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…

Larry Atkins, Vince Sr., and the WWWA in 1963

Many fans are familiar with the WWWF name but a different entity was created along with the formation of the WWWF in 1963. Vincent James McMahon and Larry Atkins originally created the World Wide Wrestling Association (WWWA) in Cleveland, OH, in 1963. Promoter Larry Atkins helped promote Rogers as WWWA champ in Cleveland, alongside Rogers as WWWF champ in Vince Sr.'s New York/Washington D.C. territory. Atkins and his Buckeye Sports Corporation used the WWWA name for the company. Teamed with other men like Willie Gilzenberg, Vince Sr., and Joe “Toots” Mondt, Atkins promoted under the WWWA name for a short period. Rogers lost the WWWA title to Dory Dixon, in Cleveland, on March 28, 1963. A week later, in Chicago, IL, on April 5, Dixon and Rogers had a rematch, which Rogers won but he did not win the WWWA title. On April 11, Rogers was acknowledged as being the WWWF Champion, in Washington D.C, before a match with Bruno Sammartino, that went to a no-contest. It was around this time that Rogers' health took a turn for the worse, and the WWWF had to go in a different direction with Bruno at the helm.

Willie Gilzenberg and Bruno Sammartino

Dory Dixon held onto the WWWA championship until losing it to Karl Von Hess, on May 2. On May 17, Sammartino won the WWWF title from Rogers, in New York and Atkins took a break from promoting in Cleveland. By the time he started back up in the Cleveland Arena, there was some confusion about the two entities.  Bruno, at times, was billed as being either the WWWA or WWWF champion, until later in the year when his official association/title became WWWF Champion.

~Thanks to Tim Hornbaker and his work, especially his new Capitol Revolution book. I would highly recommend reading it.

Dory Dixon