March 7th 1982
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, North Carolina
Dale Lewis, a former Greco-Roman wrestling Olympian, started his pro wrestling career in 1961, being trained in the "pro style" by Verne Gagne and working the AWA territory. Throughout the decade, he worked in numerous places such as Texas, Australia, and California. In 1969, he settled in Florida for the next few years while still taking bookings elsewhere.
From late 1974 to 1980, he bounced around between Portland and British Columbia (still taking bookings elsewhere here and there) until finally wrapping up his career in October 1980. I feel like I learned a good bit about ol' Lewis here, although I was really only looking for one match of his.
In October 1970, Dale Lewis entered NWA Hollywood and lost the NWA United National Championship in a two-out-of-three falls match against Pantera Negra. That match is accounted for by multiple sources. What I'm looking for is the apparent tournament held in St. Louis won by Lewis, allowing him to enter the Hollywood territory as a champion, as described by wrestling-titles.com. My working theory is that NWA Hollywood had created this title and simply decided to have Negra "win" it from Lewis as Negra was working the territory regularly, and the belt would be defended there often within the first few months of its life.
Maybe the info is out there in a Tim Hornbaker book I've yet to read, which, if it is, then that's on me—my bad. The thing is, there's apparently another fake tournament attached to this title. In March 1971, Antonio Inoki defeated John Tolos for the title and defended it two times against Jack Brisco and Dick Murdoch later that year. However, on December 13th, 1971, Inoki was fired from the JWA and vacated the title. As a Wikipedia entry notes (I know not necessarily the most trustworthy source, but it's all I got), King Krow (Dan Kroffat) wins the championship in a "fictitious" tournament final against Sailor Thomas in January 1972.
Again, just coming up empty when looking in several places for this tournament. Many of these results are incomplete or missing, so that doesn't help either. My theory this time around is essentially identical to the Lewis one, where Krow just happened to be coming into the territory for a short time and wanted someone to "win" it from him. The man to beat him was Seiji Sakaguchi. Well, Sakaguchi was at least the next champion, but I couldn't find any results of a title change, but the dates line up enough we'll just go with the idea that he beat Krow. It seemed as if NWA Hollywood wanted to wash their hands of the title as it was defended in JWA until that promotion's closure in April 1973, at least as far as I could tell, I should add.
As mentioned earlier, Inoki was fired from JWA, and of course, New Japan Pro Wrestling was formed in January 1972. Also, Giant Baba splits from the JWA, and All Japan Pro Wrestling was established in October 1972. I trust that I didn't really need to remind anyone of those two points, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. Anyways, the problem for New Japan here is that Baba gets recognition from the NWA first, giving All Japan the upper hand on foreign stars.
Additionally, with the perks of recognition comes the availability of championships. So, on August 28th, 1976, Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Jack Brisco in a two-out-of-three falls match for the revived NWA United National Championship. And wouldn't you know it, this match in some sources I found was described as a tournament final. Really? An actual tournament for this championship? As far as I can tell—absolutely not! First off, I can't find any result anywhere of Jack Brisco competing in even a championship contender match, let alone a tournament match, around this time.
Another thing is that Tsuruta was supposedly scheduled for a match against Akihisa Takachiho (The Great Kabuki) to determine who was facing Brisco, but Takachiho apparently just said, "Nah. I'm all set, brother." This is about as far as I can go with this title. I mean, it'd be vacated three more times, and new champions would be determined via tournaments, and one of those was won by Ted DiBiase defeating Jerry Lawler... by forfeit. As of right now, I'm done with the deep dive. The most important aspect of this title is it being unified with the PWF World Heavyweight Championship and NWA International Heavyweight Championship to become the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship in April 1989.
So let's transition back to 1982. More specifically, March 7th at the Charlotte Coliseum. This isn't "The Hive" but rather what is now called Bojangles Coliseum, and I've been there, and it smells of grease. Jumbo Tsuruta was in the midst of his fourth United National title reign. During Tsuruta's reigns, the United National matches were more aligned with a technical style, defending against the likes of Bill Robinson, Dick Slater, and Mil Mascaras. Meanwhile, "Wildfire" Tommy Rich was coming off a feud with the Masked Superstar and transitioning into a feud with Ron Bass in Georgia Championship Wrestling. A handful of the All Japan guys came over for a little over a week to work some NWA shows, presumably with the 2/28 tag tournament show at the Omni in Atlanta being the priority.
So here we go, Rich vs. Tsuruta for the NWA United National Championship. This would be the first of three singles matches between these two, and after watching this one, I'm looking forward to hopefully getting around to the other two. This match wasn't great, but in its own way, it actually kind of rocked. Again, Tsuruta was working these "technical" style matches with this title at the time. A standard feeling-out process starts it off. A couple of whips into the ropes followed by some drops and leapfrogs. And then slap on a hold to slow it back down. Rinse and repeat that for a while. It wasn't until Tsuruta started laying in these uppercuts on Rich where I started to get invested. Rich responds by closing up his fist and threatening Jumbo to sock him while the ref is telling him to back off and unclench the fist. Meanwhile, the Charlotte crowd is clamoring for Rich to knock this guy out. Rich gives in and starts laying in a beating on Tsuruta, and the crowd goes nuts until the referee breaks it up. Tsuruta gains control and delivers a couple of backbreakers. They fall to their knees and start chopping and punching each other again! Rich gains momentum and hits the ropes for a dive into Tsuruta, but Tsuruta is there to catch him, and eventually, they both fall out to the floor.
Both guys attempt to scramble back into the ring, but keep pulling each other out as one of the quickest ring out counts from the referee occurs, and the match ends in a double countout. But they don't care! They both get back in the ring, fists closed, shoving the referee out of the way. They want to FIGHT! The crowd is there with them too. Finally, they both concede that it's over and end things with a handshake but not without staring daggers into one another.
Tommy Rich wasn't exactly Kenta Kobashi (or Tsuruta for that matter) when it comes to the bell-to-bell, but performances like this prove why he was such a beloved babyface. Hopefully, we can get around to the other two matches one day and maybe even fill out some more history of the United National title, even though I'm sort of dreading the prospect of more fake tournaments. Check this match out!
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