GG and I spoke about this on a recent edition of FGB Radio and the unfortunate has happened. Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kininski passed away earlier this morning, losing his battle with cancer. He was 81.
He was born right outside of Edmonton, Alberta Canada and played college football and wrestled. Kininski portrayed a villainous heel for most of his career and had a legendary feud with “Whipper” Billy Watson early in his career. Kininski will most be remembered by wrestling fans as the first Canadian man to hold the recognized NWA World Heavyweight Championship and a favorite amongst Canadian sportswriters of the era. He defeated Lou Thesz in 1966 in St. Louis to become the Champion and held the title for three years non-stop until he would lose to Dory Funk Jr in Tampa, Florida at the legendary Armory. He was honored in the 1992 Cauliflower Alley Club festival.
I am extremely sad to report that one of my favorite, most bad-ass wrestlers of all time, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams has sadly lost his battle with cancer and passed away last night at the age of 49.
Steve Williams will be remembered by the hardcore fans for his series of incredible matches in All Japan Pro Wrestling during it’s heyday in the mid 90s. Traditional fans of the sport will remember his runs in ECW, teaming with the late Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy. In addition, he had a few shorter runs in WCW In 1992 and then again in 1999, and for the WWF as Jim Ross’ protege in 1998 and 1999.
We would like to send our condolences to the family of Steve Williams.
The only solace is that Doc and Gordy are suplexing each other around in Heaven…
Stan Hansen is an interesting fellow. Considered by many to be one of the best overall workers in the history of the business. His runs in Texas, the AWA, a short sting in WCW, and big runs New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling have made him legendary.
Known to have influenced such workers as Barry Windham and John “Bradshaw” Layfield (both of which incorporated the “Lariat” into their arsenal of moves), Hansen seems to be a forgotten legend to most casual fans. I can’t blame them too much though; he was before their time.
He knew how to sell, he knew how to put together a main event caliber match, and he knew how to make everything he did look real. His punches looked like they would knock your head off, and at times they did. It was a well-known fact that Hansen was blind. I mean, not Helen Keller blind, but he couldn’t see very well. So when he’d throw out his arm for a looping right hand or a Lariat, he swung it as hard as could and made sure it connected. He would rather have knocked somebody unconscious and protected the business than have missed completely and made it look fake. This subsequently led to Hansen accidentally knocking Vader’s eye out of it’s socket in a match in Japan. Continue Reading »
In the 80s, when two big champions squared off face to face – it was a big deal and almost always guaranteed a sell out.
Today we present a face to face back and forth promo between WWWF Champion Bob Backlund and NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, hyping up a big unification match to happen on Independence Day – July 4th, 1982, at the Omni in Atlanta, GA. In the early 80s, Georgia was one of the hottest territories in the country and the Omni was a perfect building to host this big match.
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