Tri-State Wrestling 1966 - Other Wrestlers with Bookings During the Year
Let's take a look at some of the other wrestlers who had bookings in the territory in 1966 but did not meet the 'minimum # of matches' threshold to be included in the SPOT ratings.
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First, we list a few wrestlers who did have runs as full-timers, but the runs either ended very early in the year or started very late in the year (so they would be included in the SPOT ratings for either the previous year or the following year):
El Medico - Not to be confused with the Medics (either version), El Medico finished up his run in the territory in early January. On January 8th in Joplin MO, he was unmasked and identified as Indio Pantera.
Tarzan Baxter - Baxter came in to begin his first run in the territory at the end of December from Gulf Coast.
Jerry London - London came from Amarillo in mid-December. He had been here a few times previously, the most recent run ending in April 1965.
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Next we'll list some wrestlers of note that were booked for a handful (or less) of appearances:
Nick Kozak - Nick was booked for several cards in late August/early September, then again for several cards in late October/early November. He was a full-timer in East Texas for the last six months of the year aside from his appearances here.
Cowboy Bob Ellis - Ellis had been wrestling in Detroit and Central States, but came here in August. On August 31st in Springfield MO, Freddie Baron subbed for him, with the paper stating Ellis had been injured two nights earlier in Tulsa. He did work the night after Tulsa in Little Rock, but the paper there said he was "sidelined" early in a tag team match so that may have been done because of a legit injury. He then shows up in East Texas a week later.
Sputnik Monroe - Sputnik had finished up a run here in December 1965, then worked briefly in Amarillo and then Georgia. He worked a few shots here in mid-January and then went to Florida.
Lou Thesz - Thesz came in for two days in December as part of a southern swing that also saw him booked in Amarillo. He worked Tulsa and Little Rock, teaming with Jack Brisco to face the Assassins on both shows.
Bob Geigel, Pat O'Connor and (possibly) Bob Brown - These Central States mainstays had bookings here during the year. O'Connor and Geigel were booked against one another on Friday, January 18th in Joplin MO. Joplin was normally run on a Saturday, so it could have been a situation where they needed to switch days because the venue was booked on their normal night and they had to reach out to a nearby territory to help book talent. Or perhaps because they were running on a different night, they felt the need to bring in outside name talent to ensure a good house. Geigel was also booked in March on at least one show here. A wrestler billed as Bad Boy Brown was booked at least once in June. He is described in the Springfield MO paper as being active at the time in the Kansas City area. Bob Brown would fit that description, and it's also worth noting he wrestled the following night in Amarillo. It's certainly feasible that he took the Springfield booking to break up a long drive from KC to Amarillo into a two-day drive with a paid booking the first night.
Dory Dixon and Tiger Conway - While Tri-State had been running Shreveport and Monroe weekly, the rest of Louisiana was part of the Gulf Coast territory. Gulf Coast was not running in New Orleans, and promoter Joe Gunther (a retired wrestler who had previously run shows in N.O.) started running there in August. He ran a total of four shows using McGuirk's crew, then switched to using Gulf Coast talent in October. Those first four shows also included Dory Dixon and Tiger Conway (Sr.), who were booked against one another on at least two of the shows. Both were wrestling out of East Texas at the time.
Mark Lewin - Lewin was advertised for two cards in early September, but did not appear on the one I have results for (in all likelihood he didn't appear on the other one). He had most recently been in Australia, and shows up in Southern California in the middle of the month.
Angelo Poffo - Poffo works once here in late August, putting over Cowboy Bob Ellis in Oklahoma City. At this point in time, he is wrestling primarily around Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.
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Finally, we will take a look at women wrestlers and midget performers booked into the territory. Generally speaking, these wrestlers were considered special attractions and booked somewhere in the mid-card. Since they're generally working against each other every night, there's very little "separation" in their SPOT ratings. Over a long period of time, I'm fairly sure that Fabulous Moolah would have a higher SPOT rating than other female wrestlers of the era, but aside from that they all generally have a similar SPOT rating relating to their placement in the middle of the cards. It should be noted that they definitely were drawing cards to some degree, as the promotion usually made a big deal out of their appearances. But for our purposes, we will merely be tracking the _who_ and _when_ of their appearances.
-Jean Antone and Betty Niccoli were in for a few dates in March.
-Cora Combs and Kathy O'Brien were booked for a week in April. According to the results I have, it appears Linda Carroll replaced O'Brien on the shows.
-Combs and Peggy Gray were advertised for a few shows in May, but were replaced by Darling Dagmar and Diamond Lil, who both stayed an additional week.
-Betty Bouche (Boucher), Donna Christantello (Christianello), Princess Little Cloud and Toni Rose came in for a couple of weeks starting in late May.
-Sweet Georgia Brown and Princess Ubangi were booked for about a week starting at the end of June.
-Ann Casey and Jessica Rogers were here for a month in July and August.
-Fabulous Moolah, Judy Grable, Betty Bouche and Donna Christantello were in for a couple of weeks in October, and also for one show in September. Jean Antone was booked for a couple of nights instead of Christantello at the beginning of the October run.
-Donna Christantello and Toni Rose were booked for a few shows in November.
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The SPOT ratings we're using here are based on ALL of a wrestler's bookings in the territory for the calendar year. While it gives a good snapshot of the pecking order, it doesn't capture any movement of some wrestlers up or down the card. We made mention of both Jack Brisco and Bob Orton seeing significant changes to their SPOT over the course of their stays here. In the next blog post, we'll take a look at using a short-term SPOT. We'll calculate these ratings over varying periods of time and see if we can get a better feel for wrestlers movement up and down the cards over a shorter period of time.
