SKULL MURPHY and BRUTE BERNARD

 

BOLO AND THE GREAT BOLO (JODY HAMILTON & TOM RENESTO)

 

INDIANS MEET GERMANS

                                                                   January 22, 1966

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

VON STROHEIM

SUNI WAR CLOUD

(looks a bit like Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, doesn't he?)

'The Big O' BOB ORTON SR.

BILLY TWO RIVERS

BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY

A rough and rugged pair of German brothers will make their LEXINGTON YMCA debut tonight in the main event of professional wrestling action.

The big bruisers, KURT and HENRY VON STROHEIM, who tip the scales at a combined 510 pounds, will face a very popular duo of Indian mat stars in the guise of BILLY TWO RIVERS and SUNI WAR CLOUD.

The current SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, 'The Big O' BOB ORTON will face newcomer KARL GOTCH in a non-title match. A GOTCH victory would propel him to the top of the list of contenders for the title.

More tag team action is slated as fan favorites STEVE BOLUS and OMAR ATLAS will collide with the Irish / Canadian skinhead bully team of BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY, who are returning to the area after a long absence.

Both tag team matches are set for the best-of-three falls.

Another singles match will open the card at 8:15.

RODDY PIPER versus GREG VALENTINE

 

DAMN THOSE INFERNOS!

 I make no apologies for throwing the spotlight once again on these guys for a number of reasons:

They could really work in the ring.

They really drew heat.

And I just plain liked them!

THE INFERNOS made several passes through JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS in the mid-late 1960s, and each time, went straight to the top of the card, feuding with not just the top 'babyface' teams, but also a number of the other 'heel' duos as well.

THE INFERNOS set every wrestling territory they worked in on fire!

Often, J.C. DYKES was forced to join his men in the ring as pictured here in a match against a team headed by EDDIE GRAHAM.

The helpless referee tries to no avail to prevent THE INFERNOS from double-teaming a hapless opponent.

THE INFERNOS
(These are the originals - Manager J.C. DYKES (left), ROCKY SMITH (center), FRANKIE CAIN (right).

Looks like things didn't go well for J.C. on this night.

JOHNNY WEAVER is at the mercy of one of the masked maulers.

One INFERNO memory I have occurred in the late 1960s one summer night at the old semi-pro baseball park in Statesville, North Carolina.

DYKES and his men were making their approach to the ring for their main event match. J.C. was wearing a brown paisley tuxedo jacket. Some idiot, out of nowhere like Ruby on Oswald, threw a large cup of Coca-Cola right in the manager's face and all over the jacket, then like the fool he was, took off running towards the center field fence (where there was no escape - the fence was at least ten feet high). Duh!

Both INFERNOS took off after the goof. Whichever wrestler was wearing the 'loaded boot' actually got to him first, tackled him in the outfield and started slugging him. His masked partner was right behind and began beating the **** out of the poor guy with the metal canteen DYKES always carried to the ring.

Eventually, the local police (60-inch girths and all) made it to the outfield and relieved the wrestlers of what was left of their attacker and escorted him out of the ball park and took him to the local police department, where I'm sure he spent the night at the expense of the citizens of Statesville.

THE UNMASKED RED DEMONS - JIMMY AND BILLY HINES

 

CHARLOTTE DEBUT OF NELSON ROYAL AND PAUL JONES

                                                                      April 1, 1969

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

Two tag team matches that will follow the pattern of science against "no holds barred" tactics rate equal billing on tonight's professional wrestling program at PARK CENTER kicking off at 8:15.

Local fans will be anxious to take their first look at the Texas team of NELSON ROYAL and PAUL JONES. The swift twosome was the rage in the Orient recently.

ROYAL and JONES will face the rugged duo of THE MISSOURI MAULER and HIRO MATSUDA. Add the judo skills of MATSUDA to the rough brawling of the MAULER, and they make quite a twosome.

The other tag battle will send the masked MR. WRESTLING and SAM STEAMBOAT up against "The Blonde Bombers," RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON. These two teams are locked in a bloody feud (see poster) these days, and nothing has been settled...yet. It's been a brutal brawl every time these men have locked horns.

Both tag matches are governed by the best-of-three falls, one hour time limits.

MIKE SHANE will open the card in his one-fall contest with villainous "Bulldog" LEE HENNING.

THE NEW BREED (I liked these guys)

 

A GREENVILLE, SC BLOODBATH

           Many MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING fans always loved to witness a BATTLE OF THE  BULLIES match, in which two 'bad guy' teams faced each other instead of the usual 'babyface' versus 'heel' encounter.

I was one of those fans, and I was lucky enough to see quite a few.

One I didn't get to witness took place in 1972 in Greenville, South Carolina. And to make the match even better, it was wrestled under TEXAS DEATH MATCH rules, meaning falls didn't count towards deciding a victor. The two teams battled until one couldn't answer the bell for the next fall. No time limit and no disqualification stipulations were also in place.

On this night, the combatants were the teams of GENE ANDERSON and ART NELSON versus RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON.

Referee SAM 'LUCKY' ROBERTS was assigned to be the official. More likely than not, SAM was probably 'UNLUCKY' ROBERTS for this night.

RIP HAWK hammers away on GENE ANDERSON.

No participate left the ring unscathed that night in Greenville.

GENE GORDON witnessed the match and gave the following account..."I believe this TEXAS DEATH MATCH was the roughest, most vicious and bloody match I had seen in many years, and I go all the way back to the likes of COWBOY LUTTRELL, DANNY MCSHANE and STRANGLER BOB WAGNER. There was not a lot of wrestling. It was more like something out of the days of the Roman gladiators who battled to the death. No one paid any attention to any of the normal rules. The referee was knocked down several times and thrown to the floor once. He wanted to stop the match but couldn't under the stipulations. All four wrestlers looked like they had been run through a sausage grinder. They were so exhausted they could hardly leave the ring at the end. I saw one woman faint and a few others left in disgust, unable to stand the brutality and gore. I know I'll never forget it."

For the record, the match was won by HAWK and HANSON, although they certainly didn't look like winners at the end.

BOB CAUDLE and JOHNNY WEAVER - JCP LEGENDS