Bloopermania! Black Belt Jones invades the Richmond Arena (1976)

We've presented some classic newspaper bloopers here in the past. For some of them there just seems to be no explanation. But this one may take the cake.

This will probbaly go down as the most botched results article for a wrestling show ever.

THE RICHMOND ARENA
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
MAY 21, 1976

Where to begin?

Well for starters, they listed the results in reverse order, making the opening match of El Gaucho vs. Greg Peterson the "feature event" of the Richmond card.

They did OK with the remaining two openers. You have to forgive them for Larry "Zibisco." Nearly everyone spells Larry Zbyszko wrong. (I may have just done it right there.)

Then there is Jacques "Gullet." You get Jacques right, but can't get any closer than that on Goulet?

But the real winners are in the two main events:

Black Belt Jones defeated Paul Jones. Black Belt Jones appears here instead of Black Jack Mulligan. My first thought was to ask how on earth is that possible. Where could that copy writer come up with Black Belt Jones? Then I decided to Google it. Wikipedia describes "Black Belt Jones" as a "1974 American blaxploitation martial arts film." I guess the copy-writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch was a fan.

Two bloopers appear in the main event result as Dino Bravo and Kim Wood defeated Jim and Ole Anderson.

Hey! Jim Anderson! Another Anderson brother!

This Richmond newspaper report was so outrageous, promoter Joe Murnick must have insisted on a correction, because one did appear the next day in the Times-Dispatch. (They still spelled Zbyszko wrong.)

So if this kind of thing amuses you (as it obviously does us), visit our Bloopers Page for lots more.

Thanks as always to Mark Eastridge for his research and for sending us these clippings.