McGuirk Wrestling Territory: August 1976
Here's a look at the McGuirk wrestling territory in August 1976: Murdoch moves back up to the top of the cards and gets a few shots at the Funker, Pat Barrett turns heel & more!
Here are the SPOT Ratings for the month.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Newcomers to the territory this month are babyfaces Igor Putski, Mike Kelly and Pat Kelly and heels Scandor Akbar, Tony Russo and Treach Phillips. In addition, Harley Race is booked on just enough shows to be included in the Ratings chart, though he’s not a full-timer here.
Igor came in from Florida while the Kelly twins came in from Ontario. Akbar had been wrestling in the WWWF and Russo came from East Texas. Treach was mostly working as a referee at this point but he is booked to wrestle on a handful of shows for a few weeks.
Leaving the territory during the month were babyface Ted DiBiase and heel Siegfried Stanke.
DiBiase goes to Japan for a tour with AJPW and then to Amarillo. He won’t return to this area until December 1979 (for Mid-South after the split). Stanke goes to East Texas.
Other wrestlers not listed in the SPOT Ratings: Frank Dalton, Larry Hennig, the Medic, Terry Funk, Tommy Tate, women wrestlers Kitty Adams, Leilani Kai, Toni Rose and Vivian St John and midget wrestlers Billy the Kid, Bobo Johnson, Farmer Pete and Little Tokyo.
Hennig came in for a few shows towards the end of the month; he was full-time in the AWA. He comes back here in September for a stint as a regular. Funk came in for a week, defending the NWA World Heavyweight title against Dick Murdoch in Tulsa, Shreveport and New Orleans and against Harley Race in Jackson. Newspaper reports list Funk winning in Tulsa and the Shreveport bout going to an hour draw after each man had won one fall.
The women came in for two weeks in the second half of the month, while the midgets finished up a three-week run early in August.
CH-CH-CHANGES
Role Changes: Pat Barrett appears to have turned heel during the month. While on the babyface side of things, he was occasionally teaming with Nelson Royal on house shows. By mid-month he starts working against him often afterwards so perhaps the turn was specifically against Royal. It also may have been done to add a little spice to the ongoing Junior Heavyweight title tournament. Mike & Pat Kelly come in as a team; they face the other regular tag team, Bobby Jaggers & Randy Tyler, on some house show bouts. The reigning tag champs (Sweetan & Kox) are primarily wrestling as singles on the house shows.
Title Changes: Once again, there were no title changes this month. Bob Sweetan & Killer Karl Kox are the US Tag Team champions and Bill Watts is the North American champ. The NWA World Junior Heavyweight title is still vacant, with a series of elimination bouts ongoing in several cities as part of a tournament to crown a new champ.
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Here are the FEUD Scores for the month.
ANATOMY OF A FEUD
This month we'll look at the feud between Bob Sweetan and Buck Robley, looking at all of the known matches between them with results and stipulations noted where available. The matches are arranged chronologically by city, so you can easily see which cities had multiple matches between them.
Keep in mind that some newspapers didn't list details, so just because a match isn't specified as a title match, we don't necessarily know for a fact that it was non-title and the same can apply for stipulation bouts. Also, "Wrestler A defeated Wrestler B" doesn't necessarily mean it was by pinfall or submission.
6/13/76 Monroe LA: Buck Robley beat Bob Sweetan
7/19/76 Monroe LA: Bob Sweetan wrestled Buck Robley to a double disqualification
8/2/76 Monroe LA: Bob Sweetan beat Buck Robley in a lights out, no disqualification match
9/6/76 Monroe LA: Buck Robley beat Bob Sweetan by disqualification
6/18/76 Lafayette LA: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
8/27/76 Lafayette LA: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
7/10/76 Greenwood MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
7/24/76 Greenwood MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley in a return grudge bout
7/31/76 Greenwood MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley in a(nother) return grudge bout
8/28/76 Greenwood MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
9/4/76 Greenwood MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley in a lumberjack match
7/14/76 Jackson MS: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley in a no disqualification match
7/15/76 North Little Rock AR: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
7/21/76 Baton Rouge LA: Bob Sweetan wrestled Buck Robley to a double disqualification
7/28/76 Baton Rouge LA: Bob Sweetan beat Buck Robley in an “anything goes” match
8/4/76 Baton Rouge LA: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley in a lights out, no disqualification match
8/12/76 New Orleans LA: Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
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Here is the calendar of known house shows.
SELECT HOUSE SHOW LINEUPS
(unless stated otherwise, these lineups are from my own personal research)
Stipulations listed when known; keep in mind that some matches not specified as title matches may have actually been title bouts and the same can apply for stipulation matches.
7/30/76 Lawton, OK
-Dick Murdoch & Nelson Royal vs Ken Patera & Killer Karl Kox
-World’s Midget title: Farmer Pete vs Little Tokyo
-Bob Griffin vs Gene Lewis
8/2/76 Tulsa, OK
-Lights out: Dick Murdoch vs Killer Karl Kox
-North American title: Bill Watts vs Ken Patera
-Bobby Jaggers & Randy Tyler vs Nelson Royal & Pat Barrett
-Rick McGraw vs Tony Russo
8/12/76 New Orleans, LA
-NWA World Heavyweight title: Dick Murdoch vs Terry Funk
-Bill Watts vs Ken Patera
-Bob Sweetan vs Buck Robley
-Ron Starr vs Tom Jones
-Rick McGraw vs Ted Heath
-Bob Griffin vs John Ravens
8/20/76 Marshall, TX
-Dick Murdoch & Nelson Royal vs Ken Patera & Pat Barrett
-Toni Rose vs Vivian St John
-Rick McGraw vs Ted Heath
8/24/76 Alexandria, LA
-Lumberjack match: Grizzly Smith vs Ken Patera
-Bobby Jaggers & Randy Tyler vs Buck Robley & Jay Clayton
-Loser leave town: Ron Starr vs Tom Jones
-Gene Lewis & Treach Phillips vs Mike Kelly & Pat Kelly
(Tom Jones leaves the territory at the end of the month, so it’s reasonable to assume he lost the match with Starr)
