When It Was Cool Wrestling and Retro Pop Culture by DragonKingKarl

Today Karl Stern takes a look at the career of Ron Simmons (AKA: Farooq). Ron Simmons was a very big deal as a college football player but his NFL stint was unremarkable. He was trained by Hiro Matsuda in Florida and debuted there before coming to WCW where he would eventually win the WCW World heavyweight title, form the great tag team of Doom with Butch Reed, and then finish out his career in WWE as Farooq. Let's take a look at Ron Simmons!

We continue our series looking at the history of pro wrestling at Madison Square Garden in New York City. We are up to the 1910's now and Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko are having a run there. Both were world champion wrestlers in the early 1900's and have a later wrestling connection through Harley Race. Larry Zbyszko, though not related, took his name from them. Also, we talk about Mort Henderson, who made quite a sensation as the Masked Marvel and his match with Joe Stecher.

Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy was one of the best natural pro wrestlers ever. A big, strong, country boy from new Chattanooga, TN, Gordy began wrestling in his mid-teens on Chattanooga TV. By his early 20's he was part of one of the hottest acts in pro wrestling: The Fabulous Freebirds along with Michael Hayes (and later Buddy Roberts and others). Along with Hayes and Roberts, Terry Gordy was one of the hottest stars in wrestling in World Class Wrestling. Later, Gordy became a stand out star in Japan before things took a turn for the worse.

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1983 was one of the most important years in the history of professional wrestling. Upon the events of 1983 were built the WWF national expansion, the fall of the territories, the eventual birth of the major yearly event, Hulk-A-Mania, the fall of Jimmy Snuka, the success of Mid-South wrestling, the best year of Southeastern Wrestling, an era of flux for Memphis, the red hot Von Erich vs Freebirds war in World Class, the 1980s peak of but beginnings of the fall of the AWA, massive shows in Mexico, and the birth of the IWGP title in Japan. There's a lot to talk about. Check out my new book: DragonKingKarl Stern's 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available at Amazon.

The life and times of Martin "Farmer" Burns. Farmer Burns one of the top wrestling stars in post-pioneer era America. Burns was a contemporary of the original Strangler Lewis and the man who is credited with discovering and training Frank Gotch. Farmer Burns also created and sold the highly influential Farmer Burns physical training course which is still the foundation of many later workout systems. DragonKingKarl presents: The life and times of Martin "Farmer" Burns, one of the 201 Greatest Pro Wrestlers of All Time.

The life and career of legendary WWWF star Bruno Sammartino is discussed in this special from the Patreon archives of WhenItWasCool.com as part of our 201 Greatest Pro Wrestlers of All Time series. Bruno Sammartino was famous for many sellouts at Madison Square Garden, he was huge in Toronto and elsewhere. One of the biggest pro wrestling stars ever.

From the Patreon archives of WhenItWasCool.com comes Karl Stern's biography podcast looking at the life and career of Andre the Giant. Andre was one of the biggest pro wrestling stars of all time both figuratively and literally. His incredible career culminated with the famous match with Hulk Hogan at WWF WrestleMania 3. But there was so much more to Andre the Giant than that. Part of our 201 Greatest Pro Wrestlers of All Time list. 

Check out DragonKingKarl Stern's new book the 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available here - https://amzn.to/413GMgA

Just in time for the release of my new book: DragonKingKarl's 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus available at Amazon, let's review the Fall 1983 issue of the Apter magazine's quarterly special Wrestling Superstars magazine. This issue focused heavily on Georgia Championship Wrestling and GCW was going through some things in 1983. Yes, the Last Battle of Atlanta was happening, but there was discontent with the NWA that was brewing underneath. Features on Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, Larry Zbyszko, the Iron Sheik, and much more!

From the Patreon archieves of When It Was Cool: From a previous time, Lou Thesz suffers from not being from the modern era of television wrestling. Lou Thesz time as the legendary NWA World heavyweight champion came largely before color television so modern mainstream wrestling rankings overlooked him in favor of the more TV famous, however pro wrestling historians certainly know who Lou Thesz is. Long considered the greatest NWA World heavyweight champion of all time, even before that, Lou Thesz was capturing pre-NWA World championships (many of which he would later unify with the NWA title) and beating the best in world with his traveling manager and mentor Ed “Strangler” Lewis, another name that you will see on this list. For multiple generations Lou Thesz was considered by serious pro wrestling fans as the greatest wrestler ever. Are they in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame: YES