Issue 70 (June 24, 2025) 1975: Fuller Gets Stomped, Loses Southern Title, Sheik beats McTavish at Maple Leaf, MORE
Welcome to the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Daily Chronicle. The daily habit for an injection of significant events that happened on this day and relative time frames in Pro Wrestling History.
June 24th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Al Karasick 1890
Jack Dempsey 1895
"Bulldog" & "Kangaroo" Don Kent 1933
Masked Domino #1\Pepe Lopez 1937
Rudy Kay 1942
"Irish" Mickey Doyle 1948
Thomas Lister, Jr\Zeus 1958
Happy Birthday:
Adam Pearce (47)
Gustavo Adolfo Felix\Rey Horus\El Hijo de Rey Misterio (41)
Jessamyn Duke (39)
RIP Memorial: We stop & remember those who have passed on this day and gave themselves to the business for us, the fans. We salute you and thank you.
John Foley 6-24-1988 at the age of ?
Chris Benoit 6-24-2007 at the age of 40
Toni Adams 6-24-2010 at the age of 45
Jackie Fargo 6-24-2013 at the age of 82
50-Year Flashback: 1975
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match and Event Flashbacks
6-9-1975 The Mongolian Stomper w/Mgr Bearcat Wright defeated Ron Fuller (CH) to win the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee
Booker Jerry Jarrett was switching things up again in the Western end of the Tennessee Territory, by beating Ron Fuller for the Southern Heavyweight Title. Fuller had been the champion for several weeks after winning it originally back at the last Coliseum show of 1974 on December 29th winning a tournament for the vacant title defeating Tommy Gilbert. He lost it for a week in February of '75 to Ron Wright, regaining it on February 21st as aa way to boost up crowd interest in his shows in Knoxville, which he acquired as owner in October of 1974. So, Fuller's first Southern Title reign lasted almost two months before he lost it on the 54th day and in his second title run, he was champion for 101 days before losing to the Stomper. Stomper, who doesn't speak ever, has Bearcat Wright, a notoriously great talker doing his television interviews for him & working ringside.
Pictured: The Mongolian Stomper (Archie Gouldie) w/Mgr Bearcast Wright
Fuller had a very unique ability in this era to work both sides as a rare "tweener" as champion. Fans knew he was Roy Welch's grandson and Buddy Fuller's oldest son and their familiarity with the Welch family as both promoters and ring heroes made fans want to root for him when he wrestled heels. When he wrestled babyfaces, fans booed him as he knew plenty of ring psychology to turn the crowd that normally was on his side to be against him and for his opponent. Stomper was a heel, so the crowd on this night was solidly behind Fuller, but Stomper came away with the most coveted title in Tennessee and the win. On the semi-main event was Jackie Fargo and Crazy Luke Graham who have been tag team partners against Rocket Monroe & Randy Tyler but now are ready to re-start their program together.
Championship matches with a possibility of a title change typically spiked crowds, but this card in Memphis was down for some reason. The cards in May were somewhat disappointing, dropping into the 5,000 average for the 12,000 seat Mid-South building, but the first card in June on 6/2 drew an amazing 9,118 with Fuller, the Southern Champion challenging Jack Brisco for the NWA World Championship in a No DQ match, which of course, Brisco won. Younger brother Robert Fuller defeated The Stomper by DQ on the semi-main. Then, for this Fuller-Stomper title change, the crowd dipped a bit to 7,886.
The next Monday night, 6/16 in Memphis, the do the return match with Stomper defending against Fuller also with a 20-Man Pole Battle Royal on top and are back above 9k doing 9,368. This card also featured a Southern Tag Team Title change with the Germans, Otto Von Heller & Karl Von Steiger taking the titles from Tojo Yamamoto & Jimmy Golden. "Mr. Wrestling", which was painfully obvious to be Don Green to anyone paying attention won the pole battle royal.
6-22-1975: The Sheik defeated Duncan McTavish at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The main event on top in the second of the two Maple Leaf Gardens cards for the month of June 1975 once again features The Sheik, as Ed Farhat's run in Toronto is on the downside. The refusal to put Andre the Giant over at the Garden card in 1974 was the crescendo of The Sheik's power in Maple Leaf Gardens and perhaps in his owned territory of Detroit as well. Wes Maidment, Ontario wrestling historian will go into this in detail of what it was like being a fan in Ontario during this time both before the Andre match and after it on an upcoming "Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings" episode on Ontario wrestling. Watch for that to drop soon, Wes is a wealth of information on Canadian wrestling and particularly Ontario.
Pictured: Duncan McTavish
Duncan McTavish may be a name many fans are not familiar with from the 1970s. Matt Gilmour, besides working as McTavish, also worked as one the Hangmen tag team and under a hood as El Santos #1. He's 42 years old at the time of this match with Farhat, so on the upper edge of a working wrestler during this era. He had a few runs in the Arizona Territory, Hawaii, San Francisco and down South for Lee Fields in Gulf Coast Wrestling. One of my favorite stories ever about Gilmour was while he was working in San Francisco, he hadn't been there long when he told owner, Roy Shire he was moving on. Seems like McTavish didn't like hanging with the drug crowd, which was quite sizable in Frisco at the time and when Shore asked why he was leaving so quickly, McTavish said that it was apparent the boys weren't making any money because they were all smoking the same cigarette.
He worked in Vancouver for quite a bit of 1970, and it was there he had his best run, winning the NWA Canadian Tag Team Titles with local legend, Don Leo Jonathan for several weeks that Fall. This match was a typical Sheik affair, storm the ring, brawl, get juice and a set of heat on the babyface, the babyface makes a comeback and The Sheik wither gets DQ'd or flees from the ring for a CO. Except on this night, the powers that be must not have had much in the way of plans for McTavish because The Sheik defeated him in a typical 7 minutes. On the undercard was the return match for the International Tag Team Titles with The Crusaders looking for revenge after dropping the belts to The Kelly Twins at the first part of the month as well as Johnny Valentine vs Waldo Von Erich going to a 20-minute time limit draw in what was probably an excellent match.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
Jackie Fargo was a top of the card wrestler almost from day one in the Tennessee Territory. He was wrestling as "Wildman" Fargo, he teamed with Don Stevens in New York, winning the World Tag Team Title, then dropping it to Antonino Rocca & Miguel Perez in 1957. After this, he teamed with kayfabe brother Don Fargo to form "The Fabulous Fargo Brothers" to win several southern versions of the World Tag Team Titles starting in 1957.
Thank You for Reading
I'm Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller. I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my information on select events, matches and insights, please share it with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!
Remember, paid subscribers get access to exclusive and special content such as some special issues including a multi-part deep dives on wrestling territories, wrestler bios and championship title histories, special audio and video interviews on territory pro wrestling and more available in The Vault of the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel for Paid Subscribers.