonzales defeated Tony Altimore

2 Doug Gilbert defeated Johnny Rivera

3 Bobo Brazil defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna

4 WWWF World Tag Team Titles Match

Executioners [2] (Executioner #1 and Executioner #2) © defeated Haystacks Calhoun and Kevin Sullivan

5 Bruno Sammartino and Ivan Putski defeated Ivan Koloff and Stan Hansen by disqualification

Bruno Sammartino © defeated Ivan Koloff by disqualification

 

Notable opponents:

Bruno Sammartino, Ivan Putski, Gorilla Moonson

 

--------

 

The story of this run is that he feuds with Ivan Putski, which main events on non-Bruno cards. He also has plenty of challenges for Bruno's title.

[jdw]

Later on tonight I want to flesh out the picture of what Koloff was doing in between these New York runs. I don't think it's possible to mount a serious case for Ivan based on New York alone -- if it was, we'd be talking about Professor Tanaka for the HoF.

Singles runs for the WWWF/WWF Title:

 

Tanaka

1967/68 vs Bruno

1972 vs Pedro

 

Ivan

1969/70 vs Bruno

1971 vs Bruno/Pedro (winning/losing Title)

1975 vs Bruno

1978 vs Backlund

1983 vs Backlund

 

One is not like the other.

[jdw]

I see the comment "Lesnar's only on because of MMA" and I don't think that's accurate. People are ignoring that he was a NCAA heavyweight champion. Amateur credentials count for something with the WON HOF.

I don't think that amateur credentials count for anything in the WON HOF.

 

Even with the pros? You didn't think Angle got in, in part, because he made the whole fraternity look look good and more legitimate?

It had nothing to do with it. Angle got put in because people thought he was one of the greatest workers of all-time that early in his career, and thought he had enough top of the card stuff with the WWF.