Ranking the heel WWE champions #2-Superstar Billy Graham

                “Superstar” Billy Graham’s WWWF title run began on April 30, 1977, in Baltimore, MD, with a non-clean win over Bruno Sammartino.  Graham was very much ahead of his time with his character, charisma, presence, and promos, many of which were reminiscent of Muhammed Ali.  Graham’s career story was that of vast untapped potential in that Vince McMahon Sr. decided to Bob Backlund the highlight of the WWWF over him.  Graham would return to the WWWF after this run, on two occasions but never holding the championship again.  Alongside the likes of Bruno, Bob Backlund, Pedro Morales, and Hulk Hogan, Graham was a record setter for sell-outs at Madison Square Garden.  He sold out MSG numerous times during this run, along with his return in the 80’s working with Bob Backlund, and even in his final run in the late 80’s.  On October 16, 1987, as the headliners, Graham and Butch Reed sold out the Garden for a cage match that Graham won.  Here are his championship reign stats…

Total matches-165

Overall wins-65%

Clean wins-47%

Non-clean wins-18%

Overall losses-27%

No Contests/Draws-5%

Tag Team matches-2%

                When compared to Ivan Koloff, Graham’s numbers are not far off, as Ivan has a higher overall winning percentage but slightly less clean wins.  Koloff had a considerably better loss percentage but of course, he had far less total matches in his reign.  Graham fought a diverse collection of wrestlers, and he travelled outside of the WWWF territory as champion, to places like Florida, Japan, and Detroit.  The most amount of his clean wins came over Larry Zbyszko (11), Tony Garea (12), and “Chief” Jay Strongbow (14).  Against Bruno Sammartino, he only won clean once, in a cage match,  once in non-clean fights, two losses, and three no contests.  In typical McMahon fashion, Bruno was still kept strong despite not being champion.

                Graham’s biggest rival was against Dusty Rhodes, as he lost twelve total times, and only won once.  However, the vast majority of those losses were in Florida for Championship Wrestling from Florida and in fact, Graham lost most of his matches that he wrestled in Florida.  His other high collected losses came from Bob Backlund, Strongbow, and Ivan Putski, with most being via count-out or disqualification.  Graham also wrestled some unique opponents during his reign, such as Chavo Guerrero (in a loss), Raymond Rougeau, Strong Kobayashi, Edouard Carpentier, and Riki Choshu.  Graham lost the title to Bob Backlund on February 20, 1978, in New York City.  If one was looking strictly at clean wins, “Superstar” Billy Graham holds the top spot for now but he also holds the top loss count.  It would be a cliché to say that Graham was a pioneer in wrestling and certainly paved the way for the modern wrestling landscape.

                It should be mentioned that the previous heel champion, Stan Stasiak, failed to hold the title for at least six matches, and did not qualify for this project.  If you have questions or suggestions, follow me on Twitter @stevesgraps, or email me at stevesgraps@yahoo.com

Best/Worst heel WWE champions #1

              My goal for this project is to analyze all the major heel WWE champions and figure out who was booked the strongest and the weakest overall.  Since the WWE booking has always favored babyface champions, dating back to Vince Sr., I really just want to focus on those champions.  There is no question that guys like Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan were booked to look as strong as possible.  However, the same usually can not be said for previous heel champions.  Off the top of my head, guys like Yokozuna, Seth Rollins, and Alberto Del Rio were booked miserably.  There certainly could be room to, at some point, look at babyfaces and analyze who was the weakest of that group, but for now I want to strictly look at heels.

                The prerequisite for analysis of a title reign is that it must have been defended six times.  I would like to be able to measure and contrast comparable title reigns based on booking alone which will include clean wins, cheap wins, and losses, among other things.  I will be researching televised matches and house shows, as well as singles matches and tag team matches, as best I can from results archives.  I will differentiate between these distinct categories, in each post, in order to properly analyze.  For wrestlers multiple reigns, I will only be looking at reigns that fit my criteria which is six defenses as a heel.  These posts will generally be in chronological order and if you have any suggestions for how to better this research, please feel free to contact me.

                Ivan Koloff was a pretty decent draw in his career, and he got the opportunity to unseat Bruno Sammartino as WWWF champion.  Koloff’s reign as champion began on January 18, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, in a clean win over Sammartino.  His reign ended on February 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, in his only loss, to Pedro Morales.  Altogether, Koloff had thirteen matches as WWWF champion with eleven being singles matches.  Here is a breakdown of percentages for his wins and losses…

77% Overall wins

46% Clean wins

31% Non-clean wins

15% Draws

8% Losses/Clean losses

15% Tag Team matches

                Ivan’s overall record was satisfactory but he only won clean 46% of the time.  Looking at his opponents shows that those wins only came against relatively opening matches guys.  Manuel Soto had no high profile wins in 1970, wrestled guys like Johnny Rodz, and lost to Professor Tanaka in Madison Square Garden.  Tony Marino lost to Koloff multiple times in 1970-71 but he did win the WWWF International Tag Team championship with Victor Rivera on December 9, 1969.  Jean Dubois lost more matches than he won including losses to Koloff, Tanaka, and Arnold Skaaland.  Finally, Lee Wong was similar to Dubois in that he lost to Koloff, George Steele, and Tanaka in 19070-71 but he did manage victories over Lou Albano and Waldo Von Erich.  Overall, Koloff’s clean wins were against rather lackluster opponents.  Koloff’s non-clean wins were count-outs against Chief Jay Strongbow and Gorilla Monsoon.

                There is no doubting Ivan Koloff’s success as a wrestler, over his career.  At times, he drew well, and he is a member of the Observer Hall of Fame.  His reign as WWWF champion was rather short, serving as the first true transitional champion in the history of the company.  It will be interesting to see how his reign measures up against other reigns.

Steve Viglio
stevesgraps@yahoo.com

George "Scrap-Iron" Gadaski

                 George “Scrap-Iron” Gadaski was an iconic figure in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) well into the 1980’s, putting over countless top stars who came through the Gagne territory.  Gadaski was a powerful weightlifter who was trained in Calgary by Stu Hart and began wrestling in San Francisco for Roy Shire and other areas such as Florida.  However, by the mid 1960’s, Gadaski began mainly working in the AWA and wrestled in mostly enhancement matches against the likes of Verne Gagne, Mad Dog Vachon, and many others well into the early 1980’s, while also working as a referee for many matches.  More famously, Gadaski was Ric Flair’s first opponent on December 10, 1972 in Rice Lake, WI, going to a ten-minute time-limit draw.  From AWA records (by clawmaster at the Sports and Wrestling forums), Gadaski debuted in the AWA by putting over Billy Red Cloud on September 3, 1966, in Minneapolis, MN.  The last match Gadaski refereed was on January 3, 1982 in Milwaukee, WI.  His last match wrestling in the AWA appears to be on December 20, 1981 in Minneapolis, MN, teaming with Woody Wilson in a loss to Bobby Duncum and Ken Patera.

                One interesting moment for Gadaski came on December 13, 1981, in Minneapolis, as he teamed with Kenny Jay to fight Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis.  Both Adonis and Ventura had debuted at the WWF Championship Wrestling tapings in Allentown, PA on October 13, 1981 and their match with Jay and Gadaski was scheduled to be their final AWA appearance.  Their final match in the AWA (for the time being) turned into a complete brawl with Ventura and Adonis laying out both Jay and Gadaski, along with some AWA officials.  Wally Karbo came out and banned both Adonis and Ventura from ever appearing in the AWA again before they attempted to rough up Karbo. 

                By 1982, George Gadaski’s life was taking a negative turn as he had been diagnosed with a severe brain tumor.  The AWA held a fundraiser for him on April 5, 1982, in Amery, WI and Gadaski passed away on December 13, 1982.  On March 10, 1996, a company named Mid-American Wrestling held a Scrap-Iron street fight tournament, in Waukesha, WI, in memory of Gadaski.  The only results for that show I could find were pretty unclear, taken from the March 25, 1996 Wrestling Observer Newsletter...

"One-night Scrap Iron Street fight tournament: Waverider Craig b Spymaster, Billy Joe Eaton b Waverider Mike, Big Daddy Dave b Farmer Vic, Axl Future b Eric Love, Craig d Eaton, Future b Dave"

The Super Assassins in WCW-(1995-1996)

                The Warlord and the Barbarian are two of my guilty pleasure favorites in wrestling, whether it be together as a team or as singles.  They worked together as the Powers of Pain until 1990, prior to Wrestlemania VI, on March 25 in Hershey, PA.  Their manager Mr. Fuji ended up selling their contracts over to Bobby Heenan (The Barbarian) and Slick (The Warlord), respectively and they made their singles debuts oddly enough at a WWF Superstars taping in Sacramento, CA on March 6, 1990.  For those looking to watch their respective debuts, The Barbarian debuted on March 24, and the Warlord debuted on April 7.  They both went on to have lackluster singles careers with the Barbarian ending his WWF stint on February 16, 1992, and the Warlord ending on April 18, 1992, being pinned by Virgil, of all people.

                The Barbarian went on to return to the WWE on June 6, 1994, and spent several months subbing for guys like Diesel and Crush on house shows, before returning as Fatu’s partner Seone, in the Headshrinkers.  They first teamed on September 1, at a house show against WWF tag champs Diesel and Shawn Michaels, and spent most of their time putting over Men on a Mission and the Blu Brothers at house shows.  The Barbarian also worked WCW in 1992 for a brief period and teamed with Haku for a short stint in New Japan in 1993.  Meanwhile, the Warlord wrestled some indies and in Japan for WAR, actually holding the WAR six man belts with Scott Putski and Bob Backlund in 1994. 

                In 1995 and 1996, the stars would align once again as the Barbarian and the Warlord would once again team up on a national stage, in WCW, as the Super Assassins.  No, they did not wear cool face paint and have cool haircuts and beat up people unmercifully.  Rather, under the tutelage of Colonel Robert Parker, wore masks and yellow and black costumes similar to the original Assassins.  They worked only briefly at WCW Pro and WCW Saturday Night tapings, only winning against the American Males in their debut, and they worked the very first World War 3 battle royal.  Their most noteworthy match was also their final match in WCW, on WCW Nitro on January 1, 1996, losing to Sting and Lex Luger in less than six minutes.  The dream was over.

                The Warlord and the Barbarian touched many people’s hearts throughout their careers but never quite had immense success together.  Perhaps more memorable for the Barbarian was his Faces of Fear tag-team with Meng in WCW, which began actually on WCW Main Event on February 4, 1996, taped on January 29, in Canton, OH.  Have no fear, they would go on periodically, into modern times, teaming together on the indy scene, for companies like CHIKARA, in 2012.  For now, please remember them for their epic time spent together in WCW, wearing honeybee clothing.  How on earth did Colonel Parker think that they would ever capture tag team gold by dressing like complete geeks. 

                Here are some of the Super Assassins matches on Youtube, please enjoy…