Tri-State Wrestling: Week of 8/5-8/11 1968

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Our coverage of 1968 continues with a look at the week ending August 11, 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 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 - 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

Analysis/Notes: Joe Louis continued his two-week stint in the territory. For the most part, he worked in the towns that he did not work last week. In Shreveport, he was special referee for Danny Hodge's title defense against Jack Donovan. The show was moved to a different venue, the Hirsch Youth Center at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds, and attendance was reported as 6,000. Louis refereed Hodge vs Donovan again the next night in Little Rock with a reported attendance of more than 3,500 and over 1,000 fans turned away. In Wichita Falls, Louis refereed a match pitting Hodge & Lorenzo Parente against Chati Yokouchi & Mr. Ito. The next night in Oklahoma City, he took part in a 10-round boxing match against Karl Von Stroheim, winning via knockout just 31 seconds into round one.

The major matches this week continued to fall into two general categories: Hodge against Donovan, sometimes with Parente and Ronnie Reed joining them for tag matches or having separate singles bouts, and various combinations of babyface triumvirate Gorgeous George Jr, Haystack Muldoon and Jerry Kozak against various combinations of Yokouchi, Ito and Von Stroheim. Los Diablos found themselves in a couple of main events as well this week, against Hodge & Parente in Fort Smith and against Muldoon & Kozak in Longview.

There were no changes to the roster this week, and minimal changes in the SPOT ratings. Yokouchi & Ito did see their SPOT ratings increase as their feud with George, Haystack & Kozak were usually main events on the shows Hodge wasn't working.

Frequent matches:
Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito vs Danny Hodge & Lorenzo Parente
Danny Hodge vs Jack Donovan
Chati Yokouchi & Karl Von Stroheim & Mr Ito vs Gorgeous George Jr & Haystack Muldoon & Jerry Kozak
Chati Yokouchi & Mr Ito vs Haystack Muldoon & Jerry Kozak
Danny Hodge & Lorenzo Parente vs El Diablo #1 & El Diablo #2

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

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

The Daltons were billed as the Louisiana state Tag Team champions, defending the belts against Gerald Brisco & Pepe Perez in Loranger and against Danny Little Bear & Kit Fox in Alexandria. The Louisiana Heavyweight championship was to be decided in a battle royal in Lafayette, which was won by Little Bear.

No changes to the crew this week. In addition to the full-timers, Oni Wiki Wiki and Buddy Austin were booked in Loranger. Jack Donovan & Ronnie Reed were booked in Chalmette along with Gorgeous George Jr; as I mentioned last week the Chalmette shows often featured a few of the guys from the main circuit.

Frequent matches:
Danny Little Bear & Kit Fox vs Frank Dalton & Jack Dalton
Danny Little Bear & Gerald Brisco & Kit Fox vs Frank Dalton & Jack Dalton & Kenny Mack

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


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