Episode 130 - Some Jackets Required

Don Fargo and his new Fabulous Fargos (Ken Timbs and Pat Rose) with host Christopher Love (Bert Prentice) from a 1987 episode of World Organization Wrestling

We’re happy to welcome back Al Getz (@AlGetzWrestling) to discuss the latest edition of his Charting the Territories books, this one covering 1971-1973 Gulf Coast Wrestling. We talk about the main players in the territory at this time, including Cowboy Bob Kelly, Bobby Shane, Don Fargo and Rip Tyler, as well as future stars like Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn, Ron Bass and Greg Valentine, wrestling as Don’s brother Johnny Fargo. We talk about the towns the promotion ran and some of the interesting ways they crowned champions there (not with belts or trophies).

Then, as we did recently with Beau James, we talk about the travails of being a wrestling historian, covering a business that’s built on a lie. How hard is it to get “accurate” data on things like shows, box office and the like? And Al talk us through his methodology, both online and boots on the ground research.

We chat about Al being inducted into the Tragos/Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa, getting the James C. Melby Historian Award.

The show ends with some quick baseball chat, with the season just a week old and Al’s Atlanta Braves being the only National League East team with a winning record. He also tells us about his first road trip of the year and dealing with weather issues with early spring baseball in the Midwest.

And the next episode of the Charting the Territories will look at Dick the Bruiser’s WWA in Indianapolis coming next week.

Episode Seventy-Seven - Blue Moon Odom

Thanks for the Memories. Ichiro retires.

To help us kick off the baseball season and the closing stages of the European futbol season, we’re happy to welcome back Awful Announcing Managing Editor Joe Lucia (@joe_TOC). We talk about the first week of the baseball season, the surprises both good and bad. What’s going right for Seattle, the Mets and Milwaukee and wrong for the Yankees, Boston, the Angels and Joe’s Braves. Just how early is too early to panic if you are one of the struggling teams? Who is the biggest heel in baseball? Is it Bryce Harper? Or someone else? And just how well will a heel Bryce fit it in Philadelphia?

We also talk about just what is going on in the Premier League and the Champions League, as their seasons wind down. Just how confident is Joe that his Manchester City can win the quadruple? Where are they most likely to slip up? If they don’t win the Champions League, who will? Messi? Ronaldo? Pogba?

There’s some fun random stuff thrown in, like doing a fantasy league for pro wrestling in the mid 1980s, price-for-rental videotapes and hand-typing in statistics from USA Today in the early years of rotisserie baseball.

As we teased last episode, we will be doing a convention soon. We will be appearing at TMPT 3 in Richmond, VA on May 18th. Scheduled to be at the show are Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express (including Dennis Condrey), The Rock and Rock Express, JJ Dillon and more folks. If you come to the show, please stop by and say hello. We hope to have a wrestling themed issue of the magazine debuting at the show. You can get your tickets here.