NWA: Big Time Wrestling
October 1978
Detroit, MI

Your hosts are Chuck Allen and Terry Sullivan. WHY ARE THEY INSIDE OF A CAGE? We’ll find out at some point tonight.

• Austin Idol vs. Eddie Dice
  

Chuck tells us that Idol spent $12,000 on that purple robe of his. He compares Idol to Gorgeous George and someone else whose name he can’t recall. What a professional. Idol pulls hair and chokes this ham-and-egger and the crowd gives him hell over it. Dice looks like he’s about five foot tall. He throws Dice half way across the ring for a slam and knee drops him, but gets up off Dice at the count of two. Allen – “OH THAT’S BRUTALITY!” Idol whips Dice into the ropes for a clothesline and applies the RACK (or the Atomic Noogie) for the submission at 4:43. Afterwards, Idol goes over to Chuck Allen and tells me to call my girlfriend to tell her he’s on TV. I really don’t think she would care, pal.

• Mark Lewin vs. Danny Fargo
  

Before the bell, Terry Funk comes out and uses Terry Sullivan’s mic to talk to Lewin. He’s mad that Lewin left his brother for dead and wants a match right now. Not one to turn down a challenge, Lewin gets in the ring ready to go. Funk bullies Fargo out and AWAY WE GO.

• Mark Lewin vs. Terry Funk
  

No contracts were signed, no money, no insurance, no nothing. Chuck says these two are violating NWA rules, but somehow the NWA official doesn’t seem to mind. Funk wants to fight and Lewin frustrates Terry with a hammerlock on the mat. Funk tries to chop and headbutt out, but Lewin’s head is too thick and Funk goes down. When Terry finally gets a break, they lock up in the middle of the ring. Funk snapmares him over, but misses an elbow drop using his bad arm. Lewin goes right back to the hammerlock. Funk gets another break by grabbing the hair and throwing Lewin to the floor. He stomps Lewin on the head a bunch from the apron until they are both counted out. (4:36) A wooden ringside chair gets broken and Terry tries to attack Lewin, but Lewin takes the piece of wood and starts JABBING Funk on the head to make him bleed. After the ref gets the stick away from Lewin, Lewin locks on the SLEEPERHOLD. It looks like Terry is about to go “night night” when Walter Johnson jumps in the ring and jumps Lewin using a blackjack. Crowd wants Sheik as Terry Funk finds a piece of the chair and sticks the sharp end in Lewin’s throat! Lewin takes another whack across the skull with the blackjack. Brutal stuff. ¾*

• Big Red vs. Danny Fargo
  

Sullivan tells us Terry Funk was originally supposed to face Big Red. He explains they are inside a cage to show everybody the new cage that will be used for wrestling at Cobo Hall. Tonight, Big Red wrestles with a cross between the charisma of Thunderbolt Patterson and the girth of Viscera. Big Splash by Red gets the win at 4:54.

Out comes Terry Funk (with his head slightly wrapped) and Walter Johnson to talk. Funk puts over Walter Johnson – former defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns – for coming to his aid in the ring. Funk says he’ll put up $5000 to anybody who can pin him. They allow the audience to ask questions. Surely these people are plants, right? Anyways, the first guy asks Funk if he’s such a good champion, how come he lost the NWA world title to Harley Race. Funk threatens to backhand the nerd and says he’ll put up the $5000 if this ham and egger as the guts to pin him. Another kid asks Walter Johnson why he quit the NFL to come to wrestling. He mentions some contract negotiation issues and says he thinks wrestling is tougher than football. He says he’s already shown the world he’s a great defensive tackle (which seems to be the standard position in football for black wrestlers) and now he wants to show the world he can be a great wrestler as well. Funk calls Mark Lewin a “bigot” and says Dory is going to hear about what happened here today. Chuck Allen asks Johnson why he’s not playing with the Cincinnati Bengals this year like he did in the 1977 season. It appears that the Bengals could really use him. Johnson says he just wants to devote all his time to wrestling right now. Considering the Bengals went 8-6 in 1977 and 4-12 in 1978, Allen may be right. Johnson would never return to the NFL. It’s interesting that he wasn’t in the WWF vs. NFL battle royal at WrestleMania 2.

• Walter Johnson vs. Mike Wayne
  

All these Detroit jabronis look the same to me. Just short and dumpy looking. A three point stance and the Kamala Splash gets the win at 1:19.

Former amateur wrestler Terry Sullivan does some commentary for a Michigan State versus University of Toledo amateur wrestling match. I assume this is their way of reaching out to the local area and giving their pro wrestling some legitimacy. In the conference of Dan Gable, the Michigan State wrestler Jeff Thomas is shown here who will go on to win the Big Ten wrestling championship in 1980 at 126 pounds.

• Dory Funk Jr. & The Sheik (w/Eddie Creachman) vs. Stan Stasiak & Bulldog Don Kent (w/”Pretty Boy” Floyd Creachman)
  

There is only TV time remaining for this match. Terry Sullivan says he would pay $25 to see this match, but now he’s giddy about seeing it for FREE. We’ve got father/son managers on opposite corners as well. Sullivan also mentions that Stasiak and the Sheik will be competing in the new style cage they are stuck inside right now very soon. Stasiak and Kent keep Dory on their side of town for much of the match. Tag to Sheik and the crowd goes nuts for him nowadays. He gets Stasiak down and starts biting. In comes Kent, Sheik takes him over to Dory for a tag. Dory gives Kent the Butterfly Suplex. The match breaks down as the Sheik punches Stasiak over to the cage. Stasiak goes inside the cage to get away from the Sheik. Let’s go ahead and call it a double DQ. (3:00) Since Stasiak won’t let him inside, Sheik climbs the cage and throws a chair at Stasiak. While Don Kent and Dory Funk Jr. continue to brawl, Sheik finally gets inside the cage and threatens Stasiak with another chair as they circle the announce table. It’s time to go though, folks. *

Until next time, so long for now.

NEXT TIME: We will be visiting 1976 which includes loads of Mark Lewin, the Sheik, and Don Kent. In fact, we’ll get to see the VINTAGE DETROIT~! shark cage match between Don Kent and Chief Jay Strongbow.