Mid 20th Century
96-717: The Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show was an annual professional wrestling memorial event produced by the IWA Mid-South (IWA-MS) promotion from 1997 to 1998. It was held in memory of wrestler "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert who died of a heart attack in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico on February 18, 1995. The shows were held separately from the National Wrestling Alliance -affiliated Eddie Gilbert Memorial Brawl , which ran from 1996 to 1999, and featured wrestlers and other talent who performed with Gilbert during his career. IWA Mid-South
192-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of
288-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
384-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
480-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
576-505: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
672-563: A dark match against Edge . He had one last short run with the WWF in 1999, wrestling two matches on Shotgun Saturday Night , first on February 20, 1999, against The Godfather and then on February 27, 1999, against Triple H . After leaving WWF and recovering from his quadriceps injury Landel began wrestling on the independent scene, appearing first for Tennessee Mountain Wrestling and competing for them on multiple occasions. Landel also returned to
768-400: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Buddy Landel William Fritz Ensor (August 14, 1961 – June 22, 2015)
864-619: A draw when they faced off. Buddy Landel joined Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation on October 10, 1986, and defeated Jeff Raitz at a house show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Landel was unbeaten, defeating Joe Savoldi , Jeff Gaylord , and Chavo Guerrero . He next jumped to National Wrestling Alliance affiliate Continental Championship Wrestling in February 1987, winning the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship . During
960-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1056-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for
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#17328944770591152-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
1248-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
1344-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
1440-671: A one-off return to Jim Crockett Promotions, teaming with Bill Dundee to participate in the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup . The duo was defeated in the first round by Steve Williams and Terry Taylor . On June 2, 1986, he defeated former partner Bill Dundee to win the AWA Southern Championship in a barbed wire match held in Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. He briefly vacated the belt that month, then regained it in
1536-569: A scene wrestling Headbanger Thrasher . He remained a heroic character until the promotion folded in late 1995. Landel and Shawn Michaels set a record house at the Knoxville Coliseum. After Cornette closed SMW, both Cornette and Landel went to the World Wrestling Federation . Working without a contract, Landel began wrestling for the WWF on December 17, 1995, at In Your House . It would be his only WWF pay-per-view match. It
1632-447: A serious injury outside of the arena, slipping on ice and tearing his right quadriceps. He was out of action for six months as a result. Landel wrestled Bret Hart in a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match shown on Mania on January 13, 1996, although the match was taped prior to Landel's injury. Landel returned to the WWF for a one-night appearance on February 20, 1997, wrestling against TL Hopper . On May 19, 1998, he worked
1728-780: A six-year absence from the ring, Landel returned at the XCW Mid-West: Legends Of The Louisville Gardens on March 3, 2009, to wrestle Flash Flanagan for the XCW Heavyweight Championship. On October 24, 2009, Landel appeared at the TWA Reunion Show in Vorhees, NJ. Still holding onto the TWA Heavyweight Championship, he then lost the title to Glen Osbourne . Landel was honored as Most Influential WWF/WCW Wrestler from Kentucky by
1824-467: A tournament finale over The Flame (Roger Smith). With Bill Dundee , Dutch Mantell , and Jerry Lawler , he headlined the last sold-out show in the Mid-South Coliseum. On July 27, 1986, Buddy Landel returned to Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling and defeated George South at a television taping in Atlanta, GA. Accompanied by former foe turned partner Bill Dundee, Landel and Dundee both attacked South after
1920-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
2016-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
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#17328944770592112-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
2208-564: The Continental Wrestling Association on August 30, 1982. Teaming with Mike Graham , they battled Spike Huber and Steve Regal to a double count-out. After several months in the CWA, Landel returned to MSW and would split time between several National Wrestling Alliance promotions, including Mid-South, the CWA, and Houston Wrestling . On March 8, 1983, he traveled to Capitol Sports Promotions and defeated Pierre Martel to win
2304-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
2400-762: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by
2496-809: The United States Heavyweight Championship on March 29, 1985. He would wrestle Magnum several more times that spring but was unable to gain the title. On June 15, 1985, Buddy Landell received his first ever shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , falling in defeat to "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in Greensboro, NC. A wrestling card with a Landel- Ric Flair main event on July 31, 1985, drew an overflow crowd at J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Landel often claimed this crowd broke Elvis Presley 's attendance record at
2592-649: The WWC North American Heavyweight Title . This was Landel's first title, and he held the belt until June 25, 1983, when he lost to Pedro Morales in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. That summer Landel defeated Dutch Mantell to win the NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship in Memphis, TN. He held the title until August 29, 1983, when he was defeated by Koko B Ware . Landel regained the title on September 10, then holding it until he
2688-675: The World Wrestling Council . In 1997 and 1998 he would wrestle for numerous other promotions as well, including IWA Mid-South , Ohio Valley Wrestling , NWA New Jersey, and the National Wrestling League. He retired in 2003 where he teamed with Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant defeating Bill Dundee , Mabel , and Jimmy Hart for Memphis Wrestling on September 28, 2003. In 2005 he worked at NWA Rocky Top promotion in Knoxville doing color commentary with Tony Basilio. Following
2784-495: The performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain
2880-459: The "All Japan Pro Wrestling 100 Million Yen Capture 16 Man Battle Royal" on New Year's Day in Tokyo, Japan. During the tour Landel faced Akira Taue , Tiger Mask , Akio Sato , Hiroshi Wajima , John Tenta (Earthquake), and Jumbo Tsuruta . He returned once more to the CWA on August 1, 1988, and unsuccessfully challenged AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler in Memphis, TN. While appearing in
2976-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
3168-460: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
3264-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from
3360-514: The 2000s for the same reasons. The shows were endorsed by the Gilbert family with Tommy and Doug Gilbert having prominent roles. A portion of the show's proceeds were donated to a college scholarship fund for high school seniors in Lexington, Tennessee ; Eddie Gilbert's mother, Peggy Gilbert, raffled off one of the late wrestler's ring jackets for the fund. The Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show (1997)
3456-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
3552-627: The CWA he also wrestled for Capitol Sports Promotions, and on August 20 defeated TNT ( Savio Vega ) for the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Champion . He held the belt until September 17 when TNT regained it. Landel returned to the CWA and remained with the company as it transitioned into the United States Wrestling Association . Following a stint in the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance , Landel joined
3648-610: The Continental Wrestling Association January 4, 1986, and defeated David Haskins at a television taping in Memphis, TN. Seventeen days later he retook the CWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship from Koko B Ware, although his reign was brief as he was defeated for it by Dusty Rhodes on February 2. Landel regained the championship sixteen days later and held it until April 7, when he lost to Dutch Mantell. On April 19, 1986, he made
3744-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
3840-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
3936-481: The September 6th episode of NWA Pro , where he stated that he was "Space Mountain" while Buddy was "Ride the Wild Mouse". That same weekend on NWA Worldwide , Landel and Dundee claimed that Flair would only wrestle an injured competitor like Dusty Rhodes. Landel, however, would never wrestle Flair in this time period and instead faced Magnum T. A. and NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Ron Garvin , wrestling each to
Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
4128-639: The arena, but this has not been independently confirmed. ) He won the NWA National Heavyweight Championship from Terry Taylor at Starrcade '85 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Landel was set to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Flair in 1985. However, Landel had a falling out with the management of Jim Crockett Promotions and left the company after dropping the National Heavyweight Championship to Dusty Rhodes on December 19, 1985. He resurfaced in
4224-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
4320-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
4416-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as
4512-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
4608-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
4704-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
4800-508: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
4896-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in
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#17328944770594992-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
5088-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
5184-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
5280-558: The first half of the year, he would face The Tennessee Stud ( Ron Fuller ) and Wendell Cooley . Landel joined Verne Gagne 's American Wrestling Association on September 18, 1987, defeating ML Williams at a TV taping in Las Vegas, NV. His stay was short-lived and consigned only to that TV taping, where he also defeated Lance Allen and Chris Bassett. Buddy Landel made his first trip to an overseas promotion in January 1988 when he joined All Japan Pro Wrestling . His first appearance came at
5376-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
5472-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
5568-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
5664-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
5760-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
5856-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
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#17328944770595952-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
6048-628: The last appearance of longtime manager Billy the P at the IWA Mid-South arena and subsequently retired from the business. The Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show (1998) was a professional wrestling memorial event produced by IWA Mid-South (IWA-MS), which took place on February 21, 1998, at the Derby Sports Arena in Louisville, Kentucky . Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the card, one of which involved championships. The main event
6144-488: The match. On the August 2nd episode of "World Championship Wrestling", announcer Tony Schiavone conducted a sit-down interview with Buddy Landel who claimed that he and not Ric Flair was the real "Nature Boy". In his first month back, he was programmed against opening level competition on house shows, facing and defeating Rocky King, Sam Houston , and Todd Champion . While Landel remained undefeated, Flair would not respond until
6240-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
6336-988: The newly created Global Wrestling Federation on June 28, 1991, and defeated Gary Young. He would lose to The Patriot in the finals for a tournament to crown the GWF Television Champion . Landel also continued to wrestle for the TWA, and was going to wrestle "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers for his Tri-State Title in early 1992, but the promotion folded before the match could happen. Buddy Landel joined Jim Cornette 's new promotion Smoky Mountain Wrestling for its inaugural TV taping on November 27, 1991, in Morristown, TN. Landel stated that he had refused to do favors for major promotions and had joined SMW to hurt people. His first wrestling match would not come until April 18, 1992, however; he defeated Reno Riggins on SMW television in his debut match. Landel feuded with Tim Horner that spring but
6432-448: The promotion had filed criminal charges against Austin Idol who had failed to appear for the main event. Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that
6528-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
6624-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether
6720-544: The rampant drug abuse in pro wrestling, that he could help newcomers to avoid the trials he went through. He also had some trouble with the IRS , but wrestling promoter Jim Crockett helped him pay the tax bill. On June 21, 2015, Landel was involved in a car crash . He was hospitalized and reportedly checked himself out against his doctor's wishes, eventually returning to his home in Chilhowie , Virginia. He told his wife Donna that he
6816-582: The shows. Though he did not personally know Gilbert, a number of IWA Mid-South mainstays had worked with the late wrestler. IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion Bull Pain , for example, defeated Gilbert and Jeff Jarrett for the USWA Tag Team Championship in 1991. Feeling that Gilbert has been largely forgotten by modern wrestling fans, Rotten was motivated to hold the Ted Petty Invitational and Chris Candido Cup Tag Team Tournament during
6912-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
7008-639: The state's governor and made a Kentucky Colonel in 1990. He wrestled his final match at the NWA Wrestle Birmingham: The Big Bang event on November 19, 2010, where he teamed with Cameron Valentine and Greg Valentine to face Brutus Beefcake , Brickhouse Brown, and Jake Roberts . On August 27, 2011, Landel was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. Landel acknowledged that in 1985 he began abusing drugs, using them for 10 to 15 years. He hoped by talking about
7104-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
7200-570: The title from Tommy Rich and later Sid Vicious . On December 25, 1994, Landel appeared at Christmas Chaos '94, defeating SMW Heavyweight Champion The Dirty White Boy via disqualification. Landel became one of the main eventers managed by Jim Cornette . Buddy held the SMW Heavyweight Championship and the SMW Television Championship in 1995. In August 1995 he earned a role in the movie Box of Moonlight , appearing in
7296-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
7392-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
7488-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in
7584-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
7680-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
7776-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
7872-423: Was a professional wrestling memorial event produced by IWA Mid-South (IWA-MS), which took place on March 13, 1997, at the Derby Sports Arena in Louisville, Kentucky . Ten professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card, one of which involved championships, with two main matches. The first main event match was a Chain match between Doug Gilbert and Terry Funk , which Gilbert won. The second
7968-546: Was a match between Dory Funk, Jr. and Tommy Gilbert which ended in a 20-minute time-limit draw. One of the featured matches on the undercard was Vampire Warrior versus Vladimir Koloff , which Vampire Warrior won by pinfall. The other was American Kickboxer versus Tarek the Great for the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship , which American Kickboxer won, also by pinfall. The event also marked
8064-620: Was a tag team match pitting the team of Doug Gilbert and Dutch Mantel against the team of "The Beast" Dan Severn and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy , which Gilbert and Mantel won. Buddy Landel was the special guest referee . The predominant match on the undercard was between Kip Morris and Rip Rogers , which Morris won by disqualification. Another featured match was Bull Pain , who held both the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight and Television Championships , versus Chip Fairway . The show also attracted some controversy when Rotten announced that
8160-429: Was among the promotions accused of financially exploiting Gilbert's death. "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel , who regularly performed for the NWA shows, initially declined Ian Rotten 's offer to appear for the IWA Mid-South version for this reason. When Austin Idol failed to appear for the main event at the 1998 edition, Rotten publicly announced that he had filed criminal charges against the wrestler. Rotten defended holding
8256-459: Was an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name " Nature Boy " Buddy Landel . He was best known for his work in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories. Landel first became interested in professional wrestling when a friend of his sister, Lou Anne Smith, introduced him to Bob Orton , Randy Savage and Boris Malenko . Landel was an amateur wrestler in high school, but dropped out during his junior year. While he
8352-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
8448-567: Was defeated by Terry Taylor on December 1, 1983, in Lexington, KY. Landell spent all of 1984 splitting time between Mid-South and Houston Wrestling, facing competitors such as Terry Taylor, Jose Lothario , and Brickhouse Brown . In 1985 he returned to Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling ( Jim Crockett Promotions ), defeating Denny Brown at "MACW Title Night '85" in Raleigh, North Carolina on March 6. Landel joined manager J. J. Dillon 's stable, and he unsuccessfully challenged Magnum T. A. for
8544-462: Was generally unsuccessful. He rejoined the USWA on August 17, 1992, teaming with Brian Christopher , Doug Gilbert and Eddie Gilbert to defeat Bill Dundee, The Rock 'n' Roll Express and Tommy Rich. On November 22, 1993, he defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the vacated USWA Heavyweight Championship. He would lose it to Brian Christopher on December 11, 1993. In 1994 he unsuccessfully attempted to regain
8640-509: Was largely victorious against a number of opponents, including Charlie Fulton , Mike Miller, and Jeff Sword. Landel returned to Mid-South Wrestling on March 3, 1982, defeating Bob Orton in a match held in Baton Rouge, LA. He stayed in Bill Watt's territory for the next few months, facing Rick Ferrara, Paul Orndorff , and One Man Gang . After several months in the promotion, Landell jumped to
8736-454: Was not a favorable debut though as he was defeated quickly by Ahmed Johnson in only 45 seconds. He continued to use a very similar image to Ric Flair, even using Flair's early 90s WWF entrance music. He made his Raw debut the next night, defeating Bob Holly . He also defeated Matt Hardy on the December 23, 1995, episode of Superstars . It was right after this match that Landel suffered
8832-568: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
8928-657: Was quite active, wrestling Ken Mantell , Carl Fergie, Jake Roberts , and The Great Kabuki . On August 18, 1981, he received his first title opportunity, but fell in defeat to Mississippi Champion Bob Orton. On September 29, 1981, he teamed with Jim Garvin in an unsuccessful challenge to MSW Tag-Team Champions The Wild Samoans , and after this moved on to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling . Less than two weeks later Landel surfaced in Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, defeating Mike Miller in Asheville, NC. He
9024-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
9120-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
9216-504: Was training with Boris Malenko , Landel lived in an apartment with Olympian Bob Roop . Landel started his career in 1979. In 1980 he worked for Angelo Poffo 's International Championship Wrestling in the Mid-East. In 1981, he became a part of Bill Watts 's Mid-South Wrestling . Landel made his debut on May 25, 1981, in New Orleans, LA and defeated Kelly Kiniski . The young wrestler
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