WWA Story
(Parts originally published on the Kayfabe Memories Web Site)
By Mike Dupree
Growing up in central Indiana in the late 50's/early 60's was probably a similar experience shared by many kids across the country. In the days before cable we had 4 TV stations, WISH channel 8, WLWI channel 13, WFBM channel 6 and WTTV channel 4, not a lot of viewing choices. Back then we used our imaginations to entertain ourselves a lot, money not being in large supply in most households. As kids we played army, or went to the creek to wade in the summer, or played with plastic soldiers, and later G.I. Joes. For money for comics, candy, cokes, or the odd record single, we went along the highway and picked up deposit bottles for 3˘ a bottle, usually taking them over to the Shell station and visiting with owners Sam and Edith, or later owner George Terrell. We went up to Mrs. Brown's Rexall Drug store, which didn't actually sell drugs, to get a shake or buy said comics for 10-12˘, magazines for a whopping 35˘, or we walked down to the local Ben Franklin five and dime to load up from the wall of penny candy that Mr. Gore (not the father of the internet) had. We watched Popeye cartoons hosted by the eternally beautiful Janie Woods, my cousins and I actually being on one of the shows in 1963 or 1964 when they did a weeks worth of tapings up at the new housing addition a block north of our grandmother's house. (In this town, which has expanded greatly since those days, that housing addition is STILL referred to as the "new addition". It was a great source of dirt clods for combat with the neighbor kids back then. Hey, we were poor.) Monsters were the rage on TV, and our horror host went by the handle of Sammy Terry, played by TV announcer Bob Carter. Week after week he hosted the old Shock Theater package on his "Nightmare Theater" show, showing all of the old Universal Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman films. And on Saturday afternoon, more often or not, we watched Championship Wrestling, hosted by Chuck Marlowe with interviews done by Marlowe and said Bob Carter sans makeup, featuring such stars as the Devil's Duo, the Assassins, Wilbur Snyder, Bob Ellis and of course, Dick the Bruiser. While none of us were fanatical fans in the 60's, we were always up on who was wrestling whom at that time, and even now, Dick the Bruiser was/is a local legend. It seems EVERYONE has a Bruiser story of some sort. Although Championship Wrestling, and prior wrestling programs had been on virtually all of the stations since the 50's, WWA wrestling is still ID'd to this day by those that remember it as "Channel 4 wrestling".
Over the years, the Indianapolis based WWA (World
Wrestling Association/Alliance) has gained a sort of cult following,
and is always associated with its founder/co-owner, William Afflis
a.k.a. Dick the Bruiser, who was also its first champion, and who
went on to hold that belt 9 times.
Championship Wrestling of Indiana, Inc, first started in March of
1964, and was the brainchild of both the Bruiser and his partner,
Wilbur Snyder. They had previously been working for the local
promoters of the time, Jim Barnett and Balk Estes, and in fact, were
their AWA tag team
champions at the time they went into business for themselves.
Unlike most wrestlers of the time that took over a territory, Bruiser and Snyder made no bones about the fact they owned the promotion outright, and it had a dramatic effect on their fledgling business for some time to come. Since wrestlers could not hold a license to promote and wrestle at the same time, Bruiser and Snyder simply put the promotional license in their wives' names, and the early ads for their cards read, "L. Afflis presents.... Championship Wrestling. The real problem with this idea was, in 1964, audiences of "sports entertainment" were not as accepting of the fact that professional wrestling was more "entertainment" than "sport". There were already rival shows across town, and on October 31,1963, there was an explosion at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds Coliseum that left no suitable year round venue for some considerable time (and local fans were a bit paranoid about going to any event in the explosion's aftermath).
Bruiser and Snyder going into business for themselves seemed then like a logical step on paper. Local big stars (like the Sheik, Verne Gagne, Ray Gunkel, etc.) had long realized there was much more profit to be made by being in business for themselves, and through hook or crook, managed to slot themselves at the top of their respective territories. Bruiser and Snyder, though in the ring were a contrast, outside the ring had much in common (such as being from well to do families, being college men, being ex pro football players, being family oriented, and being fond of beer) and had formed a lasting friendship.
Wilbur Snyder was originally from Van Nuys, California, and had gone to the University of Utah before entering pro football, where he eventually made his way up to Canada to play for Edmonton. One of Wilbur's teammates was a young Gene Kiniski, who had been moonlighting as a wrestler, and was making several times more money than he had been as a football player. Wilbur, who at the time was a phenomenal athlete, decided to try his hand at wrestling, and broke into the business in his native California in 1955.
The good looking, fast moving Snyder was an immediate smash, and even went to a 1 hour draw with then NWA champion, Lou Thesz, further cementing his reputation. In 1957, or thereabouts, he was brought into the Chicago/Milwaukee region, controlled by wrestling czar, Fred Kohler (who at one time, because of his network wrestling show, controlled the booking of a large segment of the major wrestling talent in the U.S., not unlike the big two do today) and put over Verne Gagne for the U.S. TV title (and how many people have ever went over Verne in the middle of the ring?). Wilbur was in huge demand all over the country, and he eventually set up shop in Indianapolis, working for Balk Estes, who was drawing record houses at the Fairgrounds Coliseum.
William Afflis was born in Lafayette, Indiana to wealthy parents, and moved to Indianapolis as a boy, attending Shortridge High School. When he was growing up in Indianapolis, his father died and his mother remarried and moved away from Indianapolis, letting Dick have his own apartment at the tender age of 16! Moving back to Lafayette and graduating from Lafayette Jefferson High School (as a top rated lineman) he enrolled at Purdue, where he was suspended for beaning the assistant coach (who had demeaned Dick on the field in front of the other players) on the head with his football helmet. Several schools and a name change (from William to Richard, hence "Dick") he finally ended up at the University of Nevada, where he graduated reportedly with a degree in engineering. From 1951 to 1955, he was an offensive lineman for the pre-Lombardi Green Bay Packers, finally quitting for the greener pastures of pro-wrestling (or, as one legend has it, because he was suspended for deliberately breaking the leg of an opposing teams lineman). The Packers, at the time, were the worst team in pro football, and spent more time partying than training for their games. Dick started wrestling for Tony Stetcher in Minneapolis in 1955,and a few months after his debut, wrestled Lou Thesz for the NWA Title. By 1956, Dick was perfecting his style, and was one of the first to actually boast and brag about himself in interviews ("working the stick"). His matches became more riotous, with Dick bringing in chairs, tables, or anything else he could get his hands on. This sort of thing, though passe today, was groundbreaking in its time. Wherever he performed, he drew large houses, and finally was given the U.S. TV title in 1957 over his future partner, Wilbur Snyder. Dick continued to be a mainstay in the Midwest region, making his home in Indianapolis, and wrestling there for local promoter Dick Patton. The riot in Madison Square Garden in late 1957 (resulting in Dick's departure from working New York City) only further enhanced his reputation.
Dick and Wilbur, by the late 50's,were top draw cards in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and all points in between. They were to this region, as much of a contrast as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair were in the early 90's. And their feuds with each other were box office magic.
One story had Bruiser buying into Fred Kohler's office as far back as 1960. At any rate, by 1963, Kohler had taken on Jack Pfeffer as a booking agent, and Pfeffer proceeded to run Chicago into the ground, booking in sound-alike wrestlers like Bummy Rogers and Hobo Brazil. Fans, and top-flight talent, stayed away in droves. Wrestling in Chicago nearly died all together. Johnny Doyle owned the Detroit promotion, selling it outright to Eddie Farhat (The Sheik) in 1965. Sheik used his father-in-law, Francis Fleser, as his frontman. So, another market closed up for Bruiser, as Sheik had a penchant for booking himself on top.
Bruiser had taken to working in southern California for Eileen Eaton's (Mike LeBell's) WWA office, and between the WWA office, and Verne Gagne's, they put together a loose alliance to take over and build a large Midwest territory.
When Dick and Wilbur started showing
TV tapes prior to running their first wrestling card (at the Southside
Armory in Indianapolis, April 25,1964) they were showing tapes from Los
Angeles. On April 22,1964,Bruiser won the WWA (California version)
heavyweight title from Freddie Blassie. The California WWA title was an
offshoot of Fred Kohler's heavyweight title, stemming from a match
between Edouard Carpentier and Lou Thesz on 6/14/57, where Carpentier
won a disputed decision over Thesz and was recognized as champ. Even
though Carpentier lost that claim to the title in Omaha to Verne Gagne
in August of 1958, Carpentier was recognized as champ going into a
6/12/61 match with Freddie Blassie in Los Angeles, and lost the title
to Blassie. The title had gone through a succession of hands and would
go back to Blassie before the April 1964 match with Bruiser. (Dick would
eventually lose the California version to Dick "the Destroyer" Beyer on
a count out on 7/22/64), and the tape of that match was used to build a
feud between him and Bruiser in the Midwest.
On their first card, Bruiser and Snyder defended their "World tag team
titles" against the Miller Brothers, going to a 60 minutes draw. Bruiser
and Snyder had been Estes' AWA Tag Team champs, as a result of a victory
over Cyclone Negro and the Masked Terror (Jay York) on 12/10/63 in
Indianapolis. They continued to claim the now Worldwide Wrestling
Alliance tag team titles, as well as Dick having the heavyweight belt.
This might have been pure ego, but more than likely, it was done to
establish the straps and the viability of anyone who would take them off
of Bruiser and Snyder. Dick and Wilbur, in the future, would use their
reps to get new talent over and develop new stars.
Bruiser bought into Kohler's promotion in 1964, it wasn't until March 6,1964, when bigger stars started to appear in Chicago, with Pat O'Connor and Art Thomas being brought in to headline at the Amphitheater. Bruiser finally headlined his first show on May 15,1964, going to a no contest with O'Connor. There were no more cards held that year in the Amphitheater until September 12, when Dick defended his WWA Heavyweight belt against O'Connor, and the team of Angelo Poffo and Nicoli Volkoff defended their newly awarded NWA Tag Team titles against Roger Kirby and Dennis Hall. Now… are you ready for this? Volkoff and Poffo had won the WWA belts from Bruiser and Snyder on 7/30/64, and lost them back to Snyder and Bruiser on 9/4/64 in Indianapolis. Poffo and Volkoff were the new tag champs in Chicago. On October 8,1964, Bruiser and Snyder did their first live TV taping in Indianapolis at the Southside Armory, which was to be shown in Chicago as well as Indianapolis. Poffo and Volkoff, who had lost the WWA Tag Team titles, defended their newly awarded NWA Tag Team titles against Bobby Managoff and Bobby Hire. And this was in an era of kayfabe!
One other market that they went into was Detroit, working with Olympia Stadium general manager Lincoln Cavaleri. They brought in talent from Verne Gagne's AWA, including tag champs Larry Hennig and Harley Race.
So, the whole territory that was the original WWA included Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Louisville, and possibly parts of Ontario (I have yet to confirm this as of this writing). It also included such towns as Champaign, Danville, Peoria, and Springfield, Ill., Evansville, Ft. Wayne, Hammond and Elkhart, Indiana.
Balk Estes folded his office in Indianapolis in September of 1964, leaving Bruiser and Snyder with run of the entire territory. Though nothing has been substantiated, there were rumors that Bruiser and Snyder may have used political pull with the athletic commission to keep anyone "unapproved" from getting a promoter's license, and therefore there was little opposition to Bruiser and Snyder in Indiana until the early 1980's, when the athletic commission was dismantled.
The territory, on paper, looked great. However, there are always logistic problems in trying to run an organization this large, coupled with the fact that in many cases, the crowds weren't that large, and in some areas, like Detroit, there was steady competition. Whatever the problems, by 1965, Bruiser and Snyder seemed to start dismantling their territory.
First, they closed up shop in Detroit in May of 1965, and wouldn't go back there until 1971. Next, Bruiser, Wilbur and Verne Gagne set up a partnership in Chicago in 1966, with Verne finishing buying Kohler out.The WWA titles were systematically eliminated, starting on February 26,1966,with a wrestle-off between AWA champion Maurice Vachon and WWA champ ion Bruiser (leaving only Verne's AWA belts). Bruiser, as stated above, had been using several of Verne's guys in Detroit, and they may have in fact, been partners there as well.
They "leased" Louisville and Evansville to Nick Gulas in the late 60's, who eventually lost the towns to Jerry Jarrett in the 70's. They had smaller promoters such as Don Pruitt run towns in southern Indiana and Kentucky, Hammond and the Illinois towns became AWA, while Elkhart and Ft. Wayne remained WWA. After that, Indianapolis basically became a farm league for the AWA and St. Louis. What Bruiser and Snyder lost in territory, they gained in power, and they had a lot of stroke in the wrestling business for most of the remainder of their careers.
From Indianapolis, during this period, many greats emerged. The Blackjacks, the Valiants, Bobby Heenan, the Chain Gang, Greg Valentine (as Babyface Fargo), Baron von Raschke, Ernie Ladd, were just some of the names. It was also a trying ground for different feuds, and a place where perennial mid-carders (by this point) like Art Thomas, Billy Red Cloud, and Moose Cholak, could be featured.
In 1971, Bruiser and Snyder, along with Lincoln Cavaleri, started running shows in Detroit again in the aging Olympia Stadium. This seemed like a strange move at the time, as Sheik's promotion was an NWA promotion, and usually if you opposed the NWA, you were blacklisted. During this time, several of Dick's stars as well as himself were appearing in St. Louis, the home of the NWA. Eventually, Bruiser's group was banned from St. Louis until the end of the promotion war. The NWA did initially send in reinforcements to the Sheik, and the early crowds for the WWA were pretty low, but with TV tapings now being done at the new Expo Center in Indianapolis, and the main events being broadcast, things started picking up. A loose talent exchange between the Bearman's promotion in Ontario, the Vachon's in Montreal, and Bruno Sammartino's Pittsburgh promotion also helped. In addition, there was some luring away of talent from the Sheik, which soon caused the WWA houses to start doing turn-away business in most of the towns on the circuit. Through 1972 and 1973, Indianapolis was frequently SRO, with main events like Bruiser and Crusher vs. The Blackjacks, Bruiser and Bruno Sammartino vs. Ernie Ladd and Baron Von Raschke, Cowboy Bob Ellis vs. Baron Von Raschke, and Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Valiant vs. Art Thomas and Pepper Gomez. One of the more strange things that the WWA did, however, was have different champs in Detroit than in Indianapolis. For example, Art Thomas was given the title in a phantom switch in Detroit, while Billy Red Cloud was champ in Indianapolis.
In late 1971, local Indianapolis TV commentator Chuck Marlowe, got a new partner at ringside to call the matches as Sam had been hired by Dick and Wilbur as general manager. It was during this time that Championship Wrestling, Inc., invaded Detroit against the established N.W.A. Office of the Sheik. Whether Sam was brought in to give a more experienced, established voice to the show, or whether Sam was a part of this expansion remains to be seen, but there were several changes made to the format of the wrestling show and to the booking department as well. Eventually, Marlowe was dropped and Menacker took over the sole commentator role.
Chuck Marlowe had been the voice of wrestling in Indianapolis since the early 60's, working first for Estes (succeeding Joe Blanchard) before going with the Bruiser's promotion. Marlowe was a WTTV Channel 4 employee, in a time when local TV stations scrounged to fill TV time, and station employees were asked to perform many different chores around the station. One of Chuck's gigs was wrestling, and even though he was never a real knowledgeable announcer wrestling wise, he always treated the business with an air of seriousness, and always tried to put the focus on the action in the ring. Bob Luce often co-commentated with Chuck, as the tapes were shown in the Chicago market as well. Marlowe, in fact, had been a high school buddy of Dick's at Shortridge, and at one point several years ago, had been up for a job at the fledgling ESPN. They missed out on a good one as Chuck's passion for college sports, particularly basketball, had never waned.
With Sam at the helm, there seemed to be stronger angles, and since they were still taping in WTTV's studios, and were shipping the tapes up to be shown in Detroit, they had to make the local angles coincide with the angles in Detroit. One that comes to mind is when they switched the W.W.A. strap from Bruiser over Baron von Raschke on the first Olympia Stadium show in October of 1971,and so they switched the strap in Indianapolis, because much of the TV show was shot live, including promos, and they would have had a big continuity problem in the days of kayfabe. To rectify this, they switched from WTTV to WFBM channel 6 (soon WRTV) who came out to the Tyndall Armory to tape a house show, and promos could be added in later. They could get two weeks worth of shows at the bi-weekly armory shows, and have their once a month house shows at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. Once they did this, they started working separate angles for the Indianapolis and Detroit markets, putting the strap on Art Thomas to try and draw in Detroit's large black population, while putting the strap on Billy Red Cloud in Indianapolis, as Billy was a solid draw in that area. (Too good, in fact, and found himself slowly seeping down the ladder once his "reign" ended. You can't get over more than the bookers.)
During this period, Sam started playing his usual role of "crusading commentator", only the ire of his wrath was the Blackjacks, and particularly, their no good manager, Pretty Boy Bobby Heenan (that's Bobby "the Brain" today, a handle no doubt inspired by Sheik's manager, Eddie "the Brain" Creatchman). Occasionally, he even found himself in the middle of things, especially in Detroit, where he reffed the cage match where Bruiser and Crusher beat the Blackjacks for the W.W.A. Tag team titles. (Oddly enough, they worked roughly the same finish in Indianapolis with just one of the regular refs. Why not Sam in that one is a mystery.) Sam and Bobby's feud finally came to a head in 1973, after building it for roughly 2 years, with Heenan assaulting Sam, and Sam punching Bobby's lights out. They had several matches, both single and tag, all over the territory, and it was a license to print money. Sam would come on TV and do many of his strongman stunts, like breaking bricks (legit) and tearing phone books in half, and that helped give the matches credence. Sam also received the announcer of the year from the Wrestling Writers Association of America during this time, and was presented the plaque at an Olympia show by Norman Kietzer, the editor of Wrestling Revue.
For the first time since Wilbur and Dick went into business in the 60's, they had a major territory. They had their own magazine, t-shirts, and were getting major publicity in the national magazines. How much of this was down to Sam's input, or if it was just the right place at the right time is not known. But it started to unravel as soon as it began.
The first problem, when you look at it, was that they booked the territory like a series of spot shows. Having different champions in different towns had gone out for the most part with the 50's. To keep the product current, they need angles that coincided with each other in the different towns. Then they started to tape their house shows at the Convention Center in Indianapolis, and it made it real difficult in later times to try and establish new talent and new angles. The fact that the tapes were being shown in so many areas and with the differing angles, no matches that were televised could be announced as title matches, as the champs might be different on another part of the circuit. And then just the fact that they gave their best product away for free started to take its toll after a while. Not using TV to book underneath angles, and replaying old tapes when there was a lull in house shows also hurt. It seemed as if the Bruiser/Snyder combine didn't really understand the importance of TV. In Detroit, the TV was on at a late hour, and it may have been cheaper, but it wasn't being seen by a wide audience, making it hard to compete against the established office.
In 1974, with the Vietnam conflict at a close, rising unemployment brought on by out of work military personnel, and a gas shortage that drove prices up, the economy took a downswing. Houses for most forms of entertainment were down, expenses up. That was one of the explanations given for the Detroit truce between Bruiser and Sheik. In doing this, of course, a profitable part of the circuit was gone, and so were many of the stars that had been coming in. Even before this, the Olympia's houses were down, due in part to the aforementioned time slot the TV show had, that apparently Bruiser didn't seem to think that was a problem. Sheik and Bruno were allegedly not the best of buddies either, and things started to dry up.
The first ones out the door were the Valiant Brothers, who headed up to New York to make history. Heenan, probably the backbone of Indianapolis wrestling for many years, was also gone later in the year. Bob Ellis dropped his strap to Ox Baker. The Ernie Ladd's and Baron von Raschke's and Valiant Brothers were replaced by Sgt.Jacques (Rene) Goulet, Ox Baker, and Handsome Johnny Starr. And bringing in someone like the Sheik, a mega villain first class, showed the limitations of the the new regime, in charisma and ability.
This writer started as part of the ring crew in 1974, and went to many of the smaller towns on the circuit. Back then, if Dick was running towns, a wrestler could make a living, although the big money was gone. But Dick got to where he would only book a few towns a week. Indiana did not have the major wrestling ports that many other states had, or they were poorly promoted, hence some of the boys struggled to make it.
By 1975, Indianapolis had gone back to being a farm type league… a haven for new talent and aging veterans or established stars between jobs. It was also a stop-off point for performers working the Chicago/St. Louis circuit. Dick would also use it to bring in major talent for a string of matches between himself, taking it to Chicago, St. Louis and Ft. Wayne. Some of the more notables included Bruiser Brody, Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel. By this time, the main source of income was down to fair dates and bought fund raising shows, with only 3 or 4 dates running a week on average.
I remember going to Richmond, Indiana in late 1975. Richmond had been a great wrestling town in years past, but the crowd this night was so poor that the show was canceled. It was during this night I first got to talk with Sam Menacker in depth for the first time, and see him out of character. He talked with affection that night, and in other conversations later, primarily about two people; Gorgeous George and June Byers. It was ironic talking about how Gorgeous George could go into a town unannounced, set up a wrestling match, and jam pack the place, while looking at an established town with an established promotion that couldn't draw 20 people. But, as he was fond of saying later, "It's a one man show".
Sam settled into his role of TV commentator, doing PR work for the promotion, and occasionally the odd match with Eddie Creatchman and Johnny Starr. But you could hear the fire in his voice slowly wane, and it became just a job. In 1982,with the business changing, Wilbur's departure, and Dick going into business with Jerry Jarrett, Sam quietly retired. He gave one last interview with the Indianapolis Star (many of the reporters there having grown up listening to Sam on Saturday morning) then, and mentioned that one of his reason's for leaving was the lack of development of new talent.
The WWA broke from its partnership with Jarrett in late 1982, and started running shows back at the Tyndall Armory, using talent from several outlaw promotions, including Kenny Jugan's Tri-State Wrestling out of Ohio, and Cliff Lilly's promotion in Kentucky. He had David McClane of GLOW fame as commentator, taking Sam's old spot. Dick would accentuate the shows with guys from Kansas City/St.Louis, like Dick Murdoch, Harley Race, and Bob Orton Jr. He booked Bruiser Brody in Indianapolis twice in 1984, who no showed both times, and the crowd didn't seem to mind. The Armory was selling out with performers like Jerry Graham Jr., Spike Huber, the World Warriors, the Great Wojo and others. With McClane, Dick started running 7 nights a week, as far over as West Virginia and down to Kentucky. While one could argue over the quality of the shows, they seemed to have a charm of their own, and the crowds were totally into them. They outdrew Jarrett's bunch hands down in this area... go figure. Eventually though, the WWA was seen only on public access as Bruiser Bedlam, and forced to run small venues such as the Vogue nightclub in Broadripple, Indiana. Jerry Graham Jr. bought into the office and moved his base of operations to Toledo, Ohio in the late 80's, with TV on WNWO Channel 24. By 89/90, this office closed up shop for good, dying quietly with scarce notice. Bruiser still continued to run spot shows until weeks before his death November 10,1991. With his death, the WWA finally folded for good.
Copyright 2008 by Chris Parsons
04/25/2010 02:03 PM