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.

We wish his family the best.

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…

Source Credit: PWInsider.com

They talked about a bunch of topics including the end of the AWA, the Western States Heritage Title, The Monday Night Wars and why he left TNA.

Check it out on Stevie J’s site at AngryMarks.com.

It’s not WOOO its WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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.

Hansen’s brute force style of work and brawling have put him up there with the likes of Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, and others in terms of workrate. “The Lariat” also had legendary feuds with the aforementioned individuals. Wrestling historians will point to Hansen’s reign as All Japan Triple Crown Champion, and subsequent defeat at the hands of Mitsuharu Misawa, as the peak of All Japan’s boom period in the early 90s.

So today, we honor the career of Stan “The Lariat” Hansen with this awesome video I found on YouTube. Maybe one day, Hansen’s giant frame will rise like the sun into the WWE Hall of Fame. He damn sure deserves to be.

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.

Thanks to Jared Cheeseman for the heads-up

Thank You Sweet William…

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It is called by NWA marks as “Black Saturday”. The “World Championship Wrestling” 6:05 timeslot on Saturday nights, which throughout history was under the stranglehold of primarily Georgia Championship Wrestling and the NWA, was purchased by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation as part of the WWF’s national expansion, or as some call it, takeover.

Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco were both co-owners along with Ole Anderson before the Brisco’s sold their stock of Georgia to Vince McMahon (including the timeslot), which explains why Gerald is still seen as a “stooge” and has a job for life. This was somewhat of a “double-cross”, but hey, business is business.

Georgia Championship Wrestling was one of the cornerstones of the NWA in the late 70s and early 80s, providing a rougher, more athletic pro wrestling show rather than the WWF’s over the top steroid bodies and cartoon gimmicks.

Ironically enough, the WWF show, for perhaps the first time in company history, EPICALLY FAILED when compared to a REAL wrestling product and became a ratings disaster. The other real issue with it was that the content that McMahon provided to Turner was essentially “re-runs”, a.k.a. matches and promos that already aired in other markets in syndication or on the World Wrestling Federation’s television network.

Turner pressured Vince into selling the timeslot to Jim Crockett, who turned it over to Ole, starting “Championship Wrestling from Georgia”, not to be confused with Georgia Championship, which was dead.

It would be just a decade and a half later that Vince would own it all, but in THIS situation, he took one to the temple.

Intro:

Second half:

My dad used to give blank tapes to a friend who had one of those pirate boxes and she recorded Wrestlemania III for me that way. Back in 1987, I didn’t know that Vince McMahon was telling cable companies that they had to only show his Survivor Series or else miss out on Wrestlemania IV. And really, they should’ve missed out on that terrible show. I was heartbroken when my tape showed Starrcade 87 instead of the Survivor Series. I wanted Hulk Hogan, not Dusty Rhodes. My cable company decided to call Vince’s bluff and showed Starrcade 87 instead which in retrospect wasn’t so bad at all because I really liked Starrcade even if history tells you that Chicago didn’t necessarily love it. And looking back, I can see why.

Even as an 11 year old boy, I knew that not putting the belts on the Road Warriors was a mistake. They were over big time live and the Dusty finish just left everyone watching really deflated. And though I thought Ronnie Garvin was a legit contender to Ric Flair’s throne, I don’t think the older wrestling fans did. Flair was getting cheered in their World Title cage match. But still, I was into it. I was always curious about why Dr. Death Steve Williams wasn’t ever in the title picture because on that night, I thought he looked like the toughest wrestler I ever saw after destroying Barry Windham. I wonder what would’ve happened if it was Dr. Death booked against Flair instead of Garvin.

I didn’t get to see WWE’s alternative until it came out on video tape many months later. But they were laying the seed to a Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant rematch after Team Andre defeated Team Hulk in their match. Hulk wasn’t even around for the finish. I just remember Bam Bam Bigelow doing somersaults.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.