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Sunday, December 26, 2021
The Iron Sheik's WWF World Title Defenses
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Stan Stasiak's WWWF Championship Matches
Stan “The Man” Stasiak was a journeymen wrestler competing for 26 years from 1958 to 1984. He held numerous regional championships in the United States and his native Canada, however he only held a recognized world championship a single time for nine days in 1973. A transition champion he defeated the great Pedro Morales in and lost the title to the legendary Bruno Sammartino.
To my knowledge he only held defended the championship one time before dropping the strap to Bruno. The only footage I’m aware of Stasiak as champion is his title loss to Bruno which you can find on YouTube.
December 1, 1973 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stan Stasiak pinned WWWF World Champion: Pedro Morales to win the title at 17:42 when all four men's shoulders were down following a back suplex from the champion; after the bout, Stasiak was not announced as the new champion for fear of a riot - rather the ring announcer simply said "Let's hear it for a great champion, Pedro Morales"; the title change was announced the following Saturday on television; Barney Solomon was the referee for the bout
December 4, 1973 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Championship Wrestling television taping
Aired December 8, 1973
Stan Stasiak was announced as champion for the first hour of tapings
December 5, 1973 Hamburg, Pennsylvania
All Star Wrestling television taping
Aired December 8, 1973
Stan Stasiak was announced as champion for the first hour of tapings
Photo from Shawn Stasiak's Twitter |
December 6, 1973 Worcester, Massachusetts
WWWF World Champion: Stan Stasiak fought Chief Jay Strongbow to a no contest
Until next time!
Saturday, December 11, 2021
No Way!? They Wrestled (Sting vs. The Undertaker)
I love obscure wrestling history and lately I've been invested in learning about matches that people tend to be surprised that happened (for example: Ultimo Dragon vs. The Macho Man). I thought it would be fun to highlight some of these matches and share them with the masses.
I think all wrestling fans of a certain age had an intense desire to see Sting and The Undertaker face-off against one another. It was certainly a dream match of mine. Of course, Sting was loyal to WCW and then eventually TNA. It wasn't until 2014 that it seemed like the match that so many of us wrestling fans from the 90's wanted was going to happen. Well... it didn't. Stings run in the WWE was a joke and two of the darkest superstars never faced off in an epic battle... or did they?
On September 1st, 1990 at the Greensboro Coliseum, The Undertaker, then known was Mean Marc Callous, challenged the NWA Heavyweight Champion Sting. Sting successfully defended his title and 2.5 months later, Mean Marc would debut as The Undertaker in the WWF.
Sadly no footage exists of this match and only a single picture has made it's way onto the internet. The two legends share the ring two days prior in a tag match where Sting and Lex Luger defeated Mean Marc and Moondog Rex.
Friday, December 3, 2021
It's Sting! A WrestleCade 2021 Moment
My buddy Jimmy and I found ourselves near the front of the line to meet Sting last Saturday morning. He walked in at 9:40 PM dressed in his ring gear and t-shirt and the crowd went nuts. He hyped everyone up and someone yelled, "What time is it?" and he responded, "Showtime, of course."
The lined move quickly as Sting power signed and posed with pictures. There was a concern that Sting may not make it through the massive line that had formed to meet him, but that wasn't an issue for us since we were so close to the front.
I'll be honest, it happened so fast I didn't even have a chance to speak. I wanted to tell Sting thanks for coming to AEW and tell him how much his feud with the nWo meant to me as a teenager, but by the time I walked up and shook his hand, I smiled and was on my way. My wife was kind enough to video tape the entire encounter which you can see here.
The photos were taken by the AML staff photographer and uploaded to Flickr five days after they were taken. I received simultaneous texts from Jimmy and Michael right as they were released and I'm quite thankful for that, because I still am not sure where they saw the announcement that they were ready!
I did some minor cropping, but I'm very happy with the photo. It wasn't the most interesting conversation or moment I had over the weekend, but I can say I've met Sting, the legend... The Icon and I'm so happy for it.