Tri-State Wrestling: Week of 8/19-8/25 1968

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Our coverage of 1968 continues with a look at the week ending August 25th: the tag tam titles are held up (in most towns), Hodge & Parente square off with Yokouchi & Ito in a couple of stipulation matches, Danny Little Bear teams with an actual bear & more.

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 for the week. The crew that worked central and southern Louisiana is covered separately towards the bottom of this post.

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; wrestlers at the top were mostly in main events while wrestlers at the bottom were mostly in preliminary matches.

I have data for the following house shows this week:
Monday - Greenville, MS & 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

Notes/Analysis: The controversy surrounding the US Tag Team titles was mentioned in the build-up to several shows this week. If you'll recall, Gorgeous George Jr & Jerry Kozak defeated champs Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed in an impromptu TV match. Donovan & Reed and their manager Mrs Jack Donovan protested that since an official contract wasn't signed, it was not a title match and therefore they should still be champs. In Little Rock, the two teams went to a 90-minute time limit draw, thus the titles were still in a state of flux. In Fort Smith, Donovan & Reed were still billed as champs and defended the titles against Los Diablos in a 3 out of 5 falls match. Those two teams faced off again the following night in Longview in a non-title Texas rules match; in this case, the newspaper article acknowledged the title controversy. A clever little touch to this is that it was said Mrs Jack Donovan was in "St. Louis trying to appeal" the George-Kozak decision and would not be at ringside for the match. In Oklahoma City, Donovan & Reed again went to a draw with George & Kozak.

Other title matches during the week saw Danny Hodge defend the NWA World's Junior Heavyweight title in Tulsa against Jack Donovan and in Fayetteville against Reed. Hodge also teamed with Lorenzo Parente to face Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito twice, a steel cage match in Springfield and a Texas death match in Wichita Falls.

Sonny the Wrestling Bear and his trainer Nick Adams left here after one week and went to the "lower Louisiana" circuit. They would come back here next week. The only newcomer was Mark Starr, who came from the Louisiana circuit where he had been wrestling as The Mongol.

Frequent matches:
Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito vs Danny Hodge & Lorenzo Parente
Gorgeous George Jr & Jerry Kozak vs Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed
El Diablo #1 & El Diablo #2 vs Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed

Frequent tag team combinations:
Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito
Danny Hodge & Lorenzo Parente
Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed
El Diablo #1 & El Diablo #2
Gorgeous George Jr & Jerry Kozak
Jerry Miller & Mummy

For central and southern Louisiana, here are the SPOT ratings for this week.

I have data for the following house shows this week:
Monday - Loranger
Tuesday - Baton Rouge
Wednesday - Alexandria
Thursday - Chalmette
Friday - Lafayette

Notes/Analysis: As mentioned above, The Mongol moved up to the main McGuirk circuit and Sonny the Wrestling Bear came in along with Nick Adams. Sonny "wrestled" Kenny Mack in Loranger and Jack & Frank Dalton in Chalmette. He also teamed up with Danny Little Bear to face the Daltons in Lafayette and with Little Bear & Kit Fox to face the Daltons & Mack in Baton Rouge. Please don't ask me how they worked tag team matches with a bear. Sonny was also booked in a battle royal in Alexandria. Sonny was generally in the main event or close to it; if I included him in the chart above he'd be just above Little Bear with a .92 SPOT rating. Nick Adams was generally in the prelims and would have had a .35 rating.

As they had been doing since they started running the town, they brought in a couple of extra bodies from the main circuit for the Chalmette (just outside of New Orleans) card, with Jerry Miller & The Mummy coming in to put over Little Bear & Fox.

Frequent matches:
Danny Little Bear & Kit Fox vs Frank Dalton & Jack Dalton

Frequent tag team combinations:
Frank Dalton & Jack Dalton
Danny Little Bear & Kit Fox

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