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Kayfabe! – Back to the Territories with Jim Cornette: Houston Wrestling

May 10, 2018 | Posted by Mike Campbell
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Kayfabe! – Back to the Territories with Jim Cornette: Houston Wrestling  

Kayfabe! – Back To The Territories with Jim Cornette – Houston Wrestling

This is one of the more interesting editions of this series. Rather than being centered around a specific promotion, it’s tied to a singular city. From 1915 until 1987 there were only two people promoting wrestling in the city of Houston, Morris Siegel from 1915 until his death in 1967 and then Paul Boesch took over from Siegel and continued until his retirement in 1987. Boesch worked with various promotions. He was originally affiliated with the NWA and the Dallas booking office that was run by Fritz Von Erich, then he worked with Joe Blanchard and Southwest Championship Wrestling, then he worked with Bill Watts and Mid-South Wrestling (later the UWF) and then finished by working with the WWF. It’s an example of the respect that existed between promoters in those days. When Boesch switched from the NWA to Southwest, Fritz stopped running in Houston. When he switched to Bill Watts, Southwest didn’t try to continue with someone else.

I know that Bruce Prichard isn’t the most popular person. I don’t really have an opinion on him, since my only experiences with him have been watching him when he’s worked with KC, and when he was on Cornette’s podcast a while back. But, there isn’t really anyone else they could have used for this interview. Paul Boesch passed away in 1989. As much as I enjoyed hearing Paul’s nephew, Peter Birkholz, on the 6:05 Superpodcast, I don’t know if he’d have been as a good a guest as Bruce. Bruce broke into the business in Houston as a child, selling posters in the stands, and worked his way up the food chain eventually becoming a ring announcer and helping to direct the Houston Wrestling TV show. Jim and Bruce talk about the popularity of wrestling in the city, and some will be quick to dismiss it as the usual exaggerations that old timers like to talk about “We ran five shows a day and sold out every time.” But, Jim points out that, at the time the TV show began, there was only one TV station in the city (this was before Network TV), and wrestling was one of the first big hits on televison. With the show being so established, there was even a waiting list for sponsorships.

Cornette’s cold open is one of the best ones he’s ever done, with a great quote that “A handshake from Paul Boesch was more binding than any contract.” There’s some great B-roll footage of programs and posters from the various cards held at the city auditorium and the Sam Houston Coliseum, one of which includes a very young Ernie Ladd. Cornette and Prichard are longtime friends, and their chemistry is obvious, and Bruce even has some fun taking a few jabs at Memphis, and doing his Cornette impression.

Then there’s the stories. I’ve always said that the best KC releases are those that are both informational and entertaining, and this one knocks it out of the park in both aspects. Bruce’s story of his first time ring announcing is hilarious, he was dressed just like the regular ring announcer Boyd Pierce. He was so nervous that he announced Professor Tanaka as being from “Yakahoma, Japan” and he asked the crowd to please stand for the playing of the “Natural Anthem.” Bruce’s stories about Joe Blanchard going through bookers are very amusing, leading up to Bruiser Brody deciding he didn’t feel like working one night, so he staged a sit-in. Brody just sat in the middle of the ring while Buck Robley (the booker and the manager of Brody’s opponent that night, Jim Duggan) was literally pleading with him to work. Jim brings up Gino Hernandez and the longtime rumor that he was Paul Boesch’s son. Bruce never heard that rumor while he was there, but because he worked so close with Paul, it was possible that nobody told him. The only people who would know the truth are Paul, and Gino’s mother. He also recounts the day that Paul heard about Gino’s death.

Jim and Bruce talk about Houston having a somewhat infamous history with controversy involving World Title maches, which leads to another telling of the drama between Dory Funk Jr. and Jack Brisco, including Terry Funk’s story that he knew the accident really happened because “Dory’s hair was messed up.” Bruce talks about one of his favorite finishes, where Bobby Heenan was managing Nick Bockwinkel and gave a three count in order to fool Junkyard Dog into thinking that he’d just won the AWA Title. My personal favorite was the story where Pat O’Connor was a special referee for a strap match between Wahoo McDaniel and Harley Race, because the NWA was afraid that Wahoo would double cross Harley. Jim and Bruce both agree that it would never have happened, not only because Wahoo was always a standup guy but also because being the NWA Champion would interfere with his golf game. Wahoo and O’Connor had been bickering for the whole match. Finally, Wahoo unstrapped himself, tied up Harley in the corner, and got into a fist fight with O’Connor.

It ends on something of a sad note, with Boesch not wanting to work with Jim Crockett after he bought the UWF, so Houston worked out a deal with Vince McMahon. Vince apparently gave them complete control over what went on the Houston TV show, and Paul decided to show the Savage/Steamboat match from ‘Mania III for three weeks straight, to build up the rematch they’d have at the Coliseum. Vince decided that from now on Bruce would be in charge of the TV show. Paul and Peter’s interpretation of that was that Bruce burying them to Vince in order to get the job. They decided to go their separate ways with Paul retiring in 1987 and the WWF putting on a retirement show for him. Vince brought in a bunch of legends and old friends of Paul’s, and used Tom Prichard, Mil Mascaras, Terry Funk, and Chavo Guerrero on the show. Vince sat down with Paul and Peter to talk about how they’d split the gate receipts. They wanted to keep it all, and Vince didn’t even put up a fight. Paul passed away two years later, still very bitter about how things ended, including saying that Vince McMahon’s grave should have the epitaph “Here lies Vince McMahon Jr., who destroyed faith in the handshake.”

10.0
The final score: review Virtually Perfect
The 411
Prichard's stories alone make this worth a pickup. But, combined with the excellent historical details from Cornette and the fact that Houston Wrestling in general isn't really talked about that much, and you've got something that anyone interested in wrestling history or territories in general ought to be pick up.
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article topics :

Jim Cornette, Mike Campbell