L-R: El Mongol and "Dandy" Jack Crawford From Rich Tate: The main event featuring El Mongol against reigning NWA World H...
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| L-R: El Mongol and "Dandy" Jack Crawford |
From Rich Tate:
The main event featuring
El Mongol against reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski on the
card forty-five years ago tonight in Atlanta, GA, requires a bit of background.
It could be argued that Georgia wrestling was enduring one of its hottest
periods of business at this time, and it was boiling by the time Mongol
returned.
El Mongol had
been one of the most hated wrestlers on the scene since his debut in November
1966, but that changed quickly following a televised match for Live Atlanta Wrestling on July 6, 1968.
Teaming with Tarzan Tyler, under the management of “Dandy” Jack Crawford, the
duo lost to Alberto and Ramon Torres, prompting Tyler and Crawford to blame him
for the loss and attack him. A main event between Mongol and Tyler was quickly
arranged for the following Friday at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium.
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| Dale Lewis |
Tyler was
disqualified in the match, and after a series of rematches, as well as failed
attempts by El Mongol to get his hands on Crawford, a bout was set between them
on August 2, 1968. With Buddy Fuller inserted as a special referee, Mongol came
away with the victory, but the following day on television, Crawford announced
that he had sold Mongol’s contract to “a group of investors known as Peruvian
Promotions, Ltd., located in Lima, Peru, which meant he would now be wrestling
exclusively in Peru”. Crawford continued on with wrestlers like Tyler, Brute
Bernard, Seiji Sakaguchi, and Oki Shikina, but he had disappeared from the area
by the final month of 1968.
Dale Lewis, who
was the reigning Georgia Heavyweight Champion, had been offering $1,000 to all
comers, betting he could not be pinned within the first thirty minutes. El Mongol
not only accepted the challenge, but put up $1,000 of his own, and it became a main
event non-title match, set for January 3, 1969. After Mongol put away Lewis, he
went after Crawford, who had also returned and sat at ringside, and pummeled
him until Lewis made the save, leading to an announcement by Crawford the
following day on television that he had become Lewis’ manager.
On that same January
4 episode of Atlanta TV Wrestling – the
program had been renamed on September 14, 1968 when the matches began being
taped as opposed to being shown live – the Professional (Doug Gilbert) faced a
previously unseen masked wrestler in an open challenge, the Blue Destroyer.
After the Pro beat his foe, he went a step further and unmasked him to reveal
the face of Gene Kiniski. Kiniski explained his actions following the match:
“I wanted to see if I could
beat this man without risking my title. I wanted to go all out against him
without worrying about my title and see who the better man was. I also wanted
to see what it was like to wrestle under a mask, and to see if this mask
business was a handicap or an advantage to a wrestler. So I got caught and
unmasked. I will probably get a good chewing out from the NWA for this stunt
and a fine to boot, but what I learned in this bout convinces me that no masked
man will ever defeat me again.”
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| the Professional (Doug Gilbert) |
Lewis, who had
beaten the Pro to win the state title on December 27, 1968, fully expected to
be the man who would meet Kiniski when he came to Atlanta in January for a
chance to win his NWA World Heavyweight Title. However, much to the dismay of
Lewis and Crawford, promoter Paul Jones announced that based on what just
happened, the Pro had earned the right to challenge Kiniski.
El Mongol
challenged Lewis for the title on January 10 at the auditorium in Atlanta, but the
match ended with a bit of chaos and uncertainty. Just as Mongol had Lewis where
he wanted him for the pinfall, the bell rang. However, it was determined the
time limit had not actually expired, so the initial result of a draw was
changed to a no contest when it appeared that Crawford may have been the one to
ring the bell.
The following day,
El Mongol demanded a match against the Pro on television. The Pro not only
accepted the challenge, but declared that if Mongol beat him, he could have the
January 17 match against Kiniski. The fans went crazy for the now beloved El Mongol
when he managed to pin the Pro, earning the match with Kiniski the following
Friday at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium.
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| L-R: Gene Kiniski and Paul Jones |
Fans buzzed all
week long in anticipation of seeing El Mongol not only get one up on hated foes
Crawford and Lewis, as well as the Pro, but also getting the opportunity to
take the NWA World Heavyweight Title from Kiniski. However, as these things
tend to go in the world of pro wrestling, sometimes things just don’t work out
as we may like them to. By the time the night of January 17, 1969, rolled
around, the NWA had made it clear that Kiniski had not agreed to defend the
title against Mongol, so the belt could not be on the line. Of course, as the
aforementioned “as things go” went, that meant Mongol could get the win and
leave fans to wonder, “what if?”
El Mongol went
on to beat Lewis for the Georgia Heavyweight Title in February, but never got a
rematch with Kiniski for the world title, as he lost the belt on February 11 to Dory Funk, Jr. The next time the NWA World Heavyweight Title
returned to Atlanta was February 28, but Tyler received the match as
challenger to Funk. In an effort to explain why neither Mongol or the
Pro were scheduled for the match against Funk for the title instead of Tyler, it
was reported that Jones had refused to sign Kiniski until he agreed to wrestle
Mongol in a title match, and that Kiniski had refused to give Mongol the shot. The champion came to Georgia many times that year,
but Mongol was never among the challengers.
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