The Best Of Times 1.24.08: January 1982

For those who missed the first one, let me explain things before we get going. The Best of Times is a column in which I will be evaluating several wrestling promotions during a selected month from the past. I’ll take anywhere from 3-5 promotions that were thriving during the period I’m covering and go over what went down in each promotion during that month including results of big shows and major angles going on at the time. I’ll give my opinion of each and then choose the best wrestler, tag team, match, feud, show and promotion of the month. I hope to give this is slight old school kayfabe feel with a lot of modern analysis. Well, on with the show!

January 1982

Depending on how you look at things, January is usually a let down of a month. It comes right after Christmas, and the greatest day of the month is the first day. So once it starts, whatever there is to look forward to is already over. In 1982, the month of January saw it’s share of events. On January 11th, Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret Thatcher disappeared in the Sahara, only to be rescues on the 14th. Amidst that time that the world was searching for young Thatcher, on the 13th, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into a bridge in Washington DC killing 78, while just north of there a train derails killing 3 in a completely unrelated tragedy. All wasn’t bad in January 1982 as the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Super Bowl XVI and this happened in professional wrestling…

WWF

January 1982 was an interesting month for the WWF. Bob Backlund was still the WWF Champion and had fought off just about all of the major contenders for that title. The WWF Tag Team Titles were held by Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito, who were feuding heavily with various tag teams including the new combo of Rick Martel and Tony Garea. The Intercontinental Title was held by Pedro Morales, who was going at it with a young Greg Valentine, who at this point was on the verge of being one of the WWF’s top stars for a brief period. Every month, the WWF ran a big supercard at Madison Square Garden. January 1982 was no exception and here are the results of that show…

1. Davey O’Hannon def. Manuel Soto
2. Larry Sharpe def. Jose Estrada
3. Charlie Fulton def. Johnny Rodz
4. Intercontinental Championship: Greg Valentine def. Pedro Morales © by DQ. Morales retained the title
5. Jesse Ventura def. Dominic DeNucci
6. WWF Heavyweight Championship: Adrian Adonis def. Bob Backlund © due to blood stoppage. Backlund retains the title due to the pinfall/submission rule.
7. WWF Tag Team Championship: Rick Martel and Tony Garea def. Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito by DQ. Saito and Fuji retain the titles.
8. Tony Atlas def. The Masked Executioner
9. Ivan Putski def. Killer Khan

I’m of the opinion that Adrian Adonis, who was still in decent shape at this point, was completely robbed of the WWF Title at this show. Shouldn’t blood stoppage result in a title changing hands? I think it should. The show would sneak under the radar, and since no major titles changed hands and the WWF was still a regional operation. This wasn’t the greatest age of the WWF, but that wouldn’t remain true as two years later everything would change.

St. Louis Wrestling

January 1st 1982 was the beginning of a new chapter in the life of St. Louis Wrestling. They would kick off the new year paying tribute to the man who had run the promotion since the beginning and this would be his retirement. Sadly St. Louis would not see many more good days after his retirement, but this show alone would be the big bang needed to give this man, Sam Muchnick, the proper sending off he deserved. They held the show at the Checkerdome in St. Louis, which was a large arena, and had a great atmosphere and great crowd for this event. Here are the results…

1. Dewey Robertson def. Baron Von
2. Jerry Brown def. Bulldog Bob Brown
3. Women’s Tag Team Championship: Joyce Grable and Wendy Richter © def. Sandy Partlow and Early Dawn
4. Pat O’Connor def. Bob Sweeney (This was supposed to be Pat O’Connor’s final match)
5. Handicap Match: Jerry Blackwell def. Ox Baker and Bruce Reed
6. David Von Erich and Rufus R. Jones def. Harley Race and Greg Valentine
7. NWA Missiouri Heavyweight Championship: Dick The Bruiser def. Ken Patera © to win the title
8. World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair © def. Dusty Rhodes

The show was considered huge at the time, but aside from it being a pivotal point in the history of St. Louis Wrestling, it doesn’t hold up as importantly as it did when it happened. Sadly St. Louis Wrestling would only last another 3 years as it would be bought out by Jim Crocket in 1985. January 1982 was an important time for St. Louis Wrestling.

Mid-South Wrestling

Mid-South Wrestling saw a mammoth of a man on the scene who was making a rare appearance for the promotion. Andre The Giant was in the Mid-South area making his round in fantastic style and bringing people out to see the wrestling in droves. This was the peak for this promotion as their show was wildly popular. Besides Andre The Giant they had the Junkyard Dog, Dusty Rhodes, Ted Dibiase, The Samoans, The Iron Shiek, Paul Orndorf, Bob Roop, Dick Murdoch, and Bob Orton Jr. running around the promotion during this time. While there wasn’t a big show during the month of January, they did have several spectacular TV shows that month, some of the highlights are…

• Ernie Ladd and The Samoans (Afa and Sika) vs. Andre The Giant, Junkyard Dog and Dusty Rhodes
• Ted Dibiase and Dick Murdoch vs. Paul Orndorf and Bob Roop
• Junkyard Dog and Mike George vs. Paul Orndorf and Bob Orton Jr.
• Ted Dibiase vs. Paul Orndorf

Having Andre The Giant around was just a big bonus to the ongoing saga between Orndorf and Dibiase as well as the tremendous feud between The Samoans and Junkyard Dog. Mid-South was producing top notch wrestling, which great angles and fantastic matches. January 1982 was certainly one of their better months.

The Best of Times: January 1982

Best Wrestler: Adrian Adonis (WWF)

Throwing in a little kayfabe, I think Adrian Adonis deserves to be considered the best wrestler of these promotions in January 1982, because frankly, he was robbed. I’ve always thought Adonis deserved a bigger push, and this would be the biggest it would get for him.

Best Tag Team: Rick Martel and Tony Garea (WWF)

Martel and Garea was over with the crowd, they were decent in the ring (Well, Martel was good and Garea was decent) and they nearly won the WWF Tag Titles. Martel wasn’t too far out from jumping to the AWA, and Garea was the WWF’s golden boy at this time. You know the type, I guess you could compare him to Matt Hardy right now, only much bigger.

Best Match: Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes (St. Louis)

This match went over 45 minutes and was pretty darn good throughout. I wouldn’t go calling it a classic or anything, but it certainly did its job of putting on a fantastic show for the fans. Back in those days a visit by the champ was a special treat in St. Louis.

Best Feud: Ted Dibiase vs. Paul Orndorf (Mid-South)

Bill Watts knew how to book a feud better than anybody at this point in time. The Orndorf vs. Dibiase feud was fun to watch and extremely dramatic. This was really the peak of the feud too.

Best Show: Sam Muchnick Retirement Show (St. Louis)

The Sam Muchnick Retirement show was a good show in a month that wasn’t full of great shows. It was a special night for fans of St. Louis Wrestling and it was loaded with big stars. The main event also delivered making for an even greater experience that would be the last time St. Louis really registered strongly on the pro wrestling map.

Best Wrestling Promotion: Mid-South Wrestling