August 31, 1972 Part Two

When I left you last … Kansas City, Kansas was another great sellout on Thursday night. The action was so thick, you could almost cut it with a knife. Three great matches had led up to the semi-main event, which involved all eight participants from those matches and one other, The Viking.

He came down the aisle blowing that irritating horn that he had made from a Bull mountain ram. His thumb was very heavily taped from what he called an old fishing injury, and he was gloating to promoter Gust Karras when he got to the ringside about being so fresh and ready for action.

The other eight men anxiously waited for him to get into the ring so they could throw him overboard and, hopefully, be the last man inside the ropes and claim the $1,000 prize. Karras told the Viking to get on with the match, and the bell was rung. It was a pretty fair and matched bout for the most part, with everybody wanting revenge for their earlier pairings.

Chati Yokouchi was the first to go sailing over the top rope and onto the arena floor. Omar Atlas saw to that by ducking a huge karate thrust and heaving the body of one half of the tag champs over his shoulder. Atlas then seemed focused on getting to the Viking.

Juan Sebastian was next as he fell victim to Bobby Whitlock. Steve Bolus was next to be eliminated by Yasu Fuji, which left six men in the match. Since Atlas was the toughest, everyone decided on getting him out of the match, and it took four men to toss his heavily muscled frame to the arena floor. The Viking, who had been fighting for his life with Atlas, took an advantage and dumped Fuji over the top rope by grabbing him by the hair from the blind side. All is fair in a Battle Royal, and there are no allies.

Bobby Whitlock, The Viking, Les Thornton and Billy Howard were left in the ring, and the four men began to pair off to maybe get a chance at the top prize for the winner. In a heartbeat, Bobby Whitlock was ganged up on by Howard and the Viking and flew over the top rope and ended up in the ringside seats. They then focused their attention on Thornton, who was probably the toughest fighter left in the ring.

Viking and Howard began a gang-like beating on Thornton and proceeded to eliminate him from professional wrestling for good. It wasn't long before they decided it was time for Les to be out of the match, and then they would split the money between them. They grabbed Thornton's body and began to throw him over the top rope when, suddenly the Viking reached over the frame of Thornton and up ended both men over the top rope and was the last man in the ring.

Viking’s hand was raised in victory, and he demanded the $1,000 bill for his win. It was then that promoter Gust Karras took the microphone and announced that damages to the building in St. Joe that was caused by the Viking would be taken out of the prize money, and the balance was to be donated to charity on behalf of the Viking. He won, but he didn't win. Very dejected, he left the ring and started towards Karras when, suddenly, six huge men came from the ringside area and stood in front of their boss. Viking retreated to the dressing room.

The Main Event was next, a six-man tag team match. Rufus R. Jones, Danny Littlebear and Terry Funk were in the ring, along with special guest referee Sonny Meyers. They were signing autographs and shaking hands and kissing the pretty (???) young girls and doing what most of the good guys did back then. I was first to get out of the dressing room door and resembled a peacock in full bloom as I had on orange slacks with a royal blue jacket accented by a bright yellow silk shirt and a hand painted flower tie.

I was followed by Angus, Kirby and Harley Race. I was in a tunnel of 12 of Kansas City's men in blue. Fans were throwing things at me like crumpled up pop cups, and almost every one of them were yelling curse words at me. Most, believe it or not, were women who had nothing else better to do on a Thursday night.

Following the introductions, the match started, and it never stopped for a second. Terry Funk seemed intent on getting his hands on Harley Race as the two had a history of the most violent matches in the world. Terry had lost 20% of his vision in one eye from a Texas Death match they had just the year before.

Kirby and Littlebear were intent on getting their hands on each other as they also had some pretty rough matches against each other. Angus and Rufus R. Jones were no strangers to each other as they had fought and exchanged the Central States belt between the two of them. The only thing I didn't understand is why Karras brought Sonny Meyers out of retirement to be a referee. I never did like him anyway.

At about 30 minutes in the action, I called our team together in what would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of Kansas City, Kansas matches. I spotted the weak link in the team of Jones, Littlebear and Funk. Terry was wearing a new leg brace, and it seemed like he would be the one to get into the middle to beat up on.

Angus said he would do the honors and shamed Funk into the middle of the ring to face him. Terry was never one to back down from a fight and tore into Angus with a velocity of moves and physical pummeling that didn't set too good with Angus. He managed to tag in Harley, and the two began to beat tattoos in each others chest. Funk finally reached back and bolo punched Race and knocked him to the mat with a huge thud.

Harley tagged in Kirby, and he began to get the same from Funk as the others had. Kirby grabbed Funk and lifted him for a body slam, and Funk grabbed him in a small package and got a three count from the referee, Sonny Meyers. What the blind man from St. Joe didn't see was that Kirby had his left shoulder up, and the count should not have happened. We lost the match, and the other team was gloating to the crowd. Meyers had Funk and Jones and Littlebear’s hands in the air when I came up from the back side of them and blasted Meyers in the back of his head with my briefcase, laying him out on the mat.

We might have lost the match but we won the war.

Vengeance was mine, sayeth Percival A. Friend.

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
2007 TCCW Hall of Fame Honoree