Big Time Wrestling – also known as the American Wrestling Alliance ( AWA ) or National All-Star Wrestling , and sometimes referred to as NWA San Francisco – was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in San Francisco, California , in the United States. Founded by "Professor" Roy Shire (1922–1992) in 1960, the promotion emerged as one of the most profitable in the United States thanks to its "red hot angles " and "good TV". The promotion's heartland was the San Francisco Bay Area , with the Cow Palace as its core venue, but it also ran regular shows in cities including Fresno , Las Vegas , Oakland , San Jose , and Sacramento . Shire folded the promotion in 1981.
26-598: From November 1935, professional wrestling in San Francisco was dominated by Joe Malcewicz's NWA San Francisco promotion, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance . After sustaining a severe knee injury, NWA San Francisco wrestler "Professor" Roy Shire decided to move into promoting in direct competition with Malcewicz. In October 1960, Shire registered the Pacific Coast Athletic Corp. with
52-507: A bout between Mitsu Arakawa and Bill Melby, the event recorded an attendance of 16,553. A show staged by Malcewicz three days later attracted 2,841 people. Shire would ultimately prevail and NWA San Francisco folded in 1962. Together with Los Angeles –based Worldwide Wrestling Associates , Big Time Wrestling challenged the control of the NWA over the Pacific Coast . In Shire's first year of trading,
78-465: A dozen towns and cities in Northern California and Nevada . On November 26, 1949, Malcewicz joined the newly-formed National Wrestling Alliance . His promotion became NWA San Francisco, the NWA affiliate for San Francisco, giving Malcewicz an effective monopoly over professional wrestling in the area. He remained a member until 1962, although his membership briefly lapsed in 1956–1957 when he
104-607: A live show recorded in the KTVU studio that aired at 19:00 PST on Friday evenings, originally hosted by Bill Welsh and then by Walt Harris. Shire would later begin producing a second weekly show, Big Time Wrestling this one airing on KOVR . Big Time Wrestling was originally hosted by Harris, then later by Hank Renner. Shire staged his first show in the Cow Palace in Daly City on the outskirts of San Francisco on March 4, 1961. Headlined by
130-654: A total circulation of 3.3 million. On February 3, 2007, the paper celebrated its 150th anniversary, and a copy of the original issue was included in every newspaper. On February 4, 2007, a 120-page section was included about the paper's history from its founding to today. In 2008, The Sacramento Bee redesigned and changed its layout. In the fall of 2020, the Bee announced it would be vacating its longtime headquarters and printing plant in Midtown Sacramento at 21st and Q Streets (which it occupied since 1952), citing
156-498: A tour of Japan. Bouts between the Sharpe Brothers and Rikidōzan provided a patriotic outlet for citizens of occupied Japan , with the Sharpe Brothers using villainous tactics against the heroic Rikidōzan, who would inevitably rally to defeat them, drawing chants of "Long live Japan!" Malcewicz regularly recruited athletes from other sports in an attempt to create new stars. Crossover athletes appearing with NWA San Francisco during
182-646: Is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California , in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, The Bee has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 27th largest paper in the U.S. It is distributed in the upper Sacramento Valley , with a total circulation area that spans about 12,000 square miles (31,000 km ): south to Stockton, California , north to
208-597: Is not only independence, but permanence". At this time, The Bee was in competition with the Sacramento Union , a newspaper founded in 1851. Although The Bee soon surpassed the Union in popularity, the Union survived until its closure in 1994, leaving The Sacramento Bee to be the longest-running newspaper in the city's history. The first editor of The Sacramento Bee was John Rollin Ridge , but James McClatchy took over
234-548: The California State Athletic Commission over Malcewicz's objections. Big Time Wrestling was an "outlaw" promotion that did not respect the territorial boundaries decreed by the NWA. Shire secured a television slot on the fledgling independent Oakland television station KTVU in 1961 and spent several weeks airing tapes of matches from the Midwest . In January 1961, he began airing National All-Star Wrestling ,
260-487: The Kezar Pavilion as a cost-cutting measure. Despite this, Shire prevailed in the short territorial battle, with his roster – built around the flamboyant aerial performer Ray Stevens – proving more popular than the slower-moving heavyweights who made up Malcewicz's roster, and Malcewicz folded NWA San Francisco in 1961. He died on April 20, 1962, of a heart attack. The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee
286-572: The Oregon border, east to Reno, Nevada , and west to the San Francisco Bay Area . The Bee is the flagship of the nationwide McClatchy Company . Its "Scoopy Bee" mascot, created by Walt Disney in 1943, has been used by all three Bee newspapers (in Sacramento, Modesto , and Fresno ). Under the name The Daily Bee , the first issue of the newspaper was published on February 3, 1857, proudly boasting that "the object of this newspaper
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#1732875949005312-677: The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship on several occasions in the 1920s. He retired from professional wrestling at the age of 38 and moved to promoting . In November 1935, he succeeded Jack Ganson as the leaseholder of San Francisco's New Dreamland Auditorium , buying out Ganson's interest for $ 15,000 (equivalent to $ 333,000 in 2023) after Paul Bowser and Toots Mondt convinced him to step aside. He held his first show on November 26, 1935. Malcewicz subsequently entered into an agreement with Dan Kolov that gave him exclusive rights to promote wrestling events in
338-404: The 1950s included strongman Doug Hepburn and National Football League players Art Michalik , Gene Lipscomb , Leo Nomellini , and Cy Williams . After sustaining a severe knee injury, NWA San Francisco wrestler "Professor" Roy Shire decided to move into promoting in direct competition to Malcewicz, defying the territorial boundaries decreed by the NWA. In October 1960, he registered
364-558: The Cannery, a business park about a mile east, at Stockton and Alhambra Boulevards; the business park is the redeveloped Libby, McNeill and Libby Cannery , which operated from 1912 to 1982. The Sacramento Bee has won six Pulitzer Prizes in its history. It has won numerous other awards, including many for its progressive public service campaigns promoting free speech (the Bee often criticized government policy, and uncovered many scandals hurting Californians), anti-racism ( The Bee supported
390-527: The Los Angeles–based promotion was involved with many successful shows during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Attendance was not robust enough to support regular appearances and the promotion did not return; the next wrestling show in Anchorage was not until 1974, featuring talent booked through Detroit's Big Time Wrestling . By the late-1970s, attendances had begun to dwindle. In 1979, Big Time Wrestling
416-467: The Pacific Coast Athletic Corp. with the California State Athletic Commission over Malcewicz's objections. In response to the threat posed by Shire's Big Time Wrestling promotion, Malcewicz – who had long resisted the emergence of televised wrestling, fearing it would compete with live events – begun running shows each Monday night on KTVU in 1961, as well as moving from the Civic Auditorium to
442-651: The championship on 18 occasions. In 1951, Malcewicz and 50th State Big Time Wrestling promoter Al Karasick organized the "Shriners" tour of Japan. Malcewicz and Karasick built a strong relationship with Rikidōzan and his Japan Wrestling Association , with the promotions trading wrestlers across the Pacific. In May 1956, the Sharpe Brothers briefly lost the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship to Koukichi Endo and Rikidōzan during
468-461: The matches he promoted were staged. NWA San Francisco NWA San Francisco was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in San Francisco , California in the United States. Founded in 1935 by "The Utica Panther" Joe Malcewicz (1897–1962), the promotion joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1949. It traded until 1961, when it folded due to competition from the upstart Big Time Wrestling promotion. The promotion's heartland
494-575: The need to cut costs and streamline in the wake of declining ad revenues, the rise of online journalism and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which most journalists and employees worked from home. The paper began being printed at the San Francisco Chronicle printing plant in the Bay Area suburb of Fremont . The following spring, the Bee announced the editorial offices were relocating to
520-415: The organisation for a period in the early-1970s. KTVU cancelled Big Time Wrestling in 1970. In 1970, Shire secured a new deal with the Sacramento station KTXL , airing Big Time Wrestling at 19:00 PST on Saturday evenings. The show featured Hank Renner as play-by-play announcer. He was later joined by Pepper Martin as color commentator . In 1970, the promotion expanded into Anchorage, Alaska , where
546-620: The position by the end of the first week. Also within a week of its creation, The Bee uncovered a state scandal which led to the impeachment of Know-Nothing California State Treasurer Henry Bates . In 1925 it absorbed the Sacramento Star , which was founded in 1904. On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced its agreement to purchase Knight Ridder , the United States' second-largest chain of daily newspapers. The purchase price of $ 4.5 billion in cash and stock gave McClatchy 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with
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#1732875949005572-472: The promotion brought in revenue of $ 175,000 (equivalent to $ 1,784,298 in 2023). Big Time Wrestling promoted shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area . Its base was the Cow Palace, where it held shows each Friday. Together with his bookers , Johnny Doyle and later Red Bastien , Shire built the promotion around the principles of "action, high spots and realistic matches". Shire positioned Ray Stevens as
598-456: The promotion's main heel . The promotion's flagship event was an annual 18-man battle royal , with the winner receiving storyline large sums of money. As Big Time Wrestling expanded, it began promoting in other Californian cities including Fresno and Sacramento , as well as Las Vegas in Nevada . In August 1968, Big Time Wrestling became a member of the NWA. Shire served as vice-president of
624-539: Was San Francisco, with the San Francisco Civic Auditorium as its core venue, but it also ran shows in other Northern Californian cities including Fresno , Oakland , Richmond , Sacramento , San Jose , Santa Rosa , Stockton , and Vallejo . "The Utica Panther" Joe Malcewicz was born on March 17, 1897, in Utica, New York . He had his first recorded professional wrestling bout in 1914 and challenged for
650-551: Was cancelled. In 1980, Shire suffered a heart attack. A burned out Shire retired from promoting in January 1981 after Verne Gagne 's American Wrestling Association , through local promoter and former wrestler Leo Nomellini , moved into San Francisco. Shire's final show was a battle royal at the Cow Palace that reportedly drew $ 64,000 (equivalent to $ 214,000 in 2023). In 1984, a disgruntled Shire gave an interview to The Sacramento Bee in which he broke kayfabe by acknowledging all
676-576: Was late signing paperwork. Over the course of his membership, Malcewicz sat on both the board of directors and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship committee. In 1950, Malcewicz created the NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) , the second regional NWA World Tag Team Championship . Malcewicz built a strong tag team division, with the top stars including brothers Ben and Mike Sharpe, who held
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