On my show today I welcome the amazing AWA Historian, George Schire.
Coming from his “wrestling room” in his home in Minnesota, George joins me as I settle in from The Richards Ranch to hear him run down the history of how the AWA was formed, the career of Verne Gagne and many other aspects of the wrestling territory that George has spent his lifetime following, studying and collecting.
George is also one of the most highly respected advocates for several of the wrestling organizations out there including the original WFIA, the Cauliflower Alley, Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and others.
George has not only been a fan and historian, but also close, personal friends with several wrestlers including, but not limited to, Nick Bockwinkel and Dick Beyer, whom both he discusses with me in today’s show.
We also discuss three of the biggest box office draws of the 1970s who are here in action in 1975 in the AWA, Superstar Billy Graham, Dusty Rhodes and Andre the Giant.
We cover the great tag teams as well besides Dusty and Graham, we talk about the AWA World Tag Champs, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens and their manager, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. 1975 is also the year, Gagne decides its time to pass the torch to Bockwinkel, but George shares a story that it was originally planned for much earlier, its a part of our discussion in the show.
Lots of Personalities, Towns and Buildings with George Schire and the AWA in the year 1975!
Episode 13: The American Wrestling Association in 1975 with George Schire here for all subscribers in the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel.
*Video production by Time Tunnel Podcast Producer, Jake Hamar
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 Vaut 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. 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
Episode 12: 7/2/2025: Dan Murphy on Ed Don George & Fumi Saito on Japan History & 1975 pt 1
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