1.
Montreal
–
Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
2.
Quebec
–
Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
3.
Canada
–
Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
4.
Professional wrestling
–
Professional wrestling is a dramatized athletic performance that portrays a combat sport. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used, the content – including match outcomes – is scripted and choreographed, and the combative actions and reactions are performed to appear violent without injuring the wrestlers. Before the 1980s, these facts were considered trade secrets, in the mid-90s, the presentation of scripted events as legitimate is known as kayfabe. Although the combative content is staged and communicated between the wrestlers, there are physical hazards involved - including permanent injury and death. While it has declined in Europe, in North America it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, unlike in Europe, show wrestling has become especially prominent in Japan and in North America. In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, although professional wrestling started out as petty acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from live event ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, personal appearances by performers, branded merchandise, pro wrestling was also instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and formerly Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc, home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week. Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, there have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling, the 2008 film The Wrestler received several Oscar nominations and began a career revival for star Mickey Rourke. Because actual events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, special care must be taken when talking about people who perform under their own name. The actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer and this is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers will incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and those who participated felt that it was necessary that spectators should be kept in a constant and complete illusion of a real competition to keep audience interest. For decades, up until the mid-1980s, wrestlers lived their lives as though they were their characters. Wrestlers, bookers and promoters all rigorously enforced the illusion and very few were allowed into the society of professional wrestling to maintain suspension of disbelief. The practice of keeping the illusion, and the methods used to do so, came to be known as kayfabe within wrestling circles. An entire lexicon of slang jargon and euphemism developed to allow performers to communicate without outsiders knowledge of what was being said, occasionally a performer will deviate from the intended sequence of events
5.
Charlotte, North Carolina
–
Charlotte /ˈʃɑːrlət/ is the largest city in the state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County and the second-largest city in the southeastern United States, just behind Jacksonville, Charlotte is the third-fastest growing major city in the United States. In 2014 the estimated population of Charlotte according to the U. S. Census Bureau was 809,958, the Charlotte metropolitan area ranks 22nd-largest in the U. S. and had a 2014 population of 2,380,314. The Charlotte metropolitan area is part of a sixteen-county market region or combined statistical area with a 2014 U. S. Census population estimate of 2,537,990, residents of Charlotte are referred to as Charlotteans. It is listed as a global city by the Globalization. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is an international hub, and was ranked the 23rd-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in 2013. Charlotte has a subtropical climate. The city is located several miles east of the Catawba River and southeast of Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and Mountain Island Lake are two smaller man-made lakes located near the city. The Catawba Native Americans were the first to settle Mecklenburg County and were first recorded in European records around 1567, by 1759 half the Catawba tribe had been killed by smallpox. At the time of their largest population, Catawba people numbered 10,000, Mecklenburg County was initially part of Bath County of New Hanover Precinct, which became New Hanover County in 1729. The western portion of New Hanover split into Bladen County in 1734, Mecklenburg County formed from Anson County in 1762. Further apportionment was made in 1792, with Cabarrus County formed from Mecklenburg and these areas were all part of one of the original six judicial/military districts of North Carolina known as the Salisbury District. The area that is now Charlotte was settled by people of European descent around 1755, Thomas Polk, who later married Thomas Spratts daughter, built his house by the intersection of two Native American trading paths between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. One path ran north–south and was part of the Great Wagon Road, within decades of Polks settling, the area grew to become Charlotte Town, incorporating in 1768. The crossroads, perched atop the Piedmont landscape, became the heart of Uptown Charlotte, in 1770, surveyors marked the streets in a grid pattern for future development. The east–west trading path became Trade Street, and the Great Wagon Road became Tryon Street, in honor of William Tryon, the intersection of Trade and Tryon—commonly known today as Trade & Tryon, or simply The Square—is more properly called Independence Square. While surveying the boundary between the Carolinas in 1772, William Moultrie stopped in Charlotte Town, whose five or six houses were very ordinary built of logs, local leaders came together in 1775 and signed the Mecklenburg Resolves, more popularly known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. While not a declaration of independence from British rule, it is among the first such declarations that eventually led to the American Revolution
6.
Pat Patterson (wrestler)
–
Pat Patterson is a Canadian/American retired professional wrestler. He is currently employed by the wrestling promotion WWE as a creative consultant. The inaugural WWF Intercontinental Champion and creator of the Royal Rumble match and he has been described by journalist Dave Meltzer as Vince McMahons right-hand man and one of the chief architects of the WWF, playing an integral role in helping it become a global phenomenon. Patterson was born into an impoverished French-speaking family in the Ville-Marie arrondissement of Montreal, Quebec and he began training to wrestle at the age of 14 at Loisirs Saint Jean Baptiste. Patterson debuted in Montreal, Quebec in 1958, wrestling at the Palais des Sports for promoter Sylvio Samson, early in his career, he performed as Killer Pat Patterson. In 1962, Patterson - despite speaking no English - emigrated to the United States to pursue his wrestling career. He initially worked for Tony Santos Big Time Wrestling promotion in Boston, while living and working in Boston, Patterson met his long-term partner, Louie Dondero. In 1962, Patterson was recruited by Mad Dog Vachon for Don Owens Portland, in 1963, Patterson wrestled for promotions in Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma as part of a talent exchange organized by Owen. Patterson returned to Pacific Northwest Wrestling in 1964 and he held the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship on two occasions that year. On October 2,1964, Patterson defeated Pepper Martin for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship and he held the championship for six weeks before losing to Martin. Patterson won the championship again in 1965 and 1966, in January 1965, Patterson was hired by Roy Shire for his San Francisco, California-based NWA San Francisco promotion. At Shires request, Patterson dyed his hair blond to form a tag team with Ray Stevens, the duo won the NWA World Tag Team Championship in 1965 and again in 1967. The Blonde Bombers were described by Bret Hart as considered by many to be the best tag team of the 1970s. In 1968, Patterson wrestled for NWA Western States Wrestling in Amarillo, Texas as Lord Patrick Patterson, winning the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship, in the same year, he undertook a six-week tour of Japan, facing Antonio Inoki in a series of bouts. After Stevens turned face in the late 1960s, he had a feud with the heel Patterson, culminating in the 1970s Texas Death match, in which Stevens won the title from Patterson. In 1970 and 1971, Patterson wore a mask during his matches, in 1972, Patterson turned face again, after feuding with Lars Anderson, who was managed by Dr. Ken Ramey. Later that year, he teamed with Rocky Johnson and won the tag team championship, in 1975 and 1981, Patterson won the Cow Palace Battle Royal in San Francisco. In 1977, Patterson wrestled for Eddie Grahams Tampa, Florida-based Championship Wrestling from Florida promotion, during his run, he won the NWA Florida Television Championship and the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship, as well as briefly serving as booker
7.
Jim Crockett Promotions
–
Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. was a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1931, the promotion emerged as a cornerstone of the National Wrestling Alliance, by the 1980s, Jim Crockett Promotions was, along with the World Wrestling Federation, one of the two largest promotions in the United States. The Crockett family sold a majority interest in the promotion to Turner Broadcasting System in 1988, Jim Crockett was a promoter of live events including professional wrestling, music concerts, plays, minor league baseball, and ice hockey. In 1931, he founded his own wrestling promotion, Jim Crockett Promotions. Crockett built JCP as a regional promotion centred on the Carolinas, although the business was always called Jim Crockett Promotions, it used a variety of pseudonyms as brand names for specific TV shows, newspaper and radio ads, and even on event tickets, themselves. Crockett joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1952, and his territory covered Virginia, North Carolina, the name Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling became JCPs primary brand name in print, radio, and other advertising. Two years later, JCP introduced the Wide World Wrestling brand name, JCP used the Wide World/World Wide and Mid-Atlantic brands concurrently. The business was incorporated in the 1950s and he left JCP to his family, with his eldest son, Jim Crockett, Jr. taking over as chief executive. In 1981, JCP moved to the WPCQ-TV studios in Charlotte, the local shows hosted by announcers like Big Bill Ward and Charlie Harville gave way to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Mid-Atlantic was hosted by Bob Caudle Caudle was joined by a rotation of co-hosts, for a brief period, a secondary show, East Coast Wrestling, was taped at WRAL, it was basically a re-packaged version of Mid-Atlantic, and was announced by Big Bill Ward. In 1975, JCP premiered a new, syndicated B-show, Wide World Wrestling, the original host of this show was former Georgia Championship Wrestling announcer Ed Capral. Subsequent Wide World/World Wide announcers included Les Thatcher, George and Sandy Scott and it was also hosted by the team of Rich Landrum and Johnny Weaver. Rich Landrum and David Crockett appeared on Best Of, doing interviews for local arena shows. JCP gradually began to expand, running shows in eastern Tennessee, parts of West Virginia, in the late-1970s and early-1980s, JCP ran regular shows in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. Crockett and Scott also bought minority shares of Frank Tunneys Toronto-based promotion, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling also aired on a Buffalo, New York station, enabling the Tunney/Crockett/Scott enterprise to bring a full slate of shows to Ontario and upstate New York. In the 1980s, Crockett, Jr. began consolidating the Southern franchises of the National Wrestling Alliance, in August 1980, Crockett, Jr. was elected president of the NWA. In 1981, former Georgia Championship Wrestling booker Ole Anderson took over as Mid-Atlantics booker, in 1981, Anderson booked both JCP and GCW simultaneously. In 1982, Crockett partnered with wrestlers Ric Flair and Blackjack Mulligan to start a company out of Knoxville, Tennessee
8.
WWE
–
Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American professional wrestling promotion and the sanctioning body for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Federation. Founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1953, Capitol Wrestling Corporation is the precursor to todays WWE, run by Jess grandson, Jess McMahon was a successful boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden, a few years prior, professional wrestler Toots Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”. He convinced wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow to implement this new solution, after much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt later formed partnerships with other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling scene, due to the fact Curley was dying, with the aid of several bookers, together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. which later joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondts associates, both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, after gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartinos heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late 1960s and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, at the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. By March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation and that same year, Vincent J. McMahons son, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. incorporated on February 21,1980, originally in Massachusetts. In 1982, Titan Sports Inc. acquired Capitols operations, effectively relocating its headquarters to Greenwich, in an attempt to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the world, McMahon began an expansion that fundamentally changed the industry. In the end, the elder McMahon would never live to see his company grow from a promotion to what is now a worldwide organization. He died from cancer at 69 years old on May 24,1984. By 1985, Titan moved to Stamford, Connecticut then establishing a new entity in 1987 in Delaware which later merged with the old company in 1988. Titan later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
9.
NWA World Heavyweight Championship
–
The National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the National Wrestling Alliance. Its lineage has been traced from the first World Heavyweight Championship and this effectively makes it the oldest surviving wrestling championship in the world. With many territorial promotions appearing across the United States, the NWA was formed in 1948 as an overall governing wrestling body, like franchises, these territories had the option of NWA membership. The promotion owners had to recognize the NWA heavyweight, junior heavyweight, Ric Flair holds the record for the most reigns with nine. Every year, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion would travel to each territory, the purpose of the world champion was to make the top contender look good and still hold the title. The NWA board of directors, composed mostly of territory owners, by the late 1950s, however, the system began to break down. As Lou Thesz continued to hold the title, other wrestlers such as Verne Gagne became frustrated over the lack of change. There were also disputes over the number of appearances the champion would make in different regions, on June 14,1957 in Chicago, Lou Thesz defended the world title against Canadian wrestler Édouard Carpentier in a two out of three falls match. Thesz and Carpentier split the first two falls, in the third fall, Thesz was disqualified by referee Ed Whalen who raised Carpentiers hand in victory. The NWA later voided the change based on the disqualification. Thesz defeated Carpentier by disqualification in a Montreal rematch on July 24, Carpentier would also be able to make appearances in the US as champion while Thesz was on an overseas tour. However, as a result of disputes within the NWA, Carpentiers manager, wrestling promoter Eddie Quinn. The organization dealt with the situation by announcing 71 days after Carpentiers win in Chicago that it did not recognize Carpentiers win and had never recognized it, Quinn started promoting Carpentier as the true NWA world champion based on the match with Thesz. In 1958, Quinn started shopping Carpentier around to promoters interested in leaving the NWA, a victory over Carpentier could give a local champion a credible claim to the world championship of wrestling. Verne Gagne, who had been trying to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion for some time, defeated Carpentier in Omaha and this was recognized as a title change by those NWA affiliate promotions that would later evolve into the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This disputed version of the NWA World Heavyweight Title was later known as the World Heavyweight Championship, the title was unified with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on September 7,1963. The AWA title continued to exist until the AWA ceased operations in 1991, the Boston NWA affiliate known as the Atlantic Athletic Commission arranged a match between Killer Kowalski and Carpentier in 1958. Kowalskis victory created what was known as the ACC World Heavyweight Title and later the Big Time Wrestling World title which was active until 1975
10.
Tag team
–
Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, in most team matches, only one competitor per team is allowed in the ring at a time. This status as the active or legal wrestler may be transferred by physical contact, the team-based match has been a mainstay of professional wrestling since the mid twentieth century, and most promotions have sanctioned a championship division for tag teams. g. A couple tag-teaming in an argument with another person, in 1901 the first tag team match was held in the United States, in San Francisco. San Francisco promoters introduced tag team wrestling as a way of improving the sport’s entertainment value, while tag team wrestling is now almost traditional in American professional wrestling, the innovation didnt become especially popular outside San Francisco until the 1930s. The first World tag team championship was also crowned in San Francisco in the early 1950s, typically, a tag team championship is awarded to and defended by team of two. In kayfabe, this made it difficult for challengers to prepare for their title fights. This was a gimmick, and is still utilized by other wrestling companies. The stipulation has become known as the freebird rule. A common storyline is former tag team partners turning on each other and this can be used when one member is being called on to develop a new gimmick. The basic tag team match has two teams of two facing off against each other. All standard rules for singles wrestling apply to a team match, however, only one wrestler from each team, called the legal man is allowed in the ring at a time. All other members of the team wait outside the ropes in the teams specified corner, only an active/legal wrestler is allowed to score a fall or have a fall scored against him/her. But any wrestler, legal or outside, may face disqualification for himself or his team for violating rules, once a tag is made, the wrestler tagging out has a grace period to leave the ring before risking disqualification. The wrestler outside the ring must be touching the tag rope tied in the corner, tags are legal as long as the two team members touch. The referee has to see and/or hear the contact between the two wrestlers in order for the tag to be legal. As the ultimate authority over the match, a referee may overlook any of these at his discretion, in some multi-man tag matches in lucha libre, a wrestler can make himself the teams legal man simply by setting foot in the ring, and his partner then leaves. This allows for action to become nearly continuous, two referees, one stationed inside the ring and one on the floor, are employed to maintain order for this type of match
11.
Terry Garvin
–
Terry Joyal, better known by his ring name Terry Garvin, was a Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his work with kayfabe brother Ron Garvin and he is also known for a case of sexual harassment in 1992 that led to the end of his employment with the World Wrestling Federation. Joyal grew up in Montreal, Quebec and he trained to become a professional wrestler at a gym in the Loisirs St. Jean de Baptiste church in Montreal. He made his debut in 1958 in Ontario. He held the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship of Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling two times in 1964 with partner Chin Lee, beginning in 1965, Garvin began an approximately five-year stint as the tag team partner of Ron Garvin. Garvin then began teaming with Duke Myers, the pairs manager was Jimmy Garvin, the stepson of Ron Garvin. In 1972 in NWA Tri-State, the won the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. By 1973, he was working in NWA Mid-America, where he won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship three times with Myers, later in the year, he won the title two more times with Ron Garvin. The Garvins also held the Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship that year and he returned to the Gulf Coast in 1974, teaming once again with Ron Garvin, to win Southeastern Championship Wrestlings NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship. By the early 1980s Garvin retired from the ring and went on to book for Bob Geigels NWA territory, Central States Wrestling, in 1985 Terry was approached by Pat Patterson and eventually was offered a job working for the World Wrestling Federation behind the scenes. His employment with WWF ceased on March 2,1992, allegedly, Garvin had an address book full of names and addresses of males that he hooked up with around the country as he traveled. He allegedly once accosted a 19-year-old, who reached a settlement with the WWF. WWF owner Vince McMahon discussed the incident on Larry King Live, fellow wrestler Barry Orton called into the show and claimed that Garvin accosted him in 1978. He was good friends with fellow wrestler Pat Patterson and he knew Patterson, as well as tag team partner Ron Garvin, when he was growing up in Montreal. Garvin died on August 17,1998 after suffering from cancer
12.
Georgia (U.S. state)
–
Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
13.
Alabama
–
Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
14.
Kentucky
–
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U. S. states constituted as a commonwealth, originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States, Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State, a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky. In 1776, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County, the precise etymology of the name is uncertain, but likely based on an Iroquoian name meaning the meadow or the prairie. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South, a significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast, West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more, Kentuckys northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River. The official state borders are based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792, for instance, northbound travelers on U. S.41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles. Ellis Park, a racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee, Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River requires a trip through Tennessee. The epicenter of the powerful 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The Jackson Purchase and western Pennyrile are home to several bald cypress/tupelo swamps, located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F to the low of 23 °F. The average precipitation is 46 inches a year, Kentucky experiences four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The highest recorded temperature was 114 °F at Greensburg on July 28,1930 while the lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F at Shelbyville on January 19,1994, due to its location, Kentucky has a moderate humid subtropical climate, with abundant rainfall
15.
Tennessee
–
Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States, Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, Tennessees capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 654,610. Memphis is the states largest city, with a population of 655,770, the state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1,1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war. Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia and this sharply reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century. This city was established to house the Manhattan Projects uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build the worlds first atomic bomb, Tennessees major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment. In the early 18th century, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi in present-day Monroe County, the town was located on a river of the same name, and appears on maps as early as 1725. The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain, some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean meeting place, winding river, according to ethnographer James Mooney, the name can not be analyzed and its meaning is lost. The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, the spelling was popularized by the publication of Henry Timberlakes Draught of the Cherokee Country in 1765. In 1788, North Carolina created Tennessee County, the county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee. When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new out of the Southwest Territory. Other sources differ on the origin of the nickname, according to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Tennessee ties Missouri as the state bordering the most other states, the state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome, which lies on Tennessees eastern border, is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, and is the third highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River
16.
Angelo Poffo
–
Angelo John Poffo was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He ran International Championship Wrestling for a number of years, holding cards in Tennessee, Kentucky and he was the father of The Genius Lanny Poffo and Macho Man Randy Savage. Poffo started wrestling in 1948 at Karl Pojellos gym in Illinois and his first match was in 1949 against Ruffy Silverstein. He sometimes wrestled as The Masked Miser and managed other wrestlers as The Miser and he became a villainous character for the first time in 1950. In the mid-1950s, Bronco Lubich acted as his manager and he won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship in 1958. He formed a tag team with Chris Markoff called The Devils Duo in 1966. Prior to that, in 1964 he briefly teamed with Nicoli Volkoff, in 1973, he formed the team The Graduates with Ken Dillinger. Poffo wrestled in the 1970s and 1980s under a mask as The Carpet Bagger for Emile Duprees Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and he also bought into the promotion, when his sons were old enough to join. He wrestled under a mask with a dollar sign on the forehead. In addition, Poffo ran International Championship Wrestling from 1979 to 1983 in Kentucky, according to his son, Lanny Poffo, Vince McMahon declined to include Poffo in a 1987 World Wrestling Federation event featuring legends. Lanny Poffo claims that this caused an early rift in the relationship between McMahon and Poffos other son, Randy Savage. His last match was in 1991 against Luis Martinez and he made a few appearances in World Championship Wrestling in 1995 managing his son, Randy Savage. He was once attacked by The Nature Boy Ric Flair, who put him in a figure four leglock, in 1995, he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame. Poffo was a catcher for the DePaul University baseball team, in college, he studied physical education and was a competitive chess player. While serving in the US Navy in 1945, he set a record for sit-ups. He completed 6,033 sit-ups in four hours and ten minutes, in college, he met his future wife Judy, whom he married on June 6,1949. They were married for more than sixty years, and together they had two sons, Randy and Lanny, after retiring from professional wrestling, Poffo taught physical education in Illinois
17.
International Championship Wrestling
–
International Championship Wrestling was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky that operated from 1978 until 1984. It was run by WCW Hall of Famer Angelo Poffo, the father of Randy Savage and this, among other issues, would result in a series of lawsuits between Poffo and other NWA-affiliated organizations during the late 1970s and early 80s. In 1984 the promotion closed due to dwindling attendance and its assets were bought by Jerry Jarrett. Paul Christy, the wrestler who had ended Randy Savages final reign as ICW World Champion and he ran the promotion for a few years with little publicity or success before closing it down in the late 1980s. Another promotion called International Championship Wrestling operated out of Boston in the late 1980s, promoted by Angelo and Mario Savoldi, after forming a working agreement with World Class Championship Wrestling, the Boston-based ICW was renamed International World Class Championship Wrestling. It included such stars as, The Russian Brute, Tom Brandi, Mike Kahula, Tony Rumble, International Championship Wrestling is also a lesser known promotion based in Cloverdale, BC. Past wrestlers include Buddy Wayne, and Chico Alvarez
18.
Randy Savage
–
Savage is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history, a number of peers have ranked Savage among the industrys top performers of all time. For most of his tenures in the WWF and WCW, Savage was managed by his real-life wife Miss Elizabeth Hulette and he has won 29 titles during a 32-year career, including the WWF World Heavyweight Championship twice and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four times. Aside from championships, he was the 1987 WWF King of the Ring, at the peak of his popularity, he held similar drawing power to that of Hulk Hogan. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015, Poffo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the elder son of Judy and Angelo Poffo. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish, Poffo was raised Roman Catholic, Angelo was a well-known wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, who was featured in Ripleys Believe It or Not. for his ability to do sit-ups for hours on end. His younger brother is professional wrestler Lanny Poffo and he lived in Zanesville, Ohio, where he attended Grover Cleveland Middle School. He graduated from Downers Grove North High School in Downers Grove and he later moved to Staten Island, New York, before moving to Lexington, Kentucky, where he lived for many years. Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals organization as an out of high school. He was placed in the leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder in the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds. Savage was 18 when he began playing minor league baseball, one of his teammates on the 1971 Gulf Coast League Cardinals was Larry Herndon who was also his roommate. Savage would swing a bat into a car tire as a regular training exercise in order to strengthen his hands. The technique was so effective that Herndon adopted it and used it during his own career as a baseball coach, Savage injured his natural throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. Savages last season was 1974, when he played for the Tampa Tarpons and he played 289 games in four minor league seasons, batting.254 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs. Savage first broke into the business in 1973 during the fall. His first wrestling character, The Spider, was similar to Spider-Man, the Macho Man nickname was adopted after his mother Judy Poffo read a Readers Digest article predicting that the phrase would become the next hot term. Savage eventually decided to end his career and become a full-time wrestler. He wrestled his first match against Midwest Territory wrestler Golden Boy Paul Christy, Savage worked with his father and brother in Michigan, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Maritimes, and the eastern Tennessee territory run by Nick Gulas. After a while, his father felt that his sons were not getting the pushes they deserved so he started the outlaw International Championship Wrestling promotion in the mid-American states, eventually, ICW disbanded and Randy and Lanny entered the Memphis scene, joining Jerry Lawlers Continental Wrestling Association
19.
Pez Whatley
–
Pezavan Pez Whatley was a professional wrestler in the 1980s up until the mid-1990s. Whatley played football and wrestled for Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee and he was UTCs first African-American wrestler. Whatley was also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Whatley started wrestling in 1973 after a brief career as a power lifter. He wrestled with the Sheiks Big Time Wrestling, after which he wrestled primarily in Alabama and he won the Southern Title twice while there. He was one-third of the Convertible Blondes with Rip Rogers and Gary Royal in the Angelo Poffo-promoted ICW, one of Whatleys best-known moments in ICW was the Mop Head angle where Whatley had to wear a mop wig after losing a match to Ron Garvin. The match stipulation also required him to keep wearing it until he won another match and this led to not only a lengthy feud with Garvin but also to a long losing streak for Whatley. Most of Whatleys losses were by disqualification due to interference when Garvin would attack Whatleys opponent. The angle lasted for months until Whatley finally won a match. He went to the NWAs Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985 and often teamed with Jimmy Valiant against members of Paul Jones Army. In 1986, after Valiant called Whatley the best black athlete in wrestling, Whatley turned on Valiant and cut some of Valiants hair. Whatley joined Jones Army and renamed himself Shaska Whatley and he frequently teamed with The Barbarian and Baron von Raschke in their war against Valiant. He eventually lost a hair vs. hair match to Valiant and was shaved bald, in late 1987, Whatley had left Jones and started teaming with Tiger Conway Jr. as The Jive Tones. They did not have success, and Whatley left for Florida in 1988. He was part of Kevin Sullivans goon squad in Florida and departed for Alabama shortly after his arrival, in Alabamas Southeast Championship Wrestling, Whatley became Willie B. Hert and was one of the top faces for the company, in the early 1990s Pez Whatley had a short stint in Japans UWFi. He also worked for the World Wrestling Federation as an enhancement talent on their television programs from January 1990 until April 1991. He also picked up a few victories on house shows, most notably over Paul Diamond, while working for WCW in the late 1990s, Whatley was hospitalized for bronchitis, where doctors discovered he had an enlarged heart which would likely stop pumping sooner than normal. In the years waiting for a transplant, he was pronounced dead twice
20.
Ox Baker
–
Douglas A. Baker was an American professional wrestler and actor, better known professionally as Ox Baker. He was famous for his move, the Heart Punch, sometimes called the Hurt Punch. He appeared in movies including Blood Circus and Escape from New York. Baker, the oldest of five siblings, began as an high school wrestler, boxer and football player in his adopted hometown of Waterloo. He also played football for two years in the armed forces, Baker was trained by Buddy Austin, Pat OConnor, and Bob Geigel, and debuted in 1964. As time went on he was winning a majority of his matches by knock out caused by the Heart Punch, he renamed the move the Hurt Punch when Stan Stasiak, from who Baker adopted the move. Initially debuting as a kind, horn-rimmed glasses wearing, country simpleton and he was known for his unique look with his shaved head and black bushy mustache and eyebrows and ability to cut a promo. He was also famous for wearing t-shirts to the ring, declaring himself The Great Heart Puncher, in 1967 Baker worked for the World Wide Wrestling Federation as The Friendly Arkansas Ox. In his first appearance there, Baker teamed with Armand Hussein in a match versus Gorilla Monsoon. On June 13,1971, Baker and his partner the Claw were wrestling in an AWA Midwest Tag Team Championship tag team match against Alberto Torres and Cowboy Bob Ellis in Verdigre, Torres was injured during the match and died three days later. Though evidence indicated that Torres died of an appendix, Bakers Heart Punch was blamed. On August 1,1972, Baker lost to Ray Gunkel, following the match, Gunkel died in the locker room, his death was attributed to a blood clot, which broke off from a hematoma caused by Baker, which led to a heart attack. Again, the death was worked into Bakers character, and in 1974, Baker caused a riot in Cleveland, Ohio, for continually Heart Punching an opponent after the match was finished. Baker beat The Sheik to win the Detroit version of the US Heavyweight title, he won the NWA American Heavyweight Championship. Baker teamed with Chuck OConnor to win the WWA World Tag Team Championship in 1976 and he also teamed with Superstar Billy Graham to hold the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship. He is noted for a feud with Randy Savage in International Championship Wrestling, late in his career, Baker appeared with Central States Wrestling as a face and feuded with Rip Rogers. In 1988, Baker returned to the AWA, under contract, Baker teamed up with The Russian Brute of ICW fame. The following year he opened Ox Bakers Wrestling School, becoming a well-renowned trainer and his students include Mark Calaway, Bryan Clark
21.
Bob Orton Jr.
–
Robert Keith Bob Orton Jr. better known by the ring name Cowboy Bob Orton, is an American professional wrestler. He is the son of professional wrestler Bob Sr. the brother of professional wrestler Barry O, and he is best known for his time in the WWF. He has also wrestled for promotions in the United States, Japan. Orton was born in Kansas City, Kansas and they won the tag team title from the promotion. Orton was one of the first wrestlers to use the Superplex as his final movement, Orton, in his early days in wrestling, used a gimmick of a masked wrestler known as The Invader. He often used this gimmick, until 1976, after experiencing success in the Florida, Central States, and Mid-South regions, Orton competed in the National Wrestling Alliance in 1980-1981 using a cowboys gimmick. While he competed in the NWA, he won matches and earned a reputation as a hard worker. In 1981 he left the NWA to sign a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, in 1981, Orton competed in the World Wrestling Federation. Competing as a heel and using the dreaded superplex as his finisher, he challenged Bob Backlund for the WWF Heavyweight Championship, winning by count-out and they had a lumberjack match a month later but was unsuccessful. He returned to the NWA again in 1983 and captured the tag title with Don Kernodle. The duo held the title for two months before succumbing to Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood, together with Dick Slater, he had a feud with Ric Flair. Orton and Slater interfered in Flairs return match against NWA World Champion Harley Race, in the run-up to this incident, Orton had been portrayed as a babyface and a longtime friend of Flair - his participation in the attack was thus portrayed as the betrayal of that friendship. Flair would eventually return in late 1983, attacking both Orton and Slater with a baseball bat, Orton re-joined the WWF in 1984 for what would be the most famous run of his career. He was often addressed as Ace Orton by Roddy Piper, and was Pipers bodyguard and he won several matches, with the cast and without the cast. In 1985, Orton was the #1 contender to the WWF Intercontinental Championship, Orton was successful in winning untelevised matches and events against Santana, but Orton mostly won by either count-out or disqualification. Orton would also be successful in defeating Santana in non-title bouts, but Santana ultimately remained as the champ, Orton would also engage in a bitter feud with Jimmy Snuka through 1985 and 1986. Orton, just like with Santana, managed to achieve victories over Snuka, just like his feud with Santana, Snuka would get the upper hand in the feud. Orton remained with Piper for the remainder of 1985, feuding with Orndorff and a variety of partners, such as Hogan, André the Giant, in early 1986, Orndorff began wearing a cast as a neutralizer, and the WWF ordered both men to remove their casts
22.
Gimmick (professional wrestling)
–
These in-ring personalities often involve costumes, makeup and catchphrases that they shout at their opponents or the fans. Gimmicks can be designed to work as good guys or villains depending on the desire to be popular or hated by the crowd. A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes, a wrestler may portray more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion that they are working for at that time. Razor Ramon was portrayed by both Scott Hall and Rick Bognar, occasionally, a wrestler uses a gimmick as tribute to another worker, such is the case of Ric Flairs Nature Boy persona which he took on as an homage to the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers. When a wrestler acts outside his or her gimmick this is known as breaking kayfabe, a term showing pro wrestlings linkages to theatre, the two awards are given to the best and worst gimmick of that year. Current winners are The New Day and Stardust respectively, pro wrestlings history has been tied to the use of gimmicks from its infancy. It was not until the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the United States during the 1940s–1950s and his heel character focused on his looks and quickly antagonized the fans with his exaggerated effeminate behaviour. Such showmanship was unheard of for the time, and consequently, Gorgeous Georges impact and legacy on wrestling gimmicks was enormous, demonstrating how fast television changed the product from athletics to performance. Before him, wrestlers imitated ethnic terrors, but his success birthed a more individualistic. He was one of the first pro-wrestlers to use music, Pomp. In Britain, television took British wrestling to the level when in 1964. The style of wrestling at the time was unique with strong emphasis on clean technical wrestling, heels made up a minority of the roster, with most shows containing an abnormally high proportion of clean sportsmanly matches between two blue-eyes. This would remain the case for decades to come. Gimmick matches were a rarity, midget wrestling failed to catch on, during the Second Golden Age of pro wrestling in the 1980s–1990s a rise of cartoonish, outlandish gimmicks became popular with the increase of World Wrestling Federations popularity. Most notable was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his all-American gimmick and his dominant role in the industry at that time led to this era to be also known as Hulkamania. Around this time, wrestling became a form of entertainment rather than an official sport, other wrestlers from this era with similarly outlandish characterisation include Ric Flair, Sting and The Undertaker. In recent years, the emphasis has been on more realistic gimmicks which portray the wrestler as a person, sometimes using their real names. Wrestlers Randy Orton, Batista, and John Cena are prime examples of this, exaggerating the characteristics of a wrestlers origin is one of the most commonly exploited gimmicks, in which overarching characteristics of a character play up to clichés and stereotypes
23.
The Road Warriors
–
The Road Warriors were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Michael Hawk Hegstrand and Joseph Animal Laurinaitis. Under either name, their gimmick was the same – two imposing muscular wrestlers in face paint, for brief periods, other wrestlers were added as stand-in partners for both men. In Japan in the 1990s, Kensuke Power Warrior Sasaki often teamed with Hawk and Animal, separately, Hawk and Animal were known for their impressive physiques, and revolutionized the business by popularizing the use of face paint, and introducing a tandem maneuver known as the Doomsday Device. Both men used the move as a team finisher throughout their careers, the Road Warriors are regarded by many as the greatest tag team in professional wrestling history. Animal had briefly competed as the Road Warrior before Ole Anderson paired him up with fellow Chicagoan Hawk to form the Road Warriors in 1983. They were initially brought into Precious Paul Ellerings stable as a replacement for his team of Matt Borne and Arn Anderson, after a few months of rapid success, the Road Warriors dumped Ellering as manager, claiming they needed no manager. This was shortlived, as in early 84, along with Precious Paul Ellering formed a stable called The Legion of Doom in the National Wrestling Alliance s Georgia Championship Wrestling territory, the group consisted of the Road Warriors, Jake The Snake Roberts, The Spoiler. The stable was short lived and the name Legion of Doom soon referred only to the Road Warriors and Ellering with either name used interchangeably throughout their career. Animal reveals in the Road Warriors, The Life and Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team in Wrestling History DVD set that the name Legion of Doom was taken from the Super Friends cartoon. In Georgia, the team rose to the top despite being very young. They gained a reputation for being stiff and not selling simply because they could. They won the NWA National Tag Team Championship upon their debut, in 1984, the Road Warriors moved on to Verne Gagnes American Wrestling Association along with their manager Paul Ellering. On August 25,1984, they defeated The Crusher and Baron von Raschke for the AWA World Tag Team Championship, the Road Warriors were brought in by Gagne to work as heels, but their squash matches soon won over fans. They became the AWAs top draw throughout 1984 and 1985, feuding primarily with The Fabulous Ones, Hawk and Animal eventually lost the AWA title to Jimmy Garvin and Mr. Electricity Steve Regal on September 29,1985, due to the interference of the Freebirds. The Road Warriors last appearance in the AWA was on April 20,1986 at WrestleRock where they defeated the team of Garvin, during their AWA stint the team became well known for using the Black Sabbath song Iron Man as their entrance theme. This and subsequent dominant victories garnered the Road Warriors a lot of Japanese wrestling media headlines and their tours with AJPW in 1985 and 1986 made the Road Warriors such legends in Japan that they toured the country whenever they were “between contracts” of the big three. Their last match in Japan during this period was on July 22,1990, for New Japan Pro Wrestling, losing to Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh by disqualification. On April 19,1986, The Road Warriors won the inaugural Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament by beating Ron Garvin and Magnum T. A. in the finals
24.
Jake Roberts
–
Aurelian Smith Jr. best known by his ring name Jake The Snake Roberts, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and the son of former wrestler Aurelian Grizzly Smith. Roberts is best known for his two stints in the World Wrestling Federation, the first between 1986 and 1992, and the second between 1996 and 1997. He wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance in 1983, World Championship Wrestling in 1992, and he appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling during the summer of 1997 and made appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2006 through 2008. He often brought snakes into the ring, most famously a python named Damien, Roberts was also one of the subjects of the 1999 documentary film Beyond the Mat. In 2012, Roberts moved in with fellow wrestler Diamond Dallas Page to seek help in getting his back on track following years of alcohol. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 5,2014, Roberts started his career in 1974 in the Louisiana area, as a referee and wrestler, making his name in Mid-South Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and Georgia Championship Wrestling. Roberts had trouble developing his character, so he traveled to Canada to wrestle in the late 1970s, while in Stampede Wrestling, Roberts was managed by J. R. Foley and feuded with the Junkyard Dog. Roberts returned to Mid-South Wrestling for 1985, ending his run there in February 1986 after a feud with Dick Slater, Roberts made his World Wrestling Federation debut in March 1986. A month later, he made his debut, defeating George Wells at WrestleMania 2. During the match, Roberts made Wells foam from the mouth when he wrapped his snake Damien around Wellss head, Roberts first major feud was against Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, beginning on a nationally televised episode of Saturday Nights Main Event in May 1986. Roberts executed the DDT on Steamboat on the concrete floor right in front of his wife Bonnie. Unfortunately, Steamboat was unable to stop his head hitting the concrete and was rendered unconscious. After Steamboats recovery, Steamboat introduced a Komodo dragon as his pet to combat the effects of Roberts snake. The feud continued with Steamboat winning most of the matches, most notably a Snake Pit Match at The Big Event in Toronto, and the rematch on the October 1986 edition of Saturday Nights Main Event. Recognizing his microphone skills, Roberts was given his own segment called The Snake Pit. The Snake Pit was patterned after Pipers Pit, wherein Roberts would conduct interviews with wrestlers or managers to help push wrestlers, the segment was eventually moved to WWF Superstars of Wrestling until the final segment aired in July 1987. In late 1986, Roberts began to enjoy an upsurge in fan popularity, in November 1986, Roberts challenged Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship. Before the match, announcer Vince McMahon said the fans would probably support Savage against the disliked Roberts, however, to the surprise of both McMahon and fellow broadcaster Jesse The Body Ventura, the fans cheered loudly for Roberts throughout the bout
25.
National Wrestling Alliance
–
The National Wrestling Alliance is a professional wrestling governing body which has historically been the largest league of independent wrestling promotions in the world. The organization sanctions various NWA championship bouts within its member promotions, the NWA has been in operation since 1948. Prior to the 1960s, it acted as the governing body for most of professional wrestling, operating as a talent. Before the NWA was founded in 1948, there existed many regional professional wrestling promotions across North America, none of them, however, had backing or recognition outside of their own respective geographic base-areas. The concept of the NWA was to consolidate the championships of these companies into one true world championship of pro wrestling. In 1948, Paul Pinkie George, a promoter from the Midwest and this newly formed NWA Board of Directors wanted Brown to be the first-ever NWA World champion. This legitimized the NWAs claim that its title was a world title. The NWA members divided up North America, as well as Japan, into territories that each promoter would own, having a territory meant that no other NWA member could promote wrestling in that area unless special arrangements were made between the promoters involved. If non-NWA promoters tried to promote their show in an NWA territory, reportedly, threats of violence or physical retaliation were used against any promoters who disregarded the territory system. If any member territory broke the NWAs rules, it faced expulsion, for most promoters under the NWA umbrella, the benefits of membership were well worth the dues. Usually, the NWA Presidents territory was the territory of the entire alliance. Beyond the benefit of having other promotions to draw on in case of an intruder, the champion did not have a home territory as such, but instead traveled from territory to territory, defending the title against the top stars of each territory. It was not just the champion that would travel the territories, often, wrestlers from a different area would come into a territory, and run an angle or two with its top local faces. Also, if the local fans ever got tired of a wrestler, he could go to a new area and perform the same act for new audiences. This storyline was often advanced in the area from which the competitor was departing as resulting from the outcome of a highly promoted loser leaves town match. Upon becoming the booker for Lou Thesz in 1950, Muchnick, in the mid-1950s, serious disputes broke out within the NWA. There were antitrust problems with the government and there were a number of competing factions who wanted to replace Thesz as champion with different wrestlers, the antitrust case led to the infamous NWA Consent Decree of 1956 in U. S. v. National Wrestling Alliance. There were also disputes over the number of dates wrestled by the champion in various parts of the country, the first break within the organization occurred in 1957, when Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis
26.
Tully Blanchard
–
Tully Arthur Blanchard is a Canadian-born American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Jim Crockett Promotions and he was inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame in 2009 and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. As the son of wrestling promoter and former American Wrestling Association star Joe Blanchard and he began selling programs and refreshments at the arenas at the age of ten, and worked as a referee when he was older. Blanchard attended West Texas State University, where he played American football, first as a quarterback and then as an end, alongside fellow future wrestlers Tito Santana. He began his career by tag teaming with his father in a feud against Dory Funk, Jr. between 1978 and 1983, Blanchard held the SCW Southwest Television Championship and SCW Southwest Heavyweight Championship on seven occasions. He formed a tag team with Gino Hernandez, The Dynamic Duo and they held the Texas All-Star USA Tag Team Championship on five occasions and the SCW World Tag Team Championship on one occasion in the early 1980s. In 1984, Blanchard left SCW for Jim Crockett Promotions, Blanchard came to Jim Crockett, Jr. s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in early 1984. Blanchard won the title on March 28,1984 and defended the title against some of the top contenders in the such as Ricky Steamboat. After Steamboat departed JCP for the WWF, Blanchard and Dusty Rhodes began a feud for the TV title, on March 16,1985, Rhodes defeated Blanchard to win the NWA Television Championship, ending Blanchards 353-day reign. In the mid 80s Tully Blanchard had a series of matches with World Wrestling Council Universal Champion Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico and the Continental United States. In late 1985, Blanchard fired Baby Doll as his manager, slapping her during a segment and ignited a feud with Dusty Rhodes. James J. Dillon then became Blanchards manager, after Blanchards feud with Rhodes ended, he soon found himself immersed in another high-profile feud over the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship held by Magnum T. A. Much like his feud with Dusty Rhodes, Blanchards rivalry with Magnum escalated into a series of bloody and brutal matches, on July 21,1985 Blanchard defeated Magnum for the U. S. Championship by punching him with an object in his hand given to him by Baby Doll. The feud culminated at Starrcade 85 during a brutal and extremely bloody I Quit match held inside of a cage for the title. The match ended with Magnum driving a piece of a wooden chair into Blanchards forehead. In early 1986, the became a solidified group and called themselves the Four Horsemen. The Horsemen feuded with the top faces of the territory including Magnum T. A
27.
Black Bart (wrestler)
–
Rick Harris is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Black Bart. He is the son of professional wrestler George Harris, rick Harris started wrestling in 1975. He went through several names, such as Hangman Harris, Ricky Harris and Man Mountain Harris, before settling on the name of Black Bart which was given to him by Dusty Rhodes in 1984. He formed a tag team called The Long Riders with Ron Bass in Florida Championship Wrestling in 1984, after splitting with Bass in 1985, he feuded with Ron Garvin, Terry Taylor and Sam Houston over the NWA Mid-Atlantic championship which he won and defended. During this time Black Bart developed his 2nd rope leg drop to a prone opponent finishing move known as The Texas Trash Compactor, in late 1986, Bart went to World Class Championship Wrestling where he feuded with Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich over the World Class title. Bart lost the championship to Von Erich a month later in Dallas, then, like other major World Class stars, while in the Universal Wrestling Federation they would co-promote shows with the NWA. While wrestling in the NWA for Jim Crockett Promotions, he received a push in the midcard, winning the NWA National Heavyweight Championship. He also wrestled in the tournament for the NWA Western States Heritage Championship, Harris lost in the final match to Barry Windham. In 1987 Black Bart wrestled in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling and had matches with Antonio Inoki. He then went back to Championship Wrestling from Florida and teamed with Bobby Jaggers and Tony Anthony while feuding with Dustin Rhodes and Mike Graham and he then went to the Continental Wrestling Association where he feuded with Dutch Mantel. In 1990/1 he wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation where he worked as enhancement talent. In 1991 World Championship Wrestling created a stable known as the Desperados consisting of Dutch Mantell, Black Bart, the Desperados were packaged with the gimmick of being three bumbling cowboys looking to meet up with Stan Hansen to go to WCW and become a team. Over the course of a few months, they were promoted through a series of vignettes by which they would be beaten up in saloons, searching ghost towns, Hansen reportedly wanted no part of the storyline and left for Japan, never to return to wrestle in North America. Without Hansen, the group were pushed into service as jobbers and were dissolved as a stable before the end of the year. Harris later had a run in WCW as Big Train Bart In 1991, he went to the Global Wrestling Federation where he won the Tag Team Titles 3 times. Harris wrestled in the independents for the rest of his career before retiring in 2002, Harris resurfaced in 2006 wrestling on some independent shows in Texas. Harris has also appeared at many NWA reunion events, as a trainer, his most famous pupil to date has been Necro Butcher who was featured in the 2008 hit movie The Wrestler. Harris once ran a wrestling school at the Dallas Sportatorium
28.
WCW United States Tag Team Championship
–
The title was only contestable by male tag teams and in tag team matches. In 1986, NWA President and JCP owner Jim Crockett, Jr, the final champions under the NWA name were The Steiner Brothers. Following the rebranding, the title was referred to as the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. On July 31,1992, WCW stripped the final champions, The Barbarian and Dick Slater, of their titles, nWA/WCW United States Tag Team Championship reigns were determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in scripted rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the competitors, which cast them as villains and heroes. Overall, there were 19 reigns among 15 tag teams, all of which occurred in the United States. From the information known, The Midnight Express s first reign was the longest in the history at 346 days, while The Fantastics second reign was the shortest. The Midnight Express also held the most reigns overall as a tag team and individually, Key Key List of National Wrestling Alliance championships NWA World Tag Team Championship List of NWA World Tag Team Champions General Will, Gary, Royal Duncan. United States, 19th century & widely defended titles - NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA United States Tag Team Championship Title History. Wrestling Title Histories by Gary Will and Royal Duncan, WCW United States Tag Team Championship Title History. Wrestling Title Histories by Gary Will and Royal Duncan
29.
Ivan Koloff
–
Ivan Koloff was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known for once holding the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. He was known as The Russian Bear, Perras was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and raised on a dairy farm in rural Ontario along with his six brothers and three sisters. Since first watching professional wrestling on TV at the age of eight, he wanted to become a wrestler, at age 18, he left high school and joined Jack Wentworths wrestling school in Hamilton, Ontario, where he would lift weights and learn wrestling holds. He stood 57 1/2 tall, and weighed approximately 270 pounds, towards the end of his career, he dropped a considerable amount of weight and was tipping the scale at 205 pounds. Perras debuted as an Irish rogue villain character named Red McNulty, billed from Dublin, Ireland, for the next three years, he wrestled around the Toronto area, eventually quitting his regular job to wrestle in the north-western area of Canada. There, Perras acquired much wrestling experience, and from there he made his first trip to Japan, in 1967, Perras became The Russian Bear Ivan Koloff, a bearded villainous character billed from Ukraine, and debuted with the International Wrestling Association in Montreal, Québec. He defeated Johnny Rougeau for the IWA International Heavyweight Championship the following year, Koloff debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in late 1969, managed by Captain Lou Albano. He soon started a rivalry with then-WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino, Koloff lost the championship 21 days later to Pedro Morales, essentially being used as a transitional champion, much like Stan Stasiak and The Iron Sheik would be in later years. After the loss, Koloff remained a contender for the title but never reclaimed it, Koloff would also be the first opponent to ever challenge for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match in a rematch loss against Sammartino. He fought in the WWWF from 1975–1976, 1978–1979 and 1983, during the 1970s and 1980s, Koloff found success in the National Wrestling Alliance, winning many regional tag team and singles titles in the Georgia, Florida, and Mid-Atlantic territories. In February 1981, he teamed with Ray Stevens to defeat Paul Jones and this would be the first of his four reigns as NWA World Tag Team Champion, later winning the belts with Don Kernodle and twice with his nephew, Nikita Koloff as The Russians. After Nikita turned on Ivan to join their enemy Dusty Rhodes in 1986, koloffs biggest NWA feuds were against Rhodes, The Road Warriors, The Rock n Roll Express and Magnum T. A. In 1988, Koloff spent time in Paul Jones faction, The Paul Jones Army and he later split with Jones, reunited with Nikita, and feuded with Jones team, The Russian Assassins, before leaving Jim Crockett Promotions in January 1989. He also spent time in Eastern Championship Wrestling, appearing on the very first ECW card in 1992, in 1992, Koloff also wrestled in the first television main event of Jim Cornettes Smoky Mountain Wrestling, beating Bobby Fulton. Perras wrote a book titled Is That Wrestling Fake and he became a born again Christian in 1995 and traveled to churches to share his testimony as an ordained minister. Koloff spoke openly and candidly of his conversion to Christianity and struggles with alcohol and drugs and he was represented by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who is involved in several other lawsuits involving former WWE wrestlers. Koloff died in Winterville, North Carolina, on February 18,2017 from liver cancer, Koloff is featured as a playable character in the video games Legends of Wrestling, Legends of Wrestling II and Showdown, Legends of Wrestling. IvanKoloff. com Ivan Koloff on WWE. com Is That Wrestling Fake, the Bear Facts by Ivan Koloff and Scott Teal
30.
Smash (wrestler)
–
Barry Allen Darsow is an American semi-retired professional wrestler who performs as Smash, one half of the tag team Demolition. He has also wrestled as Krusher Khruschev, Repo Man, The Blacktop Bully, throughout his career he worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, and several regional promotions in the 1980s and 1990s. Darsow attended high school in Robbinsdale, Minnesota with six other wrestlers, Curt Hennig, Richard Rood, Brady Boone, Tom Zenk, John Nord. He also worked as a bouncer with The Road Warriors, Hawk, Darsow made his debut in Hawaii as Tsar Mongo, before a short stint in New Zealand. He changed his name to Krusher Khruschev and won the first ever Mid-South Television Title in a tournament by beating Terry Taylor in the finals on May 2,1984, Darsow moved on to Florida Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Jim Neidhart. They won the Florida United States Tag Team Titles on October 11,1984 from Hector Guerrero, the team held them until December 1984, when they lost them to Mark and Jay Youngblood. Krusher moved on to the National Wrestling Alliance to work for Jim Crockett and he was awarded a third of the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff. The Koloffs had already won the NWA World Tag Team Championship and they feuded with The Rock n Roll Express and The Road Warriors. On July 9,1985, he and Ivan lost the NWA Tag Titles to the Rock N Roll Express, at Starrcade 1985, on November 28, Krusher won the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship by defeating Sam Houston. On January 11,1986, Krusher severely injured his knee in a match with Houston on TBS and he lost the title to Houston and had to take almost six months off to recover. When Krusher returned, Nikita was feuding with Magnum T. A. for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. On August 17,1986, Krusher helped Nikita win the title in the match of a Best of 7 series by holding the referee while Nikita used his Russian chain on Magnum. After helping Nikita defeat Magnum, Krusher and Ivan targeted the new NWA United States Tag Team Championship and they reached the finals, held on September 26,1986, and defeated the Kansas Jayhawks with Nikitas help to become the first US Tag Team Champions. Krusher and Ivan briefly feuded with Nikita and Rhodes but primarily defended their titles in rematches against Mantel, on December 9,1986, they lost the US Tag Titles to Ron Garvin and Barry Windham. Darsows contract eventually ran out and he left Jim Crockett Promotions, Darsow next went to the World Wrestling Federation. He was brought into the company to be part of the tag team Demolition, which had consisted of Bill Eadie as Ax and Randy Colley. At first, they were managed by Luscious Johnny V, and their initial feuds involved the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, and Strike Force. On March 27,1988 at WrestleMania IV, they defeated Strike Force to win their first WWF World tag team title and they later lost Mr. Fuji as he left to manage their newest rivals, The Powers of Pain
31.
Dick Murdoch
–
Hoyt Richard Dick Murdoch was an American professional wrestler. Murdoch was born in Waxahachie, Texas, frank Murdoch held the NWA Southwest Junior Heavyweight Championship three times in his career. Murdoch attended Caprock High School, where he took part in amateur wrestling, after graduating, Murdoch attended West Texas State University. Dick Murdoch started wrestling in 1965 as Ron Carson in a tag team with Don Carson and he soon started wrestling under his real name. In 1968, he formed a tag team that would continue throughout the early 1970s with Dusty Rhodes called The Texas Outlaws, after splitting with Rhodes, he wrestled for Florida Championship Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance, and Mid-South Wrestling. His most noted work as a wrestler came in Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s, the pair was the most popular champions in the region, attracting the hardcore, working class white fans with his Captain Redneck persona and JYD drawing the support of the black fan base. Their feud with the Fabulous Freebirds was perhaps Mid-Souths most compelling storyline, in 1984, he went to the World Wrestling Federation and formed a tag team with Adrian Adonis that captured the World Tag Team Titles. He left the WWF in 1985 after dropping the title to The U. S. Express and wrestled in Mid-South Wrestling briefly before turning up in the NWAs Jim Crockett Promotions in 1986 and he feuded with Ric Flair and attempted to win Flairs NWA World Title. In early 1987, Murdoch joined Ivan Koloff and Vladimir Petrov in their attempt to get Nikita Koloff and they feuded with Rick and Scott Steiner but could not win their title. Murdoch was the twenty-seventh entrant in the 1995 WWF Royal Rumble and he was eliminated by Henry O. Godwinn. Following his WWF appearances, he spent the rest of his wrestling on the independent circuit. Murdoch was married on September 21,1966 in Potter County, together, they had one child before divorcing on October 1,1973. Murdoch is the cousin of wrestler Killer Tim Brooks, over the years, many within professional wrestling who knew Murdoch have stated Murdoch was racist and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In a shoot interview, Bad News Brown accused Dick Murdoch of being a member of the Klan and this was also mentioned by Tito Santana in his autobiography, Tales From The Ring. Former WWE SmackDown head writer Alex Greenfield also related a story told to him by Dusty Rhodes about Murdoch driving them to a Klan party without telling him it was a KKK party beforehand, I said, you hit me one more time, Im hitting you back. He hit me, and I knocked him out, Murdoch appeared in 4 movies, The Wrestler, Paradise Alley, Grunt. The Wrestling Movie, and Manhattan Merengue and he also appeared on an episode of Learning The Ropes and an episode of The Jerry Springer Show
32.
Jim Cornette
–
James Mark Cornette is an American professional wrestling manager, commentator, promoter, booker and podcaster. He has also worked as a character in an authoritative role, as Commissioner of Ring of Honor. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Cornette always loved wrestling, reportedly installing an antenna on top of his house as a youth so he could watch as much regional wrestling as possible. He began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, timekeeper, magazine correspondent and his dedication was such that he timed television shows with a stopwatch and would present her with typed formats for every show. By 1982, Cornette was now also writing programs for arena shows, having published in wrestling magazines. In August, he travelled to Memphis to see the TV match between Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair, after the show ended, Cornette was tapped on the shoulder by promoter Jerry Jarrett, and asked if he wanted to become a manager on television. As Cornette has recalled, despite his presence being tolerated at shows and TV tapings for nearly a decade, Cornette made his ringside debut on September 25,1982, managing future manager Sherri Martell. Cornette was given the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match, the most notable wrestlers in this angle were Dutch Mantell and Crusher Broomfield. Over the next 14 months Cornette also managed Jesse Barr, other wrestlers included a trio in Nashville consisting of Carl Fergie, Norman Fredrich Charles III, and the Angel, a trio that he called the Cornette Dynasty. After a short-lived run in Georgia through a deal Jarrett had with Ole Anderson, Cornette returned to Memphis in July 1983, in November 1983, Mid-South promoter Bill Watts recognised his business was down, and was looking to reinvigorate his territory. Watts asked Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler to visit a TV taping, Jarrett suggested a talent trade, and invited Watts to Memphis to see who he liked. Watts also noticed the young manager in Cornette, and in his own words, recalled He was so obnoxious I wanted to slap him. As the more senior Jimmy Hart was still required by Jarrett, Watts took Cornette to manage his new team, notable wrestlers in the trade who left Mid-South for Memphis included Rick Rude and Jim Neidhart. The influx of the new talent had an impact, and business first rebounded. It was during this time that Cornette acquired his tennis racquet which became his trademark and he has stated he had seen a college movie at the time with an obnoxious rich kid carrying a badminton racquet with him, so he decided on a tennis racquet. At times Cornette loaded the racquet with a shoe to guard against aggressive fans. Cornette and the Midnight Express debuted on Mid-South television on November 23,1983, after the first few weeks in the territory the team faced the Mid-South tag team champions Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II. At a TV taping for a signing for an upcoming championship match
33.
Bobby Eaton
–
Robert Lee Bobby Eaton is an American retired professional wrestler, who made his debut in 1976. Eaton is most famous for his work in tag teams, especially his days as one-half of The Midnight Express, under the management of Jim Cornette, Eaton originally teamed with Dennis Condrey and, later on, with Stan Lane. He has also worked with a number of tag team partners. Ware, Steve Keirn, and Lord Steven Regal and he retired in 2015 after nearly 40 years in the ring. Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, Eaton was a fan of professional wrestling and this promotion was operated by Nick Gulas, who staged wrestling shows in the Alabama and Tennessee region. Eatons first involvement in the sport came at the age of 13, while attending Chapman Middle School and he later trained under Tojo Yamamoto to become a professional wrestler. In May 1976, at the age of 17, Eaton made his debut in NWA Mid-America and he entered his first match, a loss to Bearcat Wright, as a last-minute substitute for Wrights absent opponent. He quickly became a regular in Mid-America and continued to train with the more experienced wrestlers, before long, fans, as well as promoter Nick Gulas, noticed Eatons athleticism and showmanship. Gulas decided to promote Eaton up the ranks of NWA Mid-America, giving him matches later in the show, the angle that really helped elevate Eatons name up the card in the promotion took place after the introduction of the tag team The Hollywood Blonds. Eaton fought the Blonds with a variety of partners, including his old trainer Yamamoto, when the Blonds decided to move to a different wrestling promotion, the storyline maintained that Eaton was responsible for driving them out of NWA Mid-America. In 1978, Eaton teamed with Leapin Lanny Poffo, and together won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship from Gypsy Joe. It was Eatons first title win, and he and Poffo held it for a little over a month, Eaton went on to form a team, known as The Jet Set, with George Gulas, Nick Gulass son. Together, Eaton and Gulas held the tag team three times. During their time as a team, the two were involved in a feud with Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes before Gordy and Hayes became famous under the name The Fabulous Freebirds. In the spring of 1979, Eaton started a feud with Chris Colt, the feud between the two was so heated that it saw Colt suspended for piledriving Eaton on the concrete floor, making it appear Eaton had been seriously injured. At that time, the piledriver was banned in most federations and this was done to give the move more shock value. Eaton conclusively defeated Colt, earning a place as one of the top faces in NWA Mid-America, during 1979 and 1980, Eaton worked a series of singles matches against Dennis Condrey, a man he would later team up with to gain worldwide fame. At the end of 1979, Eaton turned heel for the first time in his career by joining Tojo Yamamotos group of wrestlers, although Eaton is now thought of mainly as a heel, his fans were surprised at the time
34.
Starrcade (1985)
–
Starrcade was the third annual Starrcade professional wrestling event produced by Jim Crockett Promotions under the National Wrestling Alliance banner. It took place on November 28,1985 from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and The Omni in Atlanta and it aired live on closed-circuit television. The main event was between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and their feud escalated when Flair broke Rhodes ankle in September. After the event, Flair formed the Four Horsemen stable, the main feud heading into Starrcade was between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Flair was in his reign as the champion, and his reign at the time had lasted for over a year. On September 29 at the Omni in Atlanta, after Flair defeated Nikita Koloff in a cage match, Nikita and Ivan Koloff attacked Flair until Rhodes came. Ole and Arn Anderson then came, and, along with Flair, Flair broke Rhodes left ankle with a diving knee drop, and applied the figure four leglock. However sportscaster Dick Vitales father Lou, and Nicky Joachim of Parlin both ran to the ring and pulled Flair off of Rhodes and threw Ole and Arn Anderson out of the ring thus saving Rhodes, teddy Longs wife was the referee for that match. It was the first time an event was broadcast live from two locations, in 1985, the World Wrestling Federation was an emerging competitor to Jim Crockett Promotions, and created the WrestleMania event, which had significant success. The following years WrestleMania, WrestleMania 2, was created similar to Starrcade, the first match of the event was between Krusher Khruschev and Sam Houston for the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship. The match started back and forth until Houston gained the advantage with the side headlock, Khruschev fought back with a flapjack. Khruschev climbed the turnbuckles, but Houston stopped him with a dropkick, after performing a bulldog, Houston attempted to pin Khruschev, but Khruschev placed his foot on the ropes. Houston believed he had won, and Khruschev pinned him after performing a clothesline to win the match, Houston had his foot on the ropes, but this was undetected by the referee. The second match was a Mexican Death match between Abdullah the Butcher and Manny Fernandez, Abdullah had the early advantage, attacking Fernandezs head with weapons. Fernandez fought back and attacked Abdullah with his boot and belt, Fernandez performed a Flying Burrito and a flying clothesline, but missed a splash. Abdullah attempted a turnbuckle thrust in the corner, but Fernandez avoided it, Fernandez then retrieved the sombrero to win the match. The third match was a Texas Bullrope match between Black Bart and Ron Bass, if Bass won, he would receive a match with J. J. The match started back and forth until Bart missed a clothesline, Bass had the advantage with the use of the cowbell
35.
Jimmy Valiant
–
James Harold Fanning is a retired professional wrestler and author better known as Jimmy Valiant. Jimmy Valiant was born in Franklin County, Tennessee, near Tullahoma as the youngest of five children of James and he later incorporated the names of his four sisters – Louise, Christine, Charlena and Patrica – into the spider web tattoo on his upper arm. He later moved to Willingboro Township, New Jersey and he married Clara, with whom he fathered three children, Robin, Rhonda, and Dana. With Monika, he has his first son Todd, with Felicia, he has his youngest son Handsome. He is now married to Angel and he has 6 grandchildren, Lonna, Jenae, Beau, Chassie, Clarissa, and Delilah. Fanning started wrestling in 1964 as Big Jim Vallen, at one point in the AWA, they were managed by Bobby Heenan. Valiant had entered the WWWF as a babyface, but quickly switched to heel and he had title matches against champion Pedro Morales in secondary arenas, such as Philadelphia, and feuded with short-term tag partner Chief Jay Strongbow. Jimmy and his kayfabe brother Johnny held the tag belts and main evented Madison Square Garden against Chief Jay Strongbow, during the late 1970s – early 1980s, Valiant was a central player in the Memphis, Tennessee wrestling scene. He feuded regularly with Jerry Lawler and teamed with Bill Dundee to dominate the tag team matches of that time. He even recorded a song, The Ballad of Handsome Jimmy, Valiant also spent a brief amount of time in Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1970s as the heel King James Valiant managed by Lord Alfred Hayes. In the early 1980s, Valiant returned as a babyface to NWAs Jim Crockett Promotions as Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant and his theme music around this time was Boy From New York City, by The Manhattan Transfer. While in Jim Crockett Promotions, he would appear in a black bandit-style mask. This usually occurred when Valiant was banned from wrestling, Charlie Brown was billed as someone other than Valiant, despite Brown having Valiants legendarily prodigious beard. January 1984, Valiant was attacked by Paul Jones and The Assassins and they tied him to the wrestling ring ropes so that Jones could cut his beard off. weebly. com/ WWE Hall of Fame Page with Johnny Valiant Memphis Wrestling History
36.
Atlanta
–
Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
37.
Professional wrestling match types
–
Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called concept or gimmick matches in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some of them occur relatively frequently, while others are developed so as to advance an angle, because of professional wrestlings long history over decades, many things have been recycled. These match types can be organized into several loose groups, the singles match is the most basic of all professional wrestling matches, which involves only two competitors competing for one fall. Victory is obtained by pinfall, submission, knockout, countout or disqualification, commentators and bookers generally explain it as saying the challenger must beat the champion. Playing into this, some storylines have heel champions protect their titles by losing in such ways. Time Limit matches were invented during the days of professional wrestling as a way to stop matches that went on for too long. A Battle of Respect is often held in tribute to another wrestler, on most occasions, one member of the team competes in the ring with one or more of his/her teammate standing behind the ropes. Wrestlers switch positions by tagging one another, usually similar to a five and, as a result. This can create tension during the match as a wrestler in the middle of the ring attempts to reach his/her teammate. In typical tag team matches, standard wrestling rules apply with an ending by pinfall, submission, countout. Promotions usually have established tag teams that most often compete in team matches rather than singles matches, though teams will often break up to pursue a singles career, teams often consist of real-life friends or relatives. On other occasions, teams are booked together by promoters based on their face or heel alignment in order to increase the amount of wrestlers on the card or to advance multiple storylines at once. Though common in Mexican lucha libre, at one point, World Championship Wrestling had a championship for teams of three, matches in which the entire team competes at once is often referred to as a tornado tag match, specifically in WWE. Matches can be held under standard rules or as a specialty match, such as a cage match or a ladder match. One famous example of this match is the Survivor Series match held in WWE at their annual Survivor Series pay-per-view, teams of four or five, though on some occasions as many as seven, compete under elimination rules. All other standard rules apply, and team members may tag in, while some teams are already established stables, others may need to recruit members for their team. In lucha libre promotions, a torneo cibernetico is a type of match between teams of up to eight wrestlers who enter in a predetermined order. A Winner Takes All match is a match where both wrestlers are champions going into the match, and the winner receives the championship of the loser and this is not the same as a championship unification match
38.
Big Boss Man (wrestler)
–
During his appearances with the WWF, Big Boss Man held the WWF World Tag Team Championship once and the WWF Hardcore Championship four times. On March 7,2016, Traylor was confirmed to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016 and he was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame 2016 by Slick and the award was accepted by his wife Angela and his daughters Lacy and Megan. A former prison guard in Cobb County, Georgia, Traylor debuted in 1985, initially working as a jobber for Jim Crockett Promotions and he got a solid push as a seemingly unstoppable heel and feuded with Rhodes in a series of Bunkhouse Stampede matches in 1986. He and Rhodes were tied for wins in this series, leading to a cage match. In 1987, Traylor joined the Universal Wrestling Federation, and won their heavyweight title from One Man Gang, in June 1988, Traylor joined the WWF as Big Boss Man, a prison guard character. Wrestling as a heel and managed by Slick, Boss Mans post-match routine often included handcuffing his defeated opponents to the rope and beating them with a nightstick or ball. After defeating Koko B. Ware at the inaugural SummerSlam, Boss Man began his first major WWF angle by attacking Hulk Hogan on The Brother Love Show. During this feud, he also challenged Randy Savage for the WWF Championship, after being double-teamed for a while, Hogan eventually rallied and defeated The Twin Towers on his own. At WrestleMania V, The Twin Towers defeated The Rockers and then, for most of spring and early summer 1989, during the match, Hogan superplexed Boss Man off the top of the cage. Boss Man retrieved a bag containing both the belt and Roberts pet python, Damien, on The Brother Love Show, he refused to accept DiBiases money for the bag, and returned it to Roberts. Boss Man then feuded with former partner Akeem, defeating him in less than two minutes at WrestleMania VI, as part of his face turn, he later stopped handcuffing and beating jobbers after matches. In the fall of 1990, Boss Man began feuding with Bobby Heenan, at the SummerSlam, he defeated The Mountie in a Jailhouse Match, a match in which the loser must spend a night in jail. This was the only match ever held by the promotion. Boss Man then briefly feuded with Irwin R. Schyster, Boss Man took time off TV to sell his injuries, eventually returning and having a series of matches with Nailz in the latter half of 1992. The feud culminated at Survivor Series, when Boss Man defeated Nailz in a Nightstick on a Pole match. This was the push for the Boss Man during this run, as he was subsequently used as enhancement talent against Razor Ramon, Bam Bam Bigelow. The Big Boss Mans last pay-per-view match of this run came at the 1993 Royal Rumble and he left the WWF shortly after a house show in Gatineau, Quebec on March 14. During the next few months he made appearances in the USWA, on December 4 he made a one-time return to the WWF as a special guest referee to officiate the main event of a house show in Anaheim, CA between Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett
39.
Starrcade (1986)
–
Starrcade, The Skywalkers took place on November 27,1986 from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired live on closed-circuit television, the main event saw NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair put the championship on the line against the NWA United States Champion Nikita Koloff in a rare for the time champion-vs-champion match. Highlights of the show was shown on JCPs weekly television shows, with the launch of the WWE Network in 2014 all closed-circuit Starrcades alongside the subsequent Starrcade shows appear in the pay-per-view section. The WWE Network versions of the shows were not edited for content, Starrcade soon became the flagship event of the year for JCP, their Super Bowl event featuring their most important storyline feuds and championship matches. The 1986 event was the show to use the Starrcade name. The Starrcade show featured a number of wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing, scripted feuds, plots. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels or faces as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Magnum T. A. was originally scheduled to face Ric Flair at the 1986 Starrcade, the shows were broadcast live on close circuit TV to the other arena. Rogers was supposed to catch Cornette, but failed to do so, Cornette did not land properly and had to be carried out of the ring. Road Warrior Hawk wrestled the match with a leg, an injury he suffered during a match during a Japanese tour The Road Warriors did a month earlier. List of NWA pay-per-view events Jim Crockett Promotions Starrcade
