“So long from the Sunshine State”

      Those words are embedded in my memory having grown in South Florida. I watched “Championship Wrestling from Florida” from the early sixties until the mid-eighties when JCP bought them out and closed the office. Except for a period form about 1972-1979, I was an avid follower along with my cohort, Dave Flaherty.

       Dave always kept me appraised during the mid-seventies of what wild angles or occurred or who came into the territory and was hot. One of my deepest regrets was that I didn’t get to see Bobby Shane. Outside of Ric Flair and Terry Funk. No one got Dave going like Shane would. I can still remember how depressed Dave was when Shane died.

       The first face that I went crazy over was Red Bastien. I’ll never forget the Saturday TV show where he was interviewed. During it he showed a match he had against Johnny Valentine from San Francisco. At the end of the match, Valentine attacked him giving repeated elbow drops to the throat. Ol’ Red was hemorrhaging really badly and I was going nuts: you can tell who the first heel I hated was.

      The next show at Ft. Lauderdale’s War Memorial Auditorium I got to see Red team up with Joltin’ Joe Scarpa (Chief Jay Strongbow – imagine my surprise when he surfaced in the WWWF as an Indian, talk about exposing the business.) They defeated their foes that evening, the Viking and Butcher Vachon. I was very impressed with Red’s ring skills and could wait until he got to face Johnny Valentine. 

      Soon afterwards, Red and Joe faced Valentine and his partner, Boris “the Great” Malenko. It was a “pier six brawl” which ended in a DQ for Valentine and Malenko. Believe it or not I don’t remember how the feud ended. For some reason I think Red simply left the territory before the feud’s payoff. Wrestling was banned at War Memorial a few weeks later. It seems a riot broke out during a match between Eddie Graham and George “the Blimp” Harris.

       “Hey Dad! Will ya take us to see it?” Dave and I would beg my father each week to make the haul to Miami to see live wrestling. Most of the time he would say he was too busy. But on occasion he would relent and take us to West Palm Beach. He hated to go to Miami. These trips were filled with Dad’s tall tales. Such as: “when I was in England during WWII the fog was so bad and the mosquito’s so big at the airfield they’d pump fifty gallons of gas into one before they realized it was a mosquito and not a plane!” He’d also recall matches of his favorite wrestler, Chief Don Eagle, against the likes of Buddy Rogers and Mr. Moto. One of the perils of traveling with my father was he had a habit of spitting out the window whole barreling down the highway. Dave and I learned quickly to hit the rear floorboard when he started to roll down the window.

       During this “road trip to hell” period, we saw the coming of age of Jack Brisco. He started to get his push as the tag team partner of former Florida champ, Nick Kozak. They soon gained the Florida tag belts and entered into a feud with the Medics managed by the Good Doctor. Jack even got into his own feud with the Good Doctor. He got his head shaved one night in Miami in a hair vs. mask match. The heat was incredible and the Good Doctor and the Medics barely got out of the building alive. It was after this feud when Jack was soon everyone’s favorite. Another early feud was with Dory Funk Jr., which actually turned into Family Feud. They soon brought in their brothers and classic matches for better part of the next decade took place. One of my favorite matches was in Miami when there was a six-man tag match. Jack and Jerry had Eddie Graham as their partner and Dory Jr. and Terry had their father, Dory Funk Sr. It was a barnburner and you should have seen Terry Funk. He was a skinny teenager (probably early twenties). Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Terry wrest the World title from Jack in Miami.  I’d also like to hear how the NWA decided to give Terry the title when he was actually a sub for Dory Funk Jr. – the advertised challenger.

       On yet another Saturday in front of the tube, a masked man showed up on the program. He challenged and defeated Nick Kozak for the Florida title and he didn’t break any rules doing it. No one quite knew what to make of him at first but he wrestled scientifically each week and soon won his audience over with his great ring techniques. He called himself the Gladiator (Rick Hunter) and he was soon my favorite wrestler. I saw him twice go up against Dory Fink Jr. for the World title. The first match was a sixty minute draw and the second time was a ninety minute time limit match which ended with an over the top rope DQ on Gladiator. But the match lasted over an hour. Imagine that today?

       My most memorable moment in wrestling was when my family got our first color TV set. Dave was over and we were watching the Gladiator being presented a watch from his fans in Florida. Later on in the show, the Gladiator was in the ring wrestling. Out of the dressing room Joe Scarpa came running out. His face was a “crimson mask”! It seems Joe was jumped by Boris Malenko and hid henchmen (Hans Mortier, and Beautiful Brutus). They had destroyed Gladiator’s watch of course. Joe bled all over poor Gordon Solie all the while moaning, “I tried to stop them” to the Gladiator. Gladiator lost his composure and gave a great interview vowing revenge. Boy, was the red sure vivid on that TV!

       Two mean looking men with suitcases came strolling down the aisle of the Miami Beach Auditorium. The matches had not started yet. “Where the hell are the dressing rooms?” they screamed. Later on that evening they were introduced to that Miami audience as the Outlaws – Dick Murdoch and Dusty Rhodes. It was announced that they won the Florida tag belts the night before in Tampa. Instead of challenging, they would be defending the belts against the former champs, Jose Lothario and Argentina Apollo. The Outlaws defeated the ex-champs in what could only be considered a squash match.

       The Outlaws were the first heels Dave and I cheered for. Heck, in Miami they had a cheering section in the mezzanine over the heels dressing room. Thank goodness Dave and I perfected the fine art of ducking from being around my father. Most of the audience was pretty vocal in their hatred of the Outlaws and like to throw whatever was handy at the ring. Dave and I didn’t have the sense to be seated in the mezzanine: we preferred the trenches ringside.

       Of course the feud of feuds was between Florida’s perennial favorite, Eddie Graham, and Florida’s most despised heel, Boris “the Great” Malenko. For sheer, brutal violence not much could top their “Russian chain” matches. You’d swear they needed transfusions as well as stitches after the match. Even Onita couldn’t top Eddie when it came to juicing. There were a lot of other great feuds but time and space prohibit from going into them. Maybe if there is a next time.

     I’d like to give special thanks for the memories to:
Gordon Solie, Eddie Graham, Boris Malenko, and especially “THE” cowboy – Cowboy Luttrall.

This originally appeared in
Ron Lemieux's ARENA REPORT 1992 Yearbook
by Greg Goode