Issue 78 (July 2nd, 2025) 1985: LJN Releases Another Set of Figures, Florida: NEW NWA US Tag Team Champs, 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.

July 2nd in the Time Tunnel:

Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:

In Memoriam:

Whitey Caldwell 1935

Happy Birthday:

"Hitman" Bret Hart (68)

Achim Albrecht\Brakkus (63)

Charles Robinson (61)

Scott Garland\Scotty 2 Hotty (52)

Kailey Latimer\Kamille (33)

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.

Iron Mike DiBiase 7-2-1969 at the age of 45

"Tiger" Jack Pesek 7-2-1990 at the age of 67

Sylvester Ritter 7-2-1998 at the age of 45

Smith Hart 7-2-2017 at the age of 68

Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match and Event Flashbacks

40-Year Flashback: 1985

7-1-1985: WWF releases the second set of LJN Figures

The second set of pro wrestling action figures is released by LJN based on wrestlers by the WWF. The figures were 12 inches tall and featured no articulation. However, the figures proved successful due to the skyrocketing success of the WWF. The first set of figures included Hulk Hogan (with an older version of the WWF title belt). Andre the Giant (today fetching an unbelievable amount of cash), Big John Studd, Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper and Iron Shiek.

7-1-1985: Hercules Hernandez Gets Fired from The Tampa, FL Booking Office

Hercules Hernandez (Ray Hernandez) gets into a dressing room brawl with Wahoo McDaniel which gets him fired from Championship Wrestling from Florida. Hernandez, who had an amazing 1984 with Mid-South Wrestling then goes to the WWF as simple "Hercules". The NWA Southern Heavyweight Title and the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title are vacated.

7-2-1985: Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Jack Haynes defeated Jesse Barr & Rick Rude (CH) to win the NWA United States Tag Team Championship at the Spartan Sports Center in Tampa, Florida

I am so glad I noticed this title change in Florida at this time because these tag titles are etched in my brain and they weren't very well known and haven't been widely remembered.

I am sure it will come up as we track Jim Crockett Promotions progress here in the rapidly changing wrestling business in 1985, as Crockett and Dusty are doing their best to continue the tradition that Jim Barnett started in allowing other NWA Booking Offices to feature their talent on the booming cable outlet of WTBS in Atlanta.

One of Dusty and Jim Crockett's ideas for the later summer months is to do the "Superstation Championship Challenge Series" feature title defenses that would normally have been done in arenas to be done of television. As you will learn, not all the matches were arena worthy and were more or less television matches, but to the casual wrestling fans who didn't know who The Rising Sun tag team were, I'm sure they were excited to see the matches.

I knew they were TV matches, and I was excited to see them.

But, in the Superstation Championship Challenge Series this fall, Wahoo and Bill Jack will be bringing those NWA US Tag Titles to WTBS for title defense match. I remember being excited about it and thinking those belts looked just like Magnum's NWA US belt he had. And they did because they were close to replicas of the US belt with a slight difference which I will mention when we get to the match later this year.

At this point though, its sad to look at the Florida territory. In what was once was perhaps the best and greatest pro wrestling territory on Earth, is now, in 1985, just a mere shadow of itself. Six months after the suicide of its genius driving force Eddie Graham, the Florida territory is on its last legs and barley breathing. Wahoo McDaniel was the current booker and he is doing all he can, but its tough in the Sunshine State in these times.

Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Presents:

Today: Episode 12 of the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Podcast: Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings

My Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings Shows focus on a by-gone era of regional booking offices of wrestling talent in historic towns and legendary buildings around the world!

On my show today I have two wonderful guests lined up that you are going to love!

First, in the Personalities category, Dan Murphy will be here to have a conversation with me about the great Ed Don George!

Dan has just released a tremendous book on the life and career of Ed Don George. A college wrestler at both St Bonnie and the University of Michigan, he also represented the US in freestyle wrestling at the 1928 Olympics.

In Issue 73 (June 27th, 2025), we covered the legendary match between Danno Mahoney and Jim Londos that Mahoney won in 1935, and he will go on to face Ed Don George to try to unify the two championships Mahoney holds with the AWA World Title Ed Don George is holding. Dan does a great job telling all about the life of a great performer who is all but forgotten and I think you'll enjoy our conversation!

My second guest is all the way around the world as I transition to a territory as our subject and not just a territory but an entire national wrestling operation and not just one, but two!

My guess is the most knowledgeable person alive on the history of Japanese wrestling, my friend, Fumi Saito.

Fumi and grew up relatively around the same time and we became friends when I did an interview with him for my Dory Funk, Sr book. You don't want to miss what Funi has to say about the way Japanese wrestling fans look at the United States and especially how they look at Amarillo, Texas, the home of the Funks.

Fumi covers the history of pro wrestling's beginnings in Japan in 1953, through the 50s, the 60s, the creation of the JWA, the young careers of Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. How they both left the JWA to launch New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. It's an awesome look at the seeds that were planted to give us some of the greatest professional wrestling matches in the world and the two tournaments in the Spring of 1975, the third year of the Champions Carnival and the second year of the Real-World League. How the tournaments work, what the formats were, what the booking philosophy was for both Baba and Anoki and who the wrestlers were who were the stars and why.

These episodes seem to just get better and better each week, and I am so proud to be able to bring them to you as we dive in the history of professional wrestling and the amazing experts who are bringing this great information to you each week!

Episode 12: Ed Don George with Dan Murphy and Japan 1975 with Fumi Saito here for all subscribers in the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel, available in a separate post here on our Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Substack channel, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Presents:

NEW! Tony's Territory Tour, Tennessee 1975

We are kicking off the third quarter of the year of 2025 with a special feature for our paid subscribers!

Tony's Territory Tour is a solo podcast program with me touring around a classic pro wrestling territory in a virtual vehicle every night of the week to all the cards presented by that booking office for the entire month!

We are kicking off this special series with a tour around the massive Tennessee Territory as it existed in June of 1975.

I will travel Monday through Saturday for each week of the month to each town and each card, virtually in my touring vehicle to relive with you all the storylines, all the angles, all the matches and all the interesting wrestling personalities traveling and working in the Tennessee Territory.

Its our debut show of a brand-new series for our paid subscribers only...Tony's Territory Tour...Tennessee Territory June 1975 coming this 4th of July Holiday Weekend!

If you want to get this and our other exclusive content, upgrade to a paid subscription.

Right now, its only $5.00 per month and if you subscribe for a year, you save $10 as its only $50!

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Subscribing to my newsletter helps support the work I do to preserve Pro Wrestling History, plus you get it in your email inbox every morning and you never miss an issue or a podcast with a free subscription. If you do a paid subscription, that supports my work even more by supporting with your financial investment.

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One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History

Iron Mike DiBiase was the 1946 AAU open heavyweight division champion representing the US Navy. He then wrestled at the university of Nebraska and competed in the NCAA tournament in 1947 md 1948, losing his first-round match both years. His Texas Death Match with Dory Funk Sr in 1965 was legendary lasting an amazing 3 and a half hours when the Texas Athletic Commission representative, Kirby Suggs shut the match down at 1am because of curfew and the advice of the attending physician.

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.