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 Londoes 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 guest 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 secend year of the Real World League. How the tournaments works, 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.
*Video production by Time Tunnel Podcast Producer, Jake Hamar
NEW! Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Presents: 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 traevling 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!
The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel
I'm Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller.
My concept of The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel to provide historical context to people, places and events in Pro Wrestling as they were happening at the time. Each ten year period in world history in terms of culture, business, economy, technology, science, and education were unique time periods unto themselves that pro wrestling both as a sport and as an entertainment tool reflected.
Matches, terms, gimmicks and related business items outside those time periods, which I refer to as “paradigms”, may not make as much sense or have as much relevance. At the same time, when viewed inside their current paradigms, they make a lot of sense, had a tremendous impact at the time and some of those provided a catalyst of the next changing paradigm. My mission is to provide as much of that context combines with historical research to provide more clairty in how to think about these time periods and related happenings in the pro wrestling business environment.
The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel endeavors to present this information in a multi-media myriad of ways, in much the same spirit as the concept behind Substack. The Time Tunnel will produce material for people who like to read, watch and listen through the connectivity of as many various methods as possible.
I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter. Thanks for reading, watching and listening, our Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel site takes a multi-media approach to the documentation of the history of this great sport.
The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Podcast serves the video and audio perferences of people who are interested in wrestling history.
Our first podcast series, Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings, showcases wrestlers, bookers, referees, promoters, television commentators, historians and others who put their bodies on the line and paved the way forward for professional wrestling.
We discuss the booking offices, the territories, the legendary towns and historic buildings where professional wrestling took place every night week after week.
We also showcase the historians who are doing the work to document pro wrestling history and publishing their findings in books. If you enjoy my guests and interviews in this series, please share it with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!
When you subscribe, no matter if it is free or paid, you help support my work to preserve professional wrestling history. As always, I appreciate you and your interest in my work. Every time I receive a notification of a new subscriber, I feel the support, so thank you!
The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Vault is for the fans of our work who want to go even deeper and have a more intense focus on the topics we present in the newsletter and podcast.
I'll be publishing 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.
Even as we speak, I am in the planning stages for a new video/audio series in The Valut on “The History of West Texas Wrestling.” I’ll keep you updated as I achieve more clarity on this special new offering. Speaking of West Texas, I’ll be publishing a “History of the NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship through 1975” very soon in the Vault. I’ll announce when that is available.
Here’s the archive of our podcast episodes so far:
Personalities, Territories, Towns & Buildings:
Episode 1: 5/10/2025: Steven Johnson, Jim Londos: The Golden Greek of Professional Wrestling
Episode 2: 5/14/2025 Herb Simmons: St. Louis, Missouri Wrestling HOF
Episode 3: 5/17/2025: Scott Teal: Raisin Cain: From The Inferno to The Great Mephisto
Episode 4: 5/21/2025: Bobby Simmons: Georgia Territory Spring 1975
Episode 5: 5/24/2025: Brian Ferguson, Verne Gagne: Inside and Outside the Ropes
Episode 6: 5/28/2025: Jerry Oates: Kansas City Territory Spring 1975
Episode 7: 5/31/25: Evan Ginzburg: Blackboards, Wrestling Rings & Movie Sets
Episode 8: 6/4/2025: Tim Dills: Tennessee Territory April & May 1975
Episode 9: 6/11/2025: Greg Klein: Texas May 1975
Episode 11: g/25/2025: Steve Gennerelli: WWWF Spring & Summer 1975
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