July 20, 1972 Part Two

In my last column, I talked about an evening of wars between some of the biggest stars in the Midwest. Omar Atlas opened the card against Billy Howard. So important was this match, both men went out of their way to show the fans why they wanted a shot at the current Central States Champion.

They fought to a time limit draw, and they wanted more time to declare a winner. The referee returned both men to the dressing room to come back later in a six-man tag team.

Roy Bass was beaten in the second match by Les Thornton, who was a huge favorite with the fans because of his no-nonsense attitude in the ring.

Archie Gouldie met Joe Chun in the third match and literally kicked the stuffings out of him in the seven minutes they were in the ring. Gouldie’s size 15 tan boots could break bones and cause you many months of rehab if he wanted. Archie wanted to just end the match as soon as he could, as he figured he was paid by the match, not by the hour.

The six-man tag match was next, and Billy Howard was shoved out of the corner by Roy Bass and Juan "Gaucho" Sebastian, as they didn't want some cream puff in their corner. Rufus Jones charged at Billy and began a very heavy beating on the helpless Howard. Billy surprised him by giving him back more than he bargained for.

Rufus tagged in Omar, and within a few moments, Omar grabbed the helpless Billy Howard and airplane spun him almost out of his boots. Howard went down for the three-count and then tried to get upright. He fell out of the ring still trying to get his bearings.

Roy Bass and Gaucho Sebastian proceeded to kick the living daylights out of Howard. Their actions sent Billy to the dressing room by Promoter Gust Karras.

The second fall ended very quickly as Roy Bass grabbed a chain out of his boot and smacked Atlas right between the headlights and followed his fall to the mat with a three-count by referee Frankie Diamond. Bass rolled out onto the floor to get away from the action.

The third fall saw all five men in the ring more times than they were scheduled to be. The action between Rufus and The Gaucho was close to being riot bound, as the fans were fighting almost as hard as they were. Fans in Kansas City were die hard and often would get into fisticuff battles among themselves.

Rufus ended up head butting Roy Bass and busting his head open. Rufus tagged in Les Thornton, and he caught Bass in a series of British moves that set him up for Atlas to come in and dropkick the daylights out of Bass and get the win for the team.

Following a short intermission, my new tag team champions were led to the ring to do battle with the former champs, Chatti Yokouchi & Yasu Fuji. Black Angus & Roger Kirby were meticulous in their new attire that I had made for them to unveil to the Kansas City audience.

The strapped singlets were matching except for the names I had embroidered on them. Angus had a flag of Scotland on his, and, of course, Kirby had a U.S. flag on his. As I continued to go towards the ring, I turned to the overflow capacity crowd and just looked upwards toward the cheap seats and let people know just how successful I was and how great my team is.

The bell rang, and what a battle started between Fuji and Kirby. Yasu was a huge talent from Japan and had been trained for nearly ten years in various dojos around Tokyo. He brought the scientific aspect to the Oriental team. Kirby was not a slouch in the ring by any means, either.

He was the former Junior Heavyweight Champ, beating the great Danny Hodge. To do that, you have to be the very best at what you do. Roger was a consummate athlete that would work out for nearly an hour before going to the ring to wrestle.

Both teams showed me that they wanted to be the champions and do what ever it took to do so. Kirby & Angus proved beyond a doubt that they were the best by handing the Oriental team a rare defeat.

As I was leaving the ring, Harley Race stopped me in the aisle and whispered in my ear. He told me that the Stomper & Rufus Jones had gone to Gust Karras and demanded a championship match the following Thursday.

I was not happy about the idea of meeting the Stomper & Jones in the ring, wherever it was. They were bad news all wrapped up in a small package.

Harley went to the ring without his Central States Championship belt. The belt had been held up last week by promoter Gust Karras because of the way that Race had won the match against Cowboy Bob Ellis.

Race began to let Karras know how he felt about having the belt held up and almost got his hands on Karras but was stopped by four huge men in the 6'6" brackets, weighing in the 275 pound range. They were the goons that Karras carried with him wherever he went. They claimed to be training to be wrestlers, too.

From the back of the building came a huge cheer as Cowboy made his way to the ring. He was not wearing his regular Stetson and vest; his body was a huge pool of sweat. He was determined to beat Race once and for all and become the Central States Champ.

Race hit him with every trick he seemed to know, but Ellis, the veteran that he was, countered every move. At roughly 10 minutes into the match, I made it back out to ringside and approached Harley on the opposite side that Gust Karras and Pat O'Connor were seated at.

My distraction was all that Ellis needed, and he charged at me and came through the ropes, landing on the arena floor. As I tried to reason with him that I was just there for moral support for Harley, he grabbed at me and missed, falling on the arena floor again.

Harley was very fast to come to my rescue and threw Ellis back into the ring, where he busted open the head of Ellis. A few minutes, later Ellis busted Harley over the head with his cowboy boot and caused a huge gash.

With a lot of blood lost, Harley proved to the fans that he was the better of the two and ended the match with a huge head butt off the top rope to the helpless Ellis, who lay on the mat knocked out.

Harley was the victor and grabbed his belt and followed me to the dressing room a very happy warrior.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers

2003 BWC Hall of Fame Inductee
2004 CAC Hall of Fame Inductee
2006 LWA Hall of Fame Inductee