Tri-State Wrestling: Week of 7/15-7/21 1968
Our coverage of 1968 continues with a look at the week ending July 21, 1968.
For new readers, this post and this post will help you understand the SPOT rating and what it means.
Here's a look at the talent roster along with their SPOT ratings. The crew that worked central and southern Louisiana is listed separately in the second chart. The first number to the right of each wrestler's name is their SPOT rating for this week and the second number is their rating for the previous week. Babyfaces are in blue on the left-hand side, heels in orange on the right. They are listed in descending order and grouped into loose categories, so you can easily see who were the main eventers, mid-carders, preliminary wrestlers, etc.
For new readers, this post and this post will help you understand the SPOT rating and what it means.
Here's a look at the talent roster along with their SPOT ratings. The crew that worked central and southern Louisiana is listed separately in the second chart. The first number to the right of each wrestler's name is their SPOT rating for this week and the second number is their rating for the previous week. Babyfaces are in blue on the left-hand side, heels in orange on the right. They are listed in descending order and grouped into loose categories, so you can easily see who were the main eventers, mid-carders, preliminary wrestlers, etc.
Known shows for the week:
Monday - Shreveport, LA & Tulsa, OK
Tuesday - Little Rock, AR & Monroe, LA
Wednesday - Fort Smith, AR & Springfield, MO
Thursday - Longview, TX & Wichita Falls, TX
Friday - Oklahoma City, OK
Saturday - Fayetteville, AR
Lower Louisiana:
Tuesday - Baton Rouge
Wednesday - Alexandria
Thursday - Loranger
Friday - Lafayette
Analysis/Notes: On the babyface side, Gorgeous George Jr. was moved up the cards this week. He wrestled Mr. Ito in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, both matches were in the semi-main event spot. Los Diablos also continue to be moved up the cards, in particular due to a heel vs heel feud with US Tag Team champions Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed. They got title shots in Fort Smith and Wichita Falls this week.
Juan Sebastian, Tarzan Baxter and Chuck Karbo finished up their runs here last week. Sebastian & Baxter went to Mid-Atlantic (where Sebastian worked as El Gaucho and Baxter worked as Leon Baxter). Karbo went to Arizona.
Karl Von Stroheim and Chati Yokouchi were moved down the cards a little bit. Yokouchi had been teaming with Chuck Karbo. He spent most of this week in prelim singles matches, presumably as a way to re-establish him in a new role as a single (though that wouldn't last).
Jerry London and Frank Marconi switched from the lower Louisiana circuit to the main circuit this week. Gerald Brisco went from the main circuit to lower Louisiana. The other newcomer in Louisiana was The Mongrel, who was Mark Starr (Rikki Starr's brother).
Lou Thesz made appearances here during the week in Tulsa and Little Rock, in both cases teaming up with Danny Hodge to face Donovan & Reed in title bouts. The Little Rock newspaper reported attendance for Thesz' appearance as "over 3,000" with 300 fans turned away.
Hodge defended his NWA World's Junior Heavyweight title in Oklahoma City against Ronnie Reed. He also faced his frequent tag team partner Lorenzo Parente in Longview as part of that town's "Pontiac tournament", where the winner of a several-week series of matches (loosely called a tournament) would receive a new car.
Frequent tag teams were:
El Diablo #1 & El Diablo #2
Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed
Jerry Miller & Mummy
Danny Hodge & Lorenzo Parente
Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito
Karl Von Stroheim & Mr Ito
Frequent matches included:
El Diablo #1 & El Diablo #2 vs Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed
Matti Suzuki vs Mummy
Gorgeous George Jr vs Mr Ito
Danny Hodge vs Ronnie Reed
For the lower Louisiana circuit, the frequent teams were Danny Little Bear & Kit Fox and Frank Dalton & Jack Dalton, while the frequent matches were Little Bear & Fox vs the Daltons and Little Bear vs Jack Dalton. These haven't changed over the last few weeks (and they won't be changing anytime in the near future); they generally ran different combinations of Little Bear & Fox vs the Daltons weekly in each town. This week, Little Bear and Frank worked the main event in Baton Rouge with Fox and Jack tied together with a strap. In Lafayette, the four met in a tag match where Little Bear & Fox would forfeit their Indian headgear to the Daltons if they lost (and I believe they did indeed lose).
