The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Final - Part 6)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

PART SIX - FINAL INSTALLMENT WITH JIM BRUNZELL
(Catch up on the introduction and what you missed in Part 1 |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5)



Chappell: As we wrap up Jim, I’d like you to comment on several Mid-Atlantic guys that we haven’t mentioned up to this point. How about a word about Big John Studd?

Brunzell: (pauses) Big John…John Minton! Honest to God, he had worked up here in the AWA and of course he went to the WWF…

Chappell: He even had an earlier stint in Crockett in 1974 as ‘Chuck O’Connor.’

Brunzell: You know, they used to book me with John and John would say, ‘I don’t think the crowd can possibly believe that you can beat me,’ and I said, ‘John, you have to tell them! You have to work the part, that there’s a slight chance I can beat you!’ (laughing)

Chappell: Yeah, it takes two to tango!

Brunzell: He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘You gotta get off your feet and you gotta take some bumps!’

Big John Studd

Chappell: Little bit of a size difference there between you two!

Brunzell: (laughs) OH GOD!

You know, I saw him at the end when I went out to L.A., and honest to God he got involved with all these meatheads out there. He was close to 500 pounds when I saw him, and he was using all these real abstract brand new different growth hormone drugs, and stuff like that. And it wasn’t much longer after that, that he got cancer, and then he died.

Chappell: Sounds like a very tough closing chapter for big John.

Brunzell: I’m sure all of his experimentation, you know, of him trying to fulfill his need to be a giant, you know he always wanted to be a giant…

Chappell: He was!

Brunzell: He was… six feet ten inches! I’ll never forget that Brian Blair and I as the Killer Bees worked John and King Kong Bundy in Joe Louis Arena. We had a hell of a match with those guys! And honest to God, King Kong Bundy was six feet four and weighed 400 pounds and John was six feet ten and 395 pounds. And here’s Brian and I at 225-235 pounds, but we had a hell of a match!

Chappell: (laughs) Maybe size doesn’t matter!

Brunzell: That match showed that big versus small could work! Studd just couldn’t get in his mind that in the business, you in the ring had to dictate what the people thought! He didn’t think people could see me beating him. I said, ‘Just go down!’

Chappell: (laughs) Just give me a little help!

Brunzell: Yeah!

Chappell: Another guy who just had a cup of coffee for Crockett, but is almost a cult figure today because of what a strange character he was, is Enforcer Luciano. You all were in the area together during his short stint in the summer of 1980.

Brunzell: (pauses) AW MY GOD! AW GOD, I felt bad for him! George brought him in, and to be honest with you, he had no talent AT ALL!

Chappell: (laughing) But he could chew up a light bulb like nobody’s business!

Brunzell: He had no talent, and he didn’t look the part. And I remember he had a gimmick deal that he took his hand and he punched these bricks…

Enforcer Luciano with Bob Caulde and David Crockett

Chappell: Yeah! On TV, I think he did that right before he chewed up the light bulb! He said he had steel pins in his hand…

Brunzell: Well, what he did was he injected his hands, fists, with Novocain and he punched this doggone brick and he broke the brick…but he broke his hand!

Chappell: Oh my God, for real? I mean, I remember after he broke the brick he said, ‘AND THAT DOESN’T EVEN HURT!’ He must have been tough as hell!

Brunzell: I just remember thinking, ‘Where in the hell did George get this guy from?’ George must have been taking some hallucinogenics on the side! I have no idea, God rest his soul, where his thought process was on this character.

Chappell: (laughing)

Brunzell: He was just horrible, and he wasn’t an athlete either!

The Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie)

Chappell: Sort of a polar opposite from Luciano, even though they teamed up, was the Masked Superstar Bill Eadie. Your thoughts on Bill?

Brunzell: Yes, Billy was an exceptional talent! One of the best masked guys ever. He was great in the ring; a good athlete. He was a football player in college, and I still see him around. He and the Demolition might still work, and he’s six months older than me!

Chappell: He’s been very supportive of the Gateway over the years.

Brunzell: He was always a good guy. I think he went to West Virginia, or one of those colleges in that area. He got over good in the Mid-Atlantic.

Another guy I want to mention David, is Paul Orndorff.

Chappell: I always thought you basically replaced him in the Mid-Atlantic area, because he was a babyface then and right about the time he left in 1979 you came in.

Brunzell: Oh God, Paul was such a great guy and a great talent! He REALLY got a big push when he went to New York. And he did incredibly well as ‘Mr. Wonderful.’

Chappell: He sure did.

Paul Orndorf

Brunzell: I tell you, this guy had a lot of talent and he had one of the best wrestling physiques I’d ever seen.

Chappell: And he got so much better on the mic up in New York from where he was during his Crockett stay.

Brunzell: Really a good guy; a little hot-headed in the ring once in a while.

Chappell: I could see that!

Brunzell: (laughs) It might have been in Richmond, but he and I were in a tag match with Gene Anderson and somebody else, and they were trying to take advantage of Paul, and out of the clear blue sky Paul picks Gene up and ran him all the way across the ring and slammed him in the turnbuckle!

Gene’s head went violently over the side of the turnbuckle and snapped back!

Chappell: That sounds scary. I wouldn’t think Orndorff would be one you’d really want to mess with…

Brunzell: (laughing) Oh God no, he had a horrible temper! Thank God he and I were good friends! There are a lot of tough guys that you’d meet, but very few of them were real shooter types in wrestling. Most of them were guys that were street fighters, and were tougher than a cobb!

Chappell: Who was the legit toughest guy you dealt with during your wrestling career?

Brunzell: In my book I talk about Haku…

Chappell: Haku seems to be at the top of everyone’s tough guy list!

Brunzell: He was by far the toughest guy, and I saw him in action in a couple of bar fights. He was the grim reaper!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: This is the gospel truth, he was at this table where these guys were being smart. He took a real stand if people were saying something about wrestling…and he would take it as an insult. So, he went over and slapped one guy in the side of the head, and then he came back and he hit a guy with a chop right between the nose and the mouth and knocked both those guys out…

Chappell: Whew!

Brunzell: And then another guy started to come up, and Haku dove across the table and bit the end of the guy’s nose off!

Chappell: Oh my God!

Brunzell: And the guy freaked; he went into shock! And of course Haku got arrested, and faced a civil suit but he was a one man wrecking crew! But he was such a wonderful guy. I met him when he was 18 years old in Japan, and he was a little slimmer then but he was a heck of a talent even then.

Chappell: How did the guys feel about working with Haku?

Brunzell: There were a lot of guys like the Road Warriors that came in and thought they could take care of anybody, and they would sort of mow over people, but when they were against Haku they were like sheepish little guys, you know? (laughs)

They were very concerned about him in the ring…

Chappell: (laughs) And rightly so!

Brunzell: They were very concerned about him in the ring; they were very afraid that he might expose them if they tried to get really rough with him!

Chappell: I bet! Getting back to Mid-Atlantic guys before we conclude, what are your thoughts of Paul Jones and Baron von Raschke, who held the NWA World Tag Team Titles for most of the time you worked for Crockett?

Brunzell: Yes, well the Baron…I see Jimmy [Raschke] quite a bit and we still get together once in a while. And almost every area I went he was there.

Chappell: You couldn’t get away from the claw master!

Brunzell: Yes! And Paul Jones was sort of a legend in the Mid-Atlantic…

Chappell: Definitely, Paul is a great friend of the Gateway! He’s still going strong!

Brunzell: Is he really?!

Paul Jones & Baron Von Raschke

Chappell: Oh yes, we communicate with Paul regularly.

Brunzell: Please tell him ‘hi’ for me. He’s got to be in his 70’s, right?

Chappell: I believe Paul is 74 years young.

Brunzell: Hey, how about Johnny Weaver?

Chappell: ‘Mr. Mid-Atlantic!’

Brunzell: He was a HECK of a guy! And he was a down-home guy, and he was really over in Charlotte. He’d probably been there 25-30 years…

Chappell: A Crockett guy through and through…

Brunzell: Johnny was a great guy! And back to Paul, I got to tell you, Paul Jones and I were working in a small town, and it was right before Christmas. And he said to me, ‘Be careful in there, I don’t want to get hurt before Christmas.

(laughs) And I said, ‘Paul, I don’t either!’

Chappell: Very understandable!

Brunzell: So he jumps me and starts beating on me and he’s going to give me a turnbuckle and he said ‘reverse,’ so I reversed it and he hits the turnbuckle and there’s a piece of wire that’s jetting out of the turnbuckle! I don’t know what happened, but it was a stiff piece of wire…

Chappell: This doesn’t sound good for Paul’s Christmas!

Brunzell: It was about three inches long, and it hooked him right in the back! And he let out with a scream, and he turned around and I could see where it had cut into his back…

Chappell: That’s brutal

Brunzell: Yeah…I said, ‘Oh s#@t!’ He called the reverse, so it could have been me! (laughs) Paul was over in a big way in the Mid-Atlantic.

Chappell: How would you sum up your time in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling?

Brunzell: Like I’ve said, David, I had just a great time. I know my wife liked it in Charlotte and we had great neighbors. We worked a lot, but at least you could get home every night and that was a big plus. Like in New York you were gone for three weeks at a time. And in the AWA, which was the finest and best territory I ever worked, because Verne didn’t book you much in the summer because everybody was outside here. So, you’d work 14 times a month, which was perfect…you got half the month off!

But it wasn’t like that in the other areas and territories…

Chappell: That sounds almost too good to be true!

Brunzell: But I had a great time in the Mid-Atlantic, and met a lot of great people.

Chappell: Well, Jim, you left a great mark in the Mid-Atlantic area. I’ve always thought your work for Jim Crockett Promotions has been overlooked, and thank you for giving the Gateway a chance to showcase those 16 months today.

Brunzell: Well thank you so much for having the interview David, and to have me relive those days because it was a really nice time in my wrestling career. I’ll never forget it; I had a great time down there.

And actually I’m going to be in Richmond in May of next year…

Chappell: Outstanding, the event that’s being put on by a group including Rich Landrum! The Mid-Atlantic Wrestle Expo running May 19-20, 2017 at the Richmond Convention Center.

Brunzell: Yes! I’m looking forward to it so I’m looking forward to running into you there.

Chappell: I will definitely be there, and am really glad you’ll be there and looking forward to seeing you in my wrestling hometown!

Any final words for all your fans out there?

Brunzell: There are so many great fans out there! It’s fun talking to them and listening to them and have them reminisce. It brings back some nostalgia for me!

I want to thank you again for having me on, and I really look forward to seeing you at Rich Landrum’s Richmond event.

Chappell: It’s been a real pleasure, Jim. Happy Holidays to you!

Brunzell: Same to you. Thanks David, I really appreciate it…it was fun!

Special thanks to Jim Brunzell for sharing his time with the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. Check out all SIX parts of our interview with Jim through these links:


PART SIX
(Catch up on the introduction and what you missed in Part 1 |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5)

And don't forget Jim's book "Matlands", available at Blurb.com.

The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Part 3)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

PART THREE
(Catch up on the introduction and what you missed in Part 1 |  Part 2)

Available at Blurb.com

Jim Brunzell: When I look back on my wrestling career, and I look at different parts of my book ‘MatLands’ which encompasses my whole career, it went by so fast, David. Honestly, you never realize it. And now I’m 67 years old and I think, ‘Holy Jesus!’

David Chappell: Time flies when you’re having fun!

Brunzell: I remember at 22 and 23 I was the youngest guy in the locker room. And I do remember when I was working independents when I was almost 50 years old, and I thought, ‘S*#t, I’m the oldest guy in the G*# damn locker room!’

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: How times have changed!

Chappell: Yes! Before we dive into Jim Crockett Promotions, there’s one question I’ve always wanted to ask you. Being a big NFL and Washington Redskins fan, didn’t you try out for the Redskins and if so what can you tell us about that experience?

Brunzell: I did! I played in the Central States Football League, which was in Wisconsin and I got an opportunity to go to the George Allen free agent tryout camp. This would be for the 1972 season…they went to the Super Bowl that year.

Chappell: I remember it well!

Brunzell: I was there for three days. There was no contact, and it was basically agility drills, sprints, catch the ball…blah, blah, blah. Boyd Dowler was one of the end coaches, and so was Bobby Mitchell.

Chappell: Wow…

Brunzell: Those guys were great pros, and they had a lot of players there. I recognized a few guys from the Big 10 who I played with when I was at Minnesota. I think they only kept one or two guys, and one guy was named Herb Mul-Key…

Chappell: Right, the kick returner! He was a great player for a couple of years.

Brunzell: Yeah, he was the fastest guy. And this is the honest to God truth…it had rained for a couple of days and we were running our 40 yard dashes in mud. They had me as a tight end, and I had the fastest time for a tight end which was 4.9. You know, I ran a 4.6 at Minnesota…

Chappell: Which was probably not in the rain!

Brunzell: Yeah, and all of a sudden I heard this 4.6 and it was this Herb Mul-Key and he had run faster than anybody in the mud! And he winds up being an All-Pro kickoff and punt returner the next year.

Chappell: They used to make a big deal about those open tryouts, particularly early in George Allen’s career.

Brunzell: Oh sure. There were about 150-200 guys there and [George Allen] says, ‘I’m gonna tell you right now, there might be one or two of you that will make this team.’ That’s what he said! (laughs)

Chappell: (laughs) George was about as brutally blunt as Verne Gagne was to you!

Brunzell: That’s true; that’s true! I remember leaving there, there was about four or five of us that went out for a beer, it wasn’t too far from the White House, we all thought ‘holy smokes,’ what an experience that was!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: And after that I went back and enrolled in school, and then Greg called me about his Dad’s camp…it was really a twist of fate.

AWA Tag Champions
Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell

David, if anybody would have told me when I was 18 or 19 years old that I would have had a 27 year career as a pro wrestler I would have told them they were crazy!

Chappell: You just never know which way the roads will lead you. Do you still stay in touch with any your wrestling cohorts?

Brunzell: It’s funny, Greg and I and Brian Blair as the Killer Bees, we still occasionally will get together. You know, a fan signing or fan convention. And you know, it’s AMAZING how these people remember things!

Chappell: Oh yeah!

Brunzell: They’ll remember a match here and a match there…it’s amazing! There are still a great amount of fans out there, and it’s fun for us. The fans are having a great time meeting the old guys that used to wrestle, and we’re at the same time thanking these people that supported us during the many years.

It’s always fun to do those…we do a couple a year. It’s really fun.

Chappell: That’s great…

Brunzell: Yeah, I was down in Charlotte a couple of years ago and it was huge!

Jim Brunzell at the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling
Legends Fanfest in Charlotte (Wayne Casstevens Photo)

Chappell: Greg Price does a great job with the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends Fanfest, and they’re still going strong!

Brunzell: It was fun, that year they were featuring the Four Horsemen and Ric was there two or three days in a row. I was there one day. God, there were a lot of people! That was one of the biggest ones I’ve seen. I’ve been to one in New York, and they had a huge amount of people come over the course of three hours at this big ballroom, and it was just filled with memorabilia.

Chappell: You mention New York, Jim. And while your WWF stint is not the focus of this interview, I would be interested in your thoughts on the WWF as you were there when Vince McMahon was going national in a big way.

Brunzell: Actually, David, what Vince did was he created and subjugated all the fans to what he wanted to portray as his wresting product. There was no continuity; nothing meant anything. And everybody was tougher than hell and nobody cheated and nobody cowered off…there was no good or bad, they were all ‘superstars.’ When I saw where he was going I said ‘Holy Jesus!’ I know he had the numbers. I’ll never forget when I first went up there, the first night I was up there I did Poughkeepsie TV, and there were 60 guys they featured and they ran three towns a night. And this went on, and I have it in my bookings…these little Franklin books I kept year to year to year, and when I went to New York starting in ’85, Brian and I once they put us together, we wrestled 27 days a month for three years straight…

Chappell: Geez…what a grind that must have been!

Brunzell: And we had many times when it was 40-45 days in a row. And I remember I broke my hand with Greg Valentine in Rockford, Illinois. He had blocked this double wrist-lock takeover, and I could hear the bone in the middle of my hand just pop…

Chappell: Ouch!

Brunzell: And I said ‘God dang it,’ you broke my hand! And I went home for one day, and they waited until the swelling went down and then they put a cast on my hand. Then when Brian and I got back together, the Killer Bees won more matches with me clubbing these guys in the head with my cast than we did with putting the masks on, and trying to use the masked confusion to deceive them!

Chappell: Whatever works!

Brunzell: Yeah, whatever worked! They didn’t care whether it made any sense at all.

Chappell: Well, your stuff in Mid-Atlantic made a lot of sense! Do you remember your debut match for Jim Crockett Promotions?

Brunzell: Spartanburg…I remember it like it was yesterday!

Chappell: Amazing!

Brunzell: I had always been known for my dropkicks, so I remember talking to George Scott and the first night they booked me there I was in Spartanburg. I was working with Rene Goulet, who used to work up here in Minnesota…

Chappell: Goulet got around!

Brunzell: Rene and I had many matches. I loved the guy; he was a great worker! They’re giving us the finish, and George Scott comes up to me and he says, ‘I want you to use your dropkick on Rene tonight.’ And I said that was fine, but then he said, ‘I want you to hit him with SIX dropkicks.’ And I said, ‘What?’

Chappell: (laughs) Wonder how he came up with the number six?!

Brunzell: He said, ‘SIX!’ I said, ‘George, that’s like shooting a guy in the head once, and then shooting him in his torso five more times to get the job done!’ It was funny, because the first drop kick I hit Rene with was right about his forehead, the next one was by his jaw, the next one by his neck, the fourth one was in his sternum, the fifth one was just a little lower than that and the other one was what we call a wrestler’s vasectomy…

Chappell: (laughing) Ouch!

Brunzell: (laughs) Because I just about hit him right below the belt! Six dropkicks, and first of all I was blown up by the time I was covering him! Jesus Christ!

Chappell: I can understand!

Brunzell: You know, he popped up, I popped up, he popped up and then he got slower and slower. And then afterwards I thought the people were gonna say, ‘What carnival act is this!’ (laughs)

Chappell: (laughs) Spartanburg was a hot building…literally and figuratively!

Brunzell: Oh God, it was hot and it was small! And I remember, I had an hour draw there with Jimmy Snuka. George Scott used to book these hour draws all the time, honest to God.

Chappell: Yep, there were a few!

Brunzell: Anderson, South Carolina…in my book I talk about the match I had there with Ric Flair. He was the U.S. champ then. Anderson, South Carolina was non-air conditioned, and it was hot and humid as a son of a gun.

Brunzell at first fought, and then later teamed with, the
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair
(Peggy Lathan Photo)

So the match was Ric attacking me, I made a little comeback and threw the figure four on him and he submitted and they rang the bell. But the referee said something wasn’t right and we had to start over again! So, we started over again and did an hour draw! (laughs)

Chappell: (laughs) Oh my goodness!

At the beginning of your Crockett run in the late spring of 1979 you hit Ric right as he was slowly morphing into a good guy after five years as the Mid-Atlantic’s consummate bad guy. Then when he did the full-fledged babyface turn, you all became tag team partners on occasion.

Brunzell: I had three one hour draws with Ric in [the Charlotte territory]! Honest to God, we worked our asses off, but everybody was in such good shape…

Chappell: (laughs) Guess you all had to be to survive!

Brunzell: You know, Ric was in consummate shape. He was up and down and up and down. The match we had in Anderson, I mean, we were so lathered by the time it got to 60 minutes, there was so much sweat on our bodies, we couldn’t even grab on to one another!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: And I’ll never forget, I got out of the ring and I made it to the locker room and I just sat down and I had a bottle of Gatorade, before I had the beer…

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: I’m drinking the Gatorade and Tony Atlas, who had ridden with me down there says, ‘Come on Brunz, we gotta get going!’ I said, ‘Tony, just wait a little bit…I’m not in any hurry!’ So he got pissed at me because I wouldn’t hurry up! (laughs) I’ll never forget, I think I had one Gatorade, and I drank six beers so quick…I was so dehydrated!

Chappell: No doubt.

Brunzell: There’s another one of George Scott’s finishes, you know! And I liked George; I just thought he was a horrible booker. I never, never got in tune with his booking. You know, his finishes, et cetera.

Chappell: George was definitely a Mid-Atlantic mainstay for us Crockett fans, but I’m sure he was a different type booker than you had dealt with before. I’m sure all the one hour broadways were a big change for you.

Brunzell: A couple of these stories I tell in my book…

Chappell: An outstanding read by the way, Jim!

Brunzell: Thank you, David.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE IN PART FOUR!

The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Part 5)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

PART FIVE
(Catch up on the introduction and what you missed in Part 1 |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4)

 
Jim Brunzell: Before I forget, David, we’ve been talking about George’s booking in the Mid-Atlantic. Every Monday, all the talent used to go in and meet with George and they would give George ideas about what they thought would be good to work into the next program, what would draw, et cetera, et cetera. And I never went to one of these meetings…

David Chappell: Really?

Brunzell: He called me one time and said, ‘Why don’t you come to these meetings?’ And I said, ‘George, I’m not a booker.’ I just didn’t believe in going in and doing that, and I guess this shows how naive I was…

Chappell: You’ve talked about George Scott a lot, did you perceive the booking being different or better in other places you worked?

Brunzell: In Minneapolis in the AWA and in the Central States, and s#@t, in Central States nobody, I mean Geigel and O’Connor were going to keep themselves on top, and book the rest of us to fill the card. You know, the AWA was managed so well and then when you got in the Mid-Atlantic and the NWA, I mean, you could see the writing on the wall in terms of what they wanted to do. But it was just no comparison.

Chappell: But you did enjoy your Mid-Atlantic stint?

Brunzell: I enjoyed Mid-Atlantic. Like I’ve told you before, when I left Charlotte I was in the best shape of my life. Honest to God, we wrestled every night and long matches. It was a great time. It went by like a flash, the amount of time I was there. The weather was great, and I just wish we would have had a little more time to enjoy the family. But that’s just the way it was; that’s the way George conditioned it.

Chappell: Have you kept up with any Mid-Atlantic guys over the years?

Brunzell: I have no idea whatever happened to Jim Crockett. I heard he moved to Dallas, but I don’t know what happened to him…

Chappell: He’s pretty much disassociated himself from wrestling…

Brunzell: I know George passed away. I see Steamboat; I saw Ricky at the Cauliflower Alley Club in Vegas in April which was fun. (laughing) And I see Ric occasionally; he’s going to be 68 shortly! He’s still involved and it’s funny, David, because as a former University of Minnesota athlete, I work with the M Club during the football games. And we have an M Club room to reminisce with guys…it’s been 45 years since I’ve played football there.

Chappell: How time flies!

Brunzell: But it’s funny, because up on the screen they have a video that they put out and they use Ric two or three times doing his ‘WOOO!’ It’s incredible; it’s great!

Chappell: That’s been done down here at sporting events as well, particularly in the Carolinas. The ‘WOOO’ has definitely made its mark!

Brunzell: Yeah!

Chappell: We’ve talked about the Iron Sheik a bit already, but when he took the Mid-Atlantic title off of you in May of 1980 that was the beginning of the end for you in the Mid-Atlantic area. Tell us how your run with Crockett ended. I still can’t believe that “Gentleman” Jim Brunzell got fired! (Note: Jim mentioned this briefly in Part 1 of the interview.)

Brunzell: Well, I’ll tell you exactly how I got fired. George had booked Khosrow and I in a second shot, we had an earlier shot, and Cosgrove said his back was hurt. So, in Franklin, North Carolina, George wanted us to do an hour…

Chappell: Of course!

Brunzell: (laughs) And Khosrow says, ‘My back is hurt Jim.’ So it wound up that I had him get disqualified. So, George calls me up and he said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Khosrow told me his back hurt, so we did a disqualification.’

Then George calls Khosrow up and Khosrow said, ‘No, I never said that.’

Chappell: Geez…

Brunzell: I said, ‘George, Jesus Christ, you think I would do this without some reason?’ And he said, ‘Well, Jim, you disobeyed my booking; I gotta fire you.’ So I said, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’

Chappell: Wow…

Brunzell: So he fired me, but he let me work another four or five weeks. And I called Verne, and told him I ended up getting fired in Charlotte and asked him if there was an opportunity to come back. And he said, ‘Oh, that’d be perfect, but you can’t come back for this amount of time.’

Chappell: What did you do in the interim?

Brunzell: So meanwhile, I worked for Jim Barnett in Atlanta…I don’t know how long. But that was really a circus there, honest to God!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: (laughs) You know, they had two or three different bookers…it was pretty depressing

[Editor’s note: Jim Brunzell does a great Jim Barnett impression here!] Jim Barnett says, ‘Now Jimsey, now what do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Jim, I just want to go home.’ So I went home. And you know what he told me? He said, ‘This will be the biggest mistake of your wrestling career.’ And I said, ‘Well, I hope you’re wrong.’

Chappell: Did you then restart with the AWA?

Brunzell: [The AWA] wasn’t quite ready for me, so they booked Nick Bockwinkel and I in Japan as partners, upholding the AWA. So, we went over there for four weeks, then we came back and Greg and I teamed up again.  When Jim Barnett told me leaving Atlanta would be the biggest mistake of my life, that next year in ’81 I made $80,000 which was the biggest salary I had made up until that time!

Chappell: I think you did just fine for yourself, Jim!

Brunzell: (laughs) Yeah, I made the biggest mistake of my life, and five years later Jim Barnett is working in New York and I see him there a couple of times!

It’s funny, this world in pro wrestling is so small…you run into people all the time. And you try to be a good person and treat everybody in the way you’d like to be treated professionally. I was very fortunate during my career that I had a lot of just great friendships. Guys really helped me and I benefited from them and it was a great experience.

Chappell: By the time you saw Jim Barnett again, this time in New York, the business was really changing.

Brunzell: I hated to go to work for New York, because I knew things were changing. It never was the same, and it still isn’t, you know?

Chappell: I agree.

Brunzell: I look back on all the talent that I was so fortunate to learn from in the areas that I went. Like in the AWA, the Central States and in the Mid-Atlantic…and I can honestly say that I didn’t learn too much in New York because it was so contrary to what I’d been taught.

Chappell: In so many ways!

As we start to wind down Jim, your book which you’ve mentioned a few times is fantastic. Please tell everybody a little bit about it specifically.

Brunzell: The book is titled ‘MatLands,’ and I self published it through a company called ‘Blurb.com.’ If you go there you can punch in MatLands by Jim Brunzell and it will give you a ten page preview telling you what the book is about. It’s done real well, and it was really fun to do the book even though it was a hard process. I had never written a book before, and I had no idea what I was doing! My wife had given me a Dictaphone that I could record into, and people in our social group used to tell me that I told great stories, and I should write a book! So I did the book…

Chappell: It’s great history, but very entertaining as well.

Brunzell: It’s worked out real good. A good buddy of mine, Hillbilly Jim Morris, just recently did a book that he sent me. It’s so funny, because a number of the guys are writing books now. Bob Backlund’s got a book, and I think One Man Gang’s got a book. You think of all the guys that have worked for so many years, and it’s great they’re putting togther something of their path, and where their path led in the world of pro wrestling.

Chappell: Without a doubt.

Brunzell; You know, it’s fun to look back. Matter of fact, Brian Blair and I are going to go to Germany next year for three days. You still have a worldwide market. People can see you all over, and they can see the old tapes.

Chappell: How are you doing health-wise these days, Jim? Unfortunately a good many of your wrestling brothers are having some tough times in that regard.

Brunzell: I feel very fortunate that I didn’t really have any real serious injuries during my career. Although, I’ve had a shoulder replacement, a hip replacement and a knee replacement as a result of that career. But I think anybody that was in the wrestling business over 15-20 years is gonna need some spare parts!

Chappell: I know in a number of your Mid-Atlantic interviews you talked about a big part of your success revolved around your ability to stay healthy, so it’s good to hear that you practiced what you preached!

Brunzell: For sure; I was very fortunate.


Stay tuned for PART SIX where we wrap things up with Jim Brunzell and he talks about many of his fellow wrestlers in the Mid-Atlantic area. 

 

The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Part 2)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

PART TWO 
(Read the introduction and catch up on what you missed in Part 1) 

David and Jim continue their discussion about booker George Scott.


Chappell: The Gateway got very close to Blackjack Mulligan, and while he liked George Scott personally, he called him “the taskmaster” because of the way he pushed the talent.

Brunzell: [Blackjack] was a wonderful guy! I gotta tell you a quick story…

Chappell: Please!

Brunzell: One night we were wrestling, I can’t remember the town but we were driving back to Charlotte, and we had three or four days off…

Chappell: (laughs) George Scott must have been out of town!

Brunzell: (laughs) I was gonna get home, and in the morning my wife and I were gonna fly back with our kids to Minneapolis. So, we’re driving down the road and Don Kernodle was in another car and he had three guys and I had three guys. I had Blackjack Mulligan and ‘Quickdraw’ [Rick] McGraw, and we got stopped at a roadblock.

Chappell: Uh oh!

Brunzell: So I pull off to the side of the road and a State Trooper comes up with his gun drawn at me! I pulled down the window and I said, ‘Officer, can I help you?’ He said, ‘Get outta the car!’ (laughs) They handcuffed me! And they said I was going 105 miles an hour down the road, and we think your car looked like the same car that was involved in a robbery…

Chappell: This thing is going south fast, Jim.

Brunzell: I said Jesus Christ, I just got done wrestling and I’m driving back to Charlotte. So the guy, he’s handcuffing me! (laughs) Meanwhile, Jack Mulligan, he gets out of the car and says, ‘Is this really necessary, Officer?’ Then the cop put his hand on the gun!

Chappell: Geez!

Brunzell: He told Jack, ‘Get back in the car!’ He put me in the cop car, and we went to this small town. But they take me in and they book me for speeding. He said I was going over 100 miles an hour, and I posted bond and then I left. It was funny, because we got in the car and I said ‘Holy Jesus!’ We’re in the car and we’re finally driving back to Charlotte and we get back, and we all take off. I wound up calling Jim Crockett, and Jim said, ‘Don’t worry, we have a good lawyer that takes care of our guys if there’s any trouble.’

Chappell: (laughs) I bet that lawyer was busy!

Brunzell: Yeah! So this guy calls me and said he needs 600 bucks, so I give him 600 bucks.

Chappell: (laughs) Typical lawyer, and I’m a lawyer!

Brunzell: So a month later, I have to go to Court in Stanley, North Carolina. I go to Court and there’s nobody there…

Chappell: The lawyer isn’t there?

Brunzell: No, they call my name, boom, and I get up there and the Judge says how do you plead and I said ‘not guilty.’ I said I wasn’t going 100 miles an hour, but I was going 70 I said, but here’s what the Judge said to me. He says, ‘I’m going to suspend your license for 60 days, I’m going to fine you 25 dollars and the court costs are 25 dollars. So, it cost me 50 bucks, and I did this all myself and when I got back I called Jim Crockett and said, ‘Why the hell did I give your lawyer 600 dollars? He didn’t do a damn thing for me!’ (laughs)

Chappell: (laughs) You might have lucked out with the lawyer not showing; you might have ended up in jail if he had riled up the Judge!

Brunzell: (laughs) But getting back to the Mid-Atlantic, God it was beautiful down there and we really enjoyed the people we met, even though we didn’t have much time to socialize.

bleacherreport.com

Chappell: Before we hit Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling full throttle, I wanted to go way back to when you started in the wrestling business. Weren’t you in Verne Gagne’s brutal training camp in 1972 with Ric Flair, Ken Patera and the Iron Sheik, Hossein Khosrow? Three guys that would figure prominently in your Mid-Atlantic run.

Brunzell: Yes I was.

Chappell: I’ve heard all about that Class of 1972, but I’ve never heard your take on it. Was it as tough as others have said it was?

Brunzell: Unbelievable…it was horrible! Six days a week, six hours a day. And Billy Robinson, who has passed away and God rest his soul, he was a little bit of a sadistic guy…

Chappell: That seems to be the consensus on Billy!

Brunzell: He would inflict pain on us! You know, we were giving our body to him. But it was a great training period.

Chappell: I know Ric has said it was so tough that he tried to quit several times because it was so tough, but Verne wouldn’t let him quit!

Brunzell: Oh yeah, but what happened was we’d start off our session with these Hindu squats, which are free squats. And we’d do them in sets of a hundred. But by the time we were done, we’d be doing a thousand free squats a day!

Chappell: Holy cow…

Brunzell: (laughs) My legs got so damn big that I thought, ‘Jesus!’ I did a lot of squats and everything, but I thought, ‘Holy Christ!’ You know, Verne and them put us through a lot, but it really sort of taught us the respect that pro wrestling really needed, especially from the guys that were employed by them…you know, the guys that went out there every night. It was quite a deal and it was hard, but I wouldn’t have known any other way.

Chappell: It had to toughen you all up, the Verne Gagne way!

pwpix.net

Brunzell: I think when I went around and went to Kansas City, and I went to Charlotte and I went to Atlanta then I finally went to New York…I realized that a lot of these promoters that I had dealt with along the way were so jealous of Verne. You know, Verne had a real horrible reputation with other promoters, because they were jealous of him. And also the fact that Verne was such a great amateur wrestler himself…

Chappell: That’s right.

Brunzell: He became a self-made millionaire. He did it all himself, and I think a lot of the guys along the way that were from his era were a little jealous of the fact that he succeeded as well as he did. You know, he was a ruthless guy. He had a good side, and he had a bad side.

Chappell: Stay on the good side, right?

Brunzell: That’s right! I’ll never forget, in 1985, things were really going south and Vince [McMahon] had taken almost all the talent from 26 different territories that were running then. And I went to Verne; I had opened up a gym called Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell’s Gym…

Chappell: Catchy name, Jim!

Jim Brunzell's Book "MatLands"

Brunzell: I did it then to have something to fall back on. Well, what happened was in ’82 I opened the gym and in ’85 it got so bad at the AWA that, holy smokes, I was using a lot of my wrestling earnings to defray the costs of the gym. So, it wasn’t working out and I went to Verne and I said, ‘Verne, you know I realize that things are bad, but Greg and I have had a hell of a run together. We’ve been together since 1975, and I need to have you give me a personal contract that I can insure that I can take care of my family and my gym financially.”

Chappell: Seems reasonable.

Brunzell: But then he says, ‘Well, what do you want?’ And I told him I wanted 95,000 dollars a year. It sounds like a lot, but you know, we were in that same area of making that amount of money before the roof caved in and Hulk Hogan left and everybody else.

Chappell: Sure…

Brunzell: But Verne looked at me and said, ‘You’re not worth it…go to New York.’

Chappell: Wow, that was pretty cold-blooded…

Brunzell: And it just crushed me. I thought, ‘Man!’ Then I told Greg, ‘Your Dad just said I wasn’t worth it.’ And Greg said, ‘He was joking.’

Chappell: Could’ve fooled you, huh?

Brunzell: (laughs) He didn’t fool me much!


TO BE CONTINUED IN PART THREE!

The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Part 4)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

PART FOUR
(Catch up on the introduction and what you missed in Part 1 |  Part 2  |  Part 3)

Jim Brunzell's book is available at
Blurb.com

Brunzell: A couple of these stories I tell in my book…[George Scott] brought in Buddy Rogers…

Chappell: Oh yeah, I was definitely going to ask you about the original Nature Boy!

Brunzell: (laughs) And Buddy Rogers was going to come in and help George. You know, with the booking. Buddy Rogers had notoriously for YEARS, every territory he’d come into, he’d steal all the heat from all the heels and he’d be the number one guy. Well, Buddy had to be close to 50 years old then…

Chappell: You’d think, at least…

Brunzell: Yeah, and he comes in…and I didn’t trust him at all, because I’d heard so much about him. (laughs) I remember he ended up stealing all the heat from everybody, and he was managing Jimmy Snuka. So, it was Jimmy Snuka, Buddy Rogers against Ricky Steamboat and I. I remember Buddy Rogers putting Band-Aids over his ears…

Chappell: That’s right, I remember he used the bad ear gimmick to feed the crowd reactions at the house shows.

Brunzell: He’d come on the interviews and say, ‘I just can’t stand the noise when people boo me!’

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: So in the match he’s got these doggone Band-Aids on his ears, and it worked out that Steamer gave me a tag and I’m making a comeback on him and I get him in the corner, and I ripped one of the Band-Aids off his ear and he goes crazy and the fans go nuts! Then I ripped the other one off, and the fans go crazier!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: He also had a big Band-Aid on his chest, and I thought, ‘Oh s#@t, I’ll just rip that one off too!’

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: (laughs) What had happened is that he had burned himself, in one of the very first sun tanning beds that they had then…

Chappell: Okay, now we know how Rogers always had such a good tan!

Brunzell: And he was blistered! So when I pulled that Band-Aid off he screeched like an owl!

Chappell: (laughing)

Brunzell: (laughs) And as I biel tossed him out of the corner he said to me, “I bet if you had five more seconds you’d take my boot off!’ That’s what he said to me, and we never worked again! (laughing)

Chappell: (laughing) That’s hilarious!

Brunzell: You know, he was a character…Oh God!

Chappell: For sure, and speaking of characters, you had an extended program in the Mid-Atlantic area with the strongman Ken Patera over the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title which you won from him on September 14, 1979 in my wrestling hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Please tell us a little about Patera and the Mid-Atlantic belt.

Brunzell: Right, you know Kenny was a good heel and he was so powerful, and a great athlete. He was sort of a natural heel, because that was basically what his personality was too. And I remember George sort of let us flounder around underneath a little bit. Kenny and I had worked this deal, and we had a no disqualification match in Richmond for the championship. And I remember the finish was so unique!

Chappell: Oh yes!

Brunzell: I was making a comeback and he’d stopped me and thrown me outside and he kept knocking me off and running my head into the post and then the turnbuckle and the mat and everything, and then what happened was that the referee was pushing him back, and as he pushed him back Kenny comes whipping around and I had grabbed the top rope and slung myself and jumped and actually hit him with a head-to-head shoulder block tackle and covered him one-two-three. And it got over like a son of a gun!

Chappell: That’s an understatement, Jim!

Brunzell: First of all, it was a great match and the finish just came out of the clear blue sky. You know, because I was still down there selling and Kenny had kicked out and he got up and threw me out of the ring and then they give me the belt and he jumps off and the people go crazy!

Chappell: A magical Richmond Coliseum moment!

Brunzell: You know, we had a good run with that and you know it was fun. Oh God, Richmond was a great wrestling town! Richmond was one of the best big towns that we hit in the Mid-Atlantic. I mean, you know, Raleigh was okay and Norfolk was okay and Charlotte was good, but I tell you Richmond had a beautiful civic center there and it was round and the people were with it…they had great crowds in there!

Chappell: The Richmond Coliseum was the place to be on Friday nights!

Brunzell: I had some really good matches there. Matter of fact, I remember I had a match there with the Iron Sheik, and after the match he grabbed something and started choking me and he choked me so damn hard that I was almost knocked out! And then he threw me out of the ring and I was sort of half conscious, and when I went out of the ring I slammed my head on the concrete and I had 23 stitches in the side of my eyebrow!

Chappell: Whoa!

Brunzell: I’ll never forget that…that was from Richmond! The Iron Sheik, Khosrow, was such a character. In my book I talk about Khosrow and the Mid-Atlantic Title. He had wound up beating me on TV using that loaded boot!

Chappell: I remember that well! It’s interesting that three Mid-Atlantic opponents we have talked about, were in that 1972 training class with Verne!

Brunzell: Yeah, and it’s funny too I remember this match we had in Norfolk. I had beat Khosrow on TV by putting the sleeper on him…

Chappell: Yeah, I think you said Johnny Weaver had helped you perfect the sleeper.

Brunzell: And he was down in the ring…ding, ding, ding. I take off his loaded boot! And I think it was Rich Landrum doing the promos…and I go say to Rich, ‘I’m going to wrestle the Iron Sheik in Norfolk, I’ve got his boot and there’s no way he’s gonna be able to keep the Mid-Atlantic Title.’ So that coming week we had a double shot, an early shot in Norfolk and then we had that night in Charlotte. Sandy Scott is the agent running the town, and Khosrow and I are on last. Sandy comes up to me and says the finish is an hour draw! I said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Sandy, I’ve got the gimmick boot. If I can’t beat Khosrow with the gimmick boot in 60 minutes what the hell does that say about me?’

Chappell: Yeah…

Brunzell: And Sandy says, ‘Well, that’s what George wants.’ I was furious. It was funny, I got home that night and I saw him in Charlotte and I took him aside and I said, ‘George, you might as well have buried me in the middle of the ring in Norfolk, because I’ll never draw another dime there.’ And he just didn’t get it, you know. He was so lucky that the Mid-Atlantic drew so well and had such great talent. Again, I’ll say I like George but his booking was horrible; his finishes were horrible.

Chappell: George did a lot of fantastic angles in the Mid-Atlantic area over the years, but I concede the loaded boot angle wasn’t his best! And he was near the end of his run as Crockett’s booker when you came on the scene. One thing that puzzled me about your booking in Mid-Atlantic was your quick run with the legendary Ray Stevens at the end of 1979. You two had a history in the AWA, traded the Mid-Atlantic Title between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then barely wrestled again after that! Even at that time as a fan, I was thinking, ‘What gives?’

Brunzell: Well, I thought the same thing David. And you know, Ray was one of the greatest of ALL talents.

Chappell: No question.

Brunzell: He was just incredible, and he and Nick Bockwinkel were AWA Tag Team Champions. He was HUGE out in San Francisco in the middle 60s to the early 70s. And Ray was the type of guy, you know, you could go in the ring with him and have a hell of a match, and he might not have slept for two days!

Chappell: (laughs)

Brunzell: He was incredible! And there were very few guys like him. I’ll say Ric was very much like Ray Stevens. Bobby Heenan was exactly the same; these guys were all naturals.

Chappell: I have heard Ric say that he emulated Ray in a lot of things he did.

Brunzell: Unbelievable talent!

Chappell: You worked with so many true legends like Ray Stevens over the course of your career. Were there any legends that you never worked with that you wish you had?

Brunzell: I was so fortunate that I had the opportunity in my early time at the AWA to work with all these great guys. And I did go to Kansas City and I saw Jack Brisco and I saw Terry Funk. And then when I went to Charlotte I worked with Terry Funk in a couple of shots. And when I went to Atlanta I worked with Dory Funk, Jr. But I never did get to work with Jack Brisco, who I REALLY admired! I thought he was one of the great champions.

Chappell: Absolutely.

Brunzell: Just an INCREDIBLE presence in the ring.

To Be Continued in Part 5!

Bonus Video: 
Jim Brunzell and Blackjack Mulligan vs. Tank Patton and Gene Lewis

Crockett Cup '85 Continues: Midnights vs. High Flyers (Round Three)

ONLY SIXTEEN TEAMS REMAIN!
See the Scouting Report on the remaining teams.

• Updated Brackets
• Links to all previous matches (bottom of page.)
• See the Round Three Scouting Report

THIS WEEK'S MATCH
Third Round Match #3
(Tournament Match #35)
Midnight Express vs. The High Flyers

BACKGROUND
The 1985 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament is underway. Wait, did you just say 1985? It’s time to take a look at one of wrestling’s biggest events from the mid-80s and see what it might have been like with a few historical alterations. What if Jim Crockett Promotions hosted its tag team tournament the Crockett Cup in 1985 and included teams from promotions outside the National Wrestling Alliance (“NWA”) including the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling, and more? In this case, you’d have 48 of the greatest tag teams in the world battling in a winner take all tournament for $1,000,000 and the prestigious Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Trophy.

The first round saw 32 teams competing to advance to round two with 16 teams making it in. Round two followed as these 16 teams battled the 16 top-seeded tag teams that received a first-round bye. Now, round two has finished and just sixteen teams remain as round three continues. 

THIRD ROUND RULES
Here are the rules for the round two of our tournament. A pool of referees from the NWA, AWA, and WWF have been appointed for the tournament and randomly selected for each match. The third-round matches have a sixty-minute time limit and are sanctioned under NWA rules (throwing an opponent over the top rope is an automatic disqualification). The matches are one fall with a win obtained by a pinfall, submission, count-out, or disqualification. 

The third-round matches are being held over two nights at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. The first four matches will take place on Friday April 19 while the remaining four will take place on Saturday April 20. Your commentators for the matches will be Bob Caudle and David Crockett, but as always, you never know when a special guest will show up. 

Last time around Arn and Ole Anderson toughed out a win against Japanese stars Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi. Now, Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express (“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey) take on the High Flyers (“Jumping” Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne.

 
The Midnight Express (“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey) with Jim Cornette vs. the High Flyers (“Jumping” Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne)
WWF referee Danny Davis is officiating as Greg Gagne starts off against “Loverboy” Dennis. Collar-and-elbow tie-up but Condrey is starting off rough. Knee to the gut by Condrey which sends Gagne into a neutral corner. Condrey moves in and fires off a punch, leading to a warning by Davis. Condrey goes for another punch but Gagne blocks it. Stiff uppercut forearm by Gagne sends Condrey staggering back. David Crockett says Condrey obviously wasn’t expecting that. Condrey charges Gagne only to get hip tossed. “Beautiful” Bobby comes in after Greg only to get hip-tossed as well. The heels roll out of the ring and regroup with Jim Cornette giving them a much-needed hug. Meanwhile, Gagne confers with Brunzell.

After a brief conference, Dennis gets into the ring and prepares for a second round with the second-generation star. Gagne quickly gets Condrey into a side headlock. Condrey tries to escape by running into the ropes but Gagne puts the brakes on. Gagne puts the pressure on to the point that it looks like Condrey is going to sink to a knee. Condrey does goes down as Gagne continues to use a basic, but highly effective amateur hold. Brunzell is clapping his hands as the crowd rallies behind the babyfaces.

With Condrey under control, Gagne drags him over to the babyface corner and tags in Brunzell. Both men whip Condrey into the ropes and deliver a back body drop. Brunzell applies an arm bar to Dennis and drags him towards Gagne. Condrey struggles but Brunzell ups the pressure. Tag to Gagne who comes off the top rope with an axe-handle to Condrey’s arm. Bob Caudle notes the High Flyers have Dennis Condrey baffled as to what’s next. Gagne applies pressure to the arm as Condrey swings wildly. Danny Davis warns Condrey about the closed fist and Gagne responds to Dennis’s fisticuffs by reapplying the side headlock.

Condrey makes several failed attempts to escape until he goes with a Greco-Roman eye rake, finally succeeding. Gagne tries to get his bearings as “Loverboy” Dennis throws Greg into the heel corner where Bobby has conveniently outstretched a knee. Quick tag to “Beautiful” Bobby who rubs Gagne’s face across the top rope. Danny Davis starts a five-count as Eaton fires off several forearm smashes while Gagne is on the ropes. Eaton whips Gagne and catches him with an elbow to the chest, knocking his opponent down. Bodyslam by Eaton as Gagne goes down again.

Outside the ring, Jim Cornette has joined Bob Caudle and David Crockett on commentary. Bob Caudle says the Midnights are facing a team that is arguably as fast as them and more technically proficient. Jim Cornette questions Bob Caudle’s take on things. David Crockett says the Midnights do have something going for them—they have the added help of Cornette at ringside. Cornette dismisses David’s comments and says Crockett and Gagne both have a lot in common—they were born on third base and thought they hit a triple. 

Eaton throws Gagne into the corner again and tags in Condrey. Eaton holds Gagne as Condrey slugs Greg with a big right. Condrey takes Gagne down near the heel corner with a side headlock on the mat. When Gagne gets to the ropes, Condrey drops a knee across the chest, dazing him. Another tag as Eaton enters, whipping Gagne into the ropes, hitting another elbowsmash. Snapmare by Eaton as he applies a front facelock on Gagne. Greg starts fighting to escape the hold, coming close to getting out, only for Eaton to drag him down with a handful of hair. The crowd boos the Midnights even more and begin chanting “Gagne, Gagne.” Eaton applies the hold as Jim Cornette boasts his team is showing that overrated Gagne what mat wrestling is all about. However, when Gagne starts to fight his way out of the hold, Cornette leaves the announce table and returns to ringside. 

Gagne is fighting his way out of the front facelock as David Crockett cheers Gagne on, saying he doesn’t know where the second-generation star is getting his energy from. Gagne is about to escape the hold when Eaton gives Gagne a thumb to the eye. The referee doesn’t see it and Gagne staggers backwards. Unfortunately, it’s towards the heel corner where Dennis Condrey grabs Gagne’s arms. “Beautiful” Bobby comes in and throws a wild punch, but somehow, Gagne breaks free and Bobby hits Condrey. As Bobby checks on Dennis, Greg rolls to the babyface corner and tags in Brunzell. 

A fresh Brunzell comes in as Eaton tags in Condrey. Eaton charges Brunzell only to get hip-tossed. Condrey tries to blindside Brunzell with a punch, but Brunzell blocks it and fires off a series of punches of his own, earning a warning from the referee. Brunzell bodyslams Condrey as Danny Davis tells Bobby Eaton to get back into his corner. Meanwhile, Brunzell throws Dennis into the ropes but Condrey reverses. However, when Condrey goes for a back body-drop, Brunzell catches his foe with a beautiful Sunset Flip for a two-and-a-half count. David Crockett says he’s not sure that wasn’t a three-count. Brunzell picks up Condrey, but Jim Cornette gets on the mat apron, yelling something at “Jumping” Jim. Brunzell pauses, but he seems more concerned with what’s going on in the ring. After all, his team is one step away from round four. 

“Jumping” Jim whips Condrey into the ropes. High elevation dropkick by Brunzell floors Condrey, but Brunzell missed the blind tag when he paused to look at Cornette. Brunzell goes to cover Condrey as Eaton drops a legdrop on him, covering him. Gagne runs in to break up the pin, but a quick-thinking Cornette extends his tennis racket, tripping Gagne as the referee makes the three-count on Brunzell. 

Winners: The Midnight Express (“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey). 

The Midnights high-tail it out of the ring and grab Cornette as the fans boo them and throw garbage at them. Should be an interesting time getting out of the parking lot, but it won’t be the first time the Midnights and Cornette have dealt with this predicament.

Join us next time:
Kevin and Mike Von Erich take on the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid). Who will advance to round four as in the quest for tag team glory and some serious cash!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THE CROCKETT CUP '85 FANTASY SERIES

Original Tournament Announcement (May 2020)
Seedings and First Round Pairings Announced

THIRD ROUND MATCHES  (Scouting Report)
Third Round: Match 1 (Tournament Match #33)
     The Rock & Roll Express vs. The Russians
Third Round: Match 2 (Tournament Match #34)
     Ole & Arn Anderson vs. Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi
Third Round: Match 3 (Tournament Match #35)
     The Midnight Express vs. The High Flyers

SECOND ROUND MATCHES
Second Round: Matches 1 & 2 (Tournament 17 & 18)
     Mulligan/McDaniel vs. The Russians
    Rock & Roll Express vs. Maharishi/Nagasaki
Second Round: Matches 3 & 4 (Tournament 19 & 20)
    Brown/Jannetty vs. Inoki & Sakaguchi
    Ole & Arn Anderson vs. Windham/Rotunda)
Second Round: Matches 5 & 6 (Tournament 21 & 22)
    Midnight Express vs. Hart Foundation
    PYT Express vs. High Flyers
Second Round: Matches 7 & 8 (Tournament 23 & 24) 
    Rude/Barr (with Percy Pringle III) vs. Kevin and Mike Von Erich
    Fujinami/Kimura vs. British Bulldogs
Second Round: Matches 9 & 10 (Tournament 25 & 26)
    Brody/Hansen vs. Williams/DiBiase
    Road Warriros vs. Lawler/Dundee
Second Round: Matches 11 & 12 (Tournament 27 & 28)
    Piper & Orton vs. The Oklahoma Cowboys
    The Funk Brothers vs. The Younglood Brothers
Second Round: Matches 13 & 14 (Tournament 29 & 30)
    Rhodes/Murdoch vs. Adams/Hernandez
    Sheik/Volkoff vs. Steamboat/Snuka
Second Round: Matches 15 & 16 (Tournament 31 & 32)
    Fantastics vs. Fabulous Ones
    Sheepherders vs. Freebirds

FIRST ROUND MATCHES
First Round: Matches 1 & 2
    Hennig/Blackwell vs. Mulligan/McDaniel
    Tyler/Whatley vs. Maharishi/Nagasaki
First Round: Matches 3 & 4
    Windham/Rotunda vs. Bockwinkel/Saito
    Rougeaus vs. Inoki/Sakaguchi
First Round: Matches 5 &6
    Barbarian/Graham vs. Hart Foundation (Hart/Neidhart)
    High Flyers (Brunzell/Gagne) vs. Savage/Poffo
First Round: Matches 7 & 8:
    The Von Erich vs. Blanchard/Abdullah the Butcher
    Tenryu/Tsuruta vs. The British Bulldogs
First Round: Matches 9 & 10:
    Graham/Blair vs. DiBiase/Williams
    Valiant/McGraw vs. Lawler/Dundee
First Round: Matches 11 & 12:
    Piper/Orton vs. Patterson/Fernandez
    Rock & Roll RPMs vs. Youngblood Brothers
First Round: Matches 13 and 14:
    Dynamic Duo (Gino & Chris) vs. American Starship
    Sawyer Bros. vs. Steamboat/Snuka
First Round: Matches 15 and 16
    Batten Twins vs. Fabulous Ones
    Weaver/Houston vs. Sheepherders

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gateway Interview: Jim Brunzell (Part 1)

Interview by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell was a major star in professional wrestling during the 1970s and 1980s, with most of his fame and notoriety coming from his “High Flying” tag team with Greg Gagne in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and later with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as part of the “Killer Bees” tag team with partner B. Brian Blair. What is often overlooked in Jim’s career is a successful stint he had with Jim Crockett Promotions in 1979-1980, where in his own words he wanted to see if he could “cut the mustard” as a singles competitor. 

“Gentleman” Jim certainly flourished in the Mid-Atlantic area as a singles wrestler, defeating the seemingly unbeatable Ken Patera for the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Tile, and later battled the legendary Ray Stevens for that same belt, ultimately triumphing in his feud with the “Crippler.” Even when Jim eventually dropped the Mid-Atlantic strap to the dastardly Iron Sheik in May of 1980, the two had a spirited program over the title until Jim’s departure from the area in August of 1980. So while other significant parts of Jim’s wrestling career are touched on, this interview was done for the primary purpose of shinning the spotlight on Jumpin’ Jim’s 16 month run in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. 

Jim, a huge fan of the legendary Bruce Springsteen, also has an outstanding book out entitled “MatLands” available through Blurb.com where he shares a series of wonderful wrestling stories, including a number of which feature Mid-Atlantic favorites! (See the Gateway's plug for "Matlands" here.)

So without further ado, let’s turn it over to White Bear Lake, Minnesota’s own…High Flying Jim Brunzell!

 * * * * * *

PART ONE

David Chappell:  Jim, thank you so much for making time for the Mid-Atlantic Gateway today. I’d like this interview to be a little bit different from the ones you’ve done before, in that I’d like it to focus primarily on your run in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1979 and 1980. I don’t think your work in the Mid-Atlantic area has ever gotten the attention it deserves.

Jim Brunzell:  You know, I enjoyed my time down there. The weather was great, and we had some great talent down there…Steamboat, the Nature Boy [Ric Flair] and Jack Mulligan…

Chappell: It was a ‘who’s who’ talent-wise, wasn’t it?

Brunzell: It was; it was great! You know, when I came from the AWA down there, I didn’t know what to expect. And George Scott, who was the booker in the Mid-Atlantic, had worked briefly in the AWA in the early 70s when I was starting, and I knew George and Sandy. They had been a tag team in Canada, and had bounced around a little bit.

Chappell: And when you came to the Mid-Atlantic territory, you were primarily known for your tag team work in the AWA with Greg Gagne.

Brunzell: I was sort of tired of being the ‘High Flyer’ with Greg for four and a half years and I thought geez, am I ever going to get a singles break? I didn’t see that in the future, and it was a good opportunity for me to just go some place new. I wound up getting booked down there, and it was fast and furious. I think I was down there for about 16 months, counting the time that George Scott had fired me, and I had worked six to eight more weeks in Atlanta for Jim Barnett.

Chappell: You were fired by George? Didn’t expect that piece of news!

Brunzell: But you know it was a great time. I bought a house down in Charlotte, and my wife loved it and our kids were like three, two and a half, and almost a year old. You know, it was a great opportunity. The only problem, David, was that George Scott was notorious for no time off.

Chappell: I’ve definitely heard that before!

Booker George Scott with Andre the Giant on the set of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling"

Brunzell: I remember the first time I walked in the office before I started working down there. I just got to Charlotte, and I was staying in a hotel for a little bit before I got my wife and family down there. I went in and talked to George and he said, ‘Jimmy, I wanna tell you right now…there’s no time off. So don’t ask for time off.’

Chappell: (laughs) Wow, what a welcoming to the NWA!

Brunzell: Yeah! He says, ‘But you’ll be home every night, though, by at least 12:30 or 1:00.’ (laughs)

Chappell: (laughs) What a guy!

Brunzell: Yeah! You know, it was a new adventure for me. And also, it was a little different because you know I had been in Kansas City in ’73 when I first started, and I saw a little bit of how the NWA worked. How it was working every night…

Chappell: Kansas City was your first territory, wasn’t it?Brunzell: It was.

Chappell: I was going to ask you about Kansas City for that reason, and also because Ric Flair has often called the Kansas City territory the ‘Siberia’ of wrestling territories. Was it really that bad?

Brunzell: Well, here’s the problem. God rest their souls, but Pat O’Connor and Bob Geigel were part owners, along with Sam Muchnick in St. Louis, and they ran the Kansas City territory. That was Kansas, Missouri and a little bit of Iowa. Gus Karras, who at that time was the oldest promoter, he ran St. Joe, Missouri. The problem was, those guys didn’t want to spend any money.

Chappell: That’s a problem!

Brunzell: Yeah, they operated a lean thing. You know, there was just nothing there. Their TV show was…

Chappell: Bare bones?

Brunzell: Yeah, really bare bones. They’d have three matches, and it would be an hour to an hour and a half! (laughs) You’d make 20 dollars, and you might work 45 minutes or an hour. That was at St. Joe. You know, all the guys would make their money when they went to St. Louis. I remember when I was there it was great for me because I worked twice a night…

Chappell: And I’m sure that was important, just starting out…

Brunzell: Yeah, because the more you worked the more you learned your trade. And plus, it enabled me, David, to see the different talents. Jack Brisco came in, and Dory Funk and Terry Funk and Harley Race, and it was really eye-opening.

Chappell: I’m sure.

Brunzell: Those guys never came up in the AWA. It was Nick Bockwinkel, Verne [Gagne] and different guys. Although the talent level in the AWA was incredible too. But when I went to Kansas City it opened my eyes.

But when I went to Charlotte, in the Mid-Atlantic, it was REALLY eye-opening because Crockett had a great promotion, and he had unbelievable business that they did. All of us made a good living down there, but the only problem was that you didn’t have time to enjoy it! (laughs)

Chappell: Never a moment to catch your breath!

Brunzell: Thanks right!


TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO!

Crockett Cup '85 2nd Round Continues: Matches 5 and 6

MIKE RICKARD'S FANTASY WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
ROUND TWO

Catching up? Here is the background info:
Tournament Announcement
Seedings and First Round Pairings

BRACKETS
Updated brackets going into tonight's matches.
[Links to previous matches at the bottom of this post.]

THIS WEEK'S MATCHES: #21 AND #22
(Second Round Matches #5 and #6):
- The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette vs. the Hart Foundation with Jimmy Hart.
- The PYT Express (Austin/Ware) vs. “The High Flyers” (Brunzell/Gagne).  

The 1985 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament is underway. Wait, did you just say 1985? It’s time to take a look at one of wrestling’s biggest events from the mid-80s and see what it might have been like with a few historical alterations. What if Jim Crockett Promotions hosted its tag team tournament the Crockett Cup in 1985 and included teams from promotions outside the National Wrestling Alliance (“NWA”) including the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling, and more? In this case, you’d have 48 of the greatest tag teams in the world battling in a winner take all tournament for $1,000,000 and the prestigious Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Trophy. 

The first round saw 16 teams competing to advance to round two with eight teams making it in. Now, these eight teams will battle the 16 top-seeded tag teams that received a first-round bye. As we saw in round one, some wrestlers are willing to bend or break the rules in order to get closer to the $1,000,000 prize so expect the unexpected as round two begins.

Second Round Rules: Here are the rules for the round two of our tournament. A pool of referees from the NWA, AWA, and WWF have been appointed for the tournament and randomly selected for each match. The second-round matches have a forty-five-minute time limit and are sanctioned under NWA rules (throwing an opponent over the top rope is an automatic disqualification). The matches are one fall with a win obtained by a pinfall, submission, count-out, or disqualification. 

The second-round matches are being held over two nights. The first eight matches will take place took place at the Richmond Civic Center on Saturday April 13. Bob Caudle and David Crockett are calling the matches tonight. The remaining eight matches in round one take place at the Asheville Civic Center on Sunday April 14. Last time around, Arn and Ole Anderson defeated the U.S. Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda) while Antonio Inoki and Seiji overcame Central States Wrestling’s Marty Jannetty and “Bulldog” Bob Brown. As round two continues, bear in mind that these titanic teams are battling for more than just bragging rights—they’re competing for the prestigious Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Trophy and a cool one million dollars.

The next two matches in round two Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express (“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey) taking on Jimmy Hart’s Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart) and the PYT Express (Norvell Austin and Koko Ware) taking on “The High Flyers” (“Jumping” Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne).

Backstage, Tony Schiavone is interviewing Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express. Cornette smiles as he looks at Schiavone and says “Hey Tony, I'm glad to see you back, especially after seeing your front.” Cornette says the Midnight Express should have received a first, second, and third-round bye because they’re the best team in this tournament. They’re not here for the money, but they won’t mind taking Mama Crockett’s million-dollar check. They’re here to prove there’s only one name that matters in tag team wrestling—the Midnight Express. Cornette says he knows Jimmy Hart from their days back in Memphis and that “The Mouth of the South” has his hands full trying to guide the Hart Foundation. Cornette says “The Hart Foundation are so dumb they couldn't make Kool-Aid because they couldn't figure out how to get 2 quarts of water into those little paper packets." Cornette promises a quick win for the Midnights and tells Tony to find some of that Goody’s Headache Powder Dusty Rhodes likes to hawk because Schivaone’s giving him a headache, just like he probably does to Mrs. Schiavone.
      
The Midnight Express (“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey) with Jim Cornette vs. the Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart) with Jimmy Hart.
The Hart Foundation are taking off their ring jackets when the Midnight’s Pearl Harbor them, with Dennis Condrey going after Jim Neidhart and Bobby Eaton taking on Bret Hart. The Midnights go to whip the Hart Foundation into each other, but the Harts reverse the move as Condrey and Eaton smash into each other. Bret Hart dropkicks Condrey through the ropes as Neidhart hits a double axe-handle to Eaton’s back. Jimmy Hart cackles through his megaphone while Jim Cornette waves his tennis racket. Bob Caudle says Cornette doesn’t look too happy. Neidhart drapes Eaton’s throat on the top rope and drives his forearm into the back of “Beautiful” Bobby’s neck, laughing as he chokes him. Referee Tommy Young starts counting as Neidhart yanks the top rope back and Eaton falls onto his back. 

Tag to Bret who comes in and bounces off the ropes, dropping a knee onto Eaton’s head. Hart spreads Eaton’s legs and hits legdrop in the lower mid-section. David Crockett says that looks awfully painful. Bret lifts Bobby up and Eaton rakes the eyes, firing off a big right hand that rocks Hart. Hart fires back with a right of his own. Knee to the gut by Eaton followed by another rake of the eyes. Eaton grabs a disoriented Hart and slams his head into “Loverboy” Dennis’s knee. Tag to Dennis who kicks Hart in the gut, then applies a side headlock. Dennis puts on the pressure but Hart starts to escape—that is until Condrey grabs his hair and yanks him down to the mat, continuing to apply the side headlock. Hart complains that Condrey yanked the hair but Dennis isn’t having it. Bob Caudle says Tommy Young is going to need some Excedrin after officiating this match. Bret shows his incredible technical skills by rolling into Condrey and suddenly, Condrey is writhing in pain as Hart has applied a wristlock. Condrey quickly grabs the ropes with his other hand, forcing a break of the hold as opposed to his wrist. Hart breaks the hold but gives Condrey a knee to the gut for his trouble followed by a snapmare, and going for a chinlock on “Loverboy” Dennis. However, Condrey shows he’s no slouch at the mat game either as he spins out of the move and applies an arm bar. Condrey whips Hart into the ropes and Bobby Eaton knees Hart in the back as he hits the ropes. Hart crumbles to the mat as Dennis picks him up for an underhook suplex, driving him down hard. Tag to Eaton who climbs the top rope and drops a knee across Hart’s head. Cover on Hart, but “The Hitman” kicks out at two. Eaton yells at Tommy Young, complaining about the slow count. Hart seizes the moment and rolls Eaton up, but Eaton kicks out at two. Eaton isn’t happy with Hart’s tactics and stomps him in the head. Tag to Dennis who picks up Hart and delivers a big backbreaker. Cover on Hart but “The Hitman” kicks out again. Condrey whips Hart towards the Midnight’s corner and the Midnight Express double-team Hart, unloading with punches. Bob Caudle says the Midnights have cut the ring in half and the Hart Foundation are in trouble. David Crockett says the Hart Foundation are a fairly new team while the Midnights have been around longer. Jim Neidhart sees enough and enters the ring, but Jim Cornette stooges him out, and referee Tommy Young moves to get Neidhart back in his corner. Meanwhile, Bobby Eaton chokes Hart with the tag rope while Condrey goes towards Neidhart, antagonizing him further. Jimmy Hart is screaming bloody murder into the megaphone as Jim Cornette waves his tennis racket at Jimmy Hart. 

Fifteen minutes into the match and Bret Hart looks to be one shade short of blue by the time Tommy Young finally turns around. Dennis tags in Eaton who whips Hart into the ropes and hits an elbow to Hart’s chest. Bobby picks Hart up for a suplex, but incredibly, Hart blocks it, locking his leg around Eaton’s. Bobby tries again and Hart blocks it again. This time, Hart reverses the suplex, as Eaton goes crashing down into the mat. Both men are down in the center of the ring. David Crockett says he doesn’t know where Hart found the energy for that. Bob Caudle agrees and says Hart has to find a way to make the tag. 

Both wrestlers begin crawling towards their respective corners as time seems to stand still. Neither grappler seems to have much gas left, but Eaton is moving just a little faster. Eaton makes the tag and Dennis runs in as Hart tries to dive towards Neidhart. However, Condrey grabs Hart’s leg at the last second and pulls him into the center of the ring. David Crockett says the Hart Foundation needs a miracle.
Right now, Bret isn’t getting it as “Loverboy” Condrey goes to dish out some more punishment, placing Hart in an abdominal stretch. Condrey applies the hold near the ropes while Jim Cornette fans him with the tennis racket. Condrey and Cornette share a good laugh, but don’t see Jim “The Anvil” come in and it costs Condrey as Neidhart slugs him with a big right. Neidhart whips Condrey into the ropes and clotheslines him, knocking him down. Tommy Young grabs Neidhart and orders him back to his corner, escorting him there. 

The ring announcer notes 20 minutes have elapsed, with 25 remaining. Meanwhile, Bret Hart is trying to crawl to his corner again, but “Beautiful” Bobby runs in and pulls Hart towards the heel corner while Tommy Young’s back is turned and he’s dealing with Neidhart. Eaton decides to improve his time management skills so he chokes Hart with the tag rope while Young is still arguing with Neidhart. Jimmy Hart is screaming into his megaphone, telling Young to turn around, but a belligerent Neidhart isn’t making things any easier for “The Hitman.” 

Dennis Condrey staggers over to the Midnight’s corner and tags in Bobby. Eaton bodyslams Hart then hits a legdrop on Bret. Cover on “The Hitman,” but Tommy Young is still jawing with Neidhart. Cornette gets on the mat apron and shouts at Young, who finally turns around and makes the count, but Hart kicks out at the last moment. Eaton whips Hart into the neutral corner and charges, but somehow Hart gets his knees up and Eaton crashes hard. David Crockett is befuddled as Hart climbs to the second rope and hits an elbow smash on Eaton, with Crockett shouting “How did he do that?” Bob tells David it looks like Hart has used up all his energy. Neither Hart or Eaton are moving. After a few seconds, Hart starts crawling towards his corner, then Eaton gets on his knees and begins crawling. Dennis Condrey runs in without making a tag and goes to grab Bret, but Tommy Young intercepts him and orders him back to his corner. In the meantime, Bret weakly makes the tag as Neidhart runs in. Regrettably for the Hart Foundation, Young hasn’t seen the tag and he orders Neidhart back in his corner. The fans are booing and starting to chant “Hitman!” “Hitman!” David Crockett says the Hart Foundation aren’t fan favorites, but the fans apparently hate them less than the Midnights.

Eaton grabs Hart and pulls him back to the center of the ring. Eaton drops an elbow on Hart, but Hart rolls out of the way. Eaton bounces off the ropes and drops a knee, but Hart gets out of the way again. Finally, “Beautiful” Bobby goes for a bodyslam, but Hart rolls him up for a small package, 1, 2, Dennis Condrey breaks up the pin with a stomp to Hart’s head. Jim Neidhart runs in and slugs Condrey, throwing him between the ropes and out of the ring. Neidhart then hits a backbreaker on Eaton before returning to his corner. 

25 minutes have elapsed and both Eaton and Hart are down on the mat again. Eaton crawls to the Midnight’s corner while Hart crawls towards his corner. Eaton makes it to the Midnight’s corner, but Condrey is just getting off the floor outside the ring, and Eaton looks confused. Bret finally makes it to the Hart Foundation corner and tags in “The Anvil” and this time, Tommy Young sees the tag.
Neidhart is fired up and wastes no time going after Eaton. Kick to the gut followed by an Irish whip. Big shoulder tackle knocks Eaton down. Neidhart bodyslams Eaton then hits a dropkick on him as David Crockett notes “The Anvil” is remarkably agile despite his nickname. Eaton gets up weakly and Neidhart clotheslines him. Cover as Dennis Condrey wastes no time coming in to make the save. Despite the beating he’s taken, Bret Hart staggers into the match to join the fray. David Crockett tells Bob he’s amazed at Bret’s fortitude, and he’s come a long way from when he saw him in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling as a preliminary wrestler. Bob tells David he doesn’t know how to break this to him, but that wasn’t the same Bret Hart who’s in the ring now. David Crockett quickly moves on and praises the in-ring action as all four men are slugging it out. Bret is fighting “Loverboy” Dennis while Neidhart slugs it out with Eaton. Jim Cornette gets up on the mat apron and shouts at Tommy Young while Jimmy Hart paces around the ring then jumps up on the mat apron with his handy megaphone. Hart throws the megaphone to Bret Hart who goes to catch it, but takes his attention off Condrey, who clotheslines him from behind and catches the megaphone. Condrey bashes Neidhart in the back of the head with the megaphone then throws it out of the ring. Bobby Eaton climbs to the top rope and Dennis Condrey throws him off the top rope onto Neidhart as Bob Caudle says “That Rocket Launcher has got to be it for Neidhart.” Cover by Eaton as Condrey grabs Tommy Young and tells him to make the count. Jimmy Hart looks like he’s going to enter the ring, but Jim Cornette menaces him with the tennis racket and “The Mouth of the Hart’s” self-preservation instincts get the best of him. 1-2-3 and the Midnight Express have won a hard-fought (albeit it tainted) victory after nearly 30 minutes.

Winners: The Midnight Express

Bob Caudle says the Harts put in a solid effort, but experience won the day on this occasion. David Crockett says if the Hart Foundation gets some more experience, they could go far.

Memphis wrestling legend Lance Russell is backstage with the P.Y.T. Express and asks them about their opponents tonight. The famed announcer says the P.Y.T.’s received a first-round bye, but will that hurt their chances? Norvell asks Russell what kind of fool question that is. They’ve had time to rest and scout their opponents. They’re not the AWA Southern Tag Team Champions because of their looks—although he says they are handsome devils. Koko tells Lance the High-Flyers are going to get grounded faster than a People’s Express jet in a snowstorm.

The PYT Express (Norvell Austin and Koko Ware) vs. “The High Flyers” (“Jumping” Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne).
World Class Championship Wrestling Rick Hazard is officiating this match. Greg Gagne starts off against Norvell Austin and Gagne offers to shake Norvell’s hand, only for the heel to slap him in the face. Norvell starts to laugh until Gagne punches him, knocking him down to the mat. David Crockett says he never understands why wrestlers try to get under their opponents’ skin like that. Bob Caudle replies that sometimes wrestlers think they can anger their opponent and force them to make mistakes. David says Austin looks like the one who made the mistake and Bob agrees. Norvell gets to his feet and charges Greg only to get hip-tossed for his trouble. Norvell charges again and gets hip-tossed a second time. Koko runs in and Greg dropkicks him, knocking him back into the heel corner. Gagne whips Austin into the ropes and lands a big back body-drop. Gagne is on fire and slaps a side headlock on Austin, dragging him over towards Brunzell. Tag to “Jumping” Jim who takes Austin and puts him in a headlock. Austin slips out and whips Brunzell into the ropes, going for a possible shoulder-block, but Brunzell leap-frogs over and comes back off the ropes with a cross body-block. Cover on Austin for about a two. Austin gets up and Brunzell is waiting, catching him with a big bodyslam. Austin complains to the referee that Brunzell grabbed his pants. Referee Rick Hazzard tells Austin everything looked fair and square.

Five minutes into the match. Brunzell locks up with Norvell in a collar-and-elbow tie-up. Norvell gets the upper hand and moves Brunzell into the corner where he unloads with a big forearm rather than giving him a clean break. Hazzard admonishes Austin who seems to ignore him, instead kicking Brunzell in the gut. The referee starts a five count and orders Norvell out of the corner. Austin whips Brunzell into the opposite corner and runs at him, hitting an elbow to the chest. Bodyslam by Norvell on the former Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion followed by an elbow drop. Cover on Brunzell but he kicks out at two. Norvell picks up Brunzell and head butts him as Brunzell falls back down to the mat. Bob Caudle says it looks like the P.Y.T. Express are starting to gain momentum and they’ve managed to ground “The High Flyers.” Brunzell’s troubles continue as Austin throws him through the ropes towards the heel corner. Norvell doesn’t go out of the ring and is talking to the referee, keeping the referee distracted from Koko Ware, who takes Brunzell and rams his head into a ring post. Greg Gagne races over towards his tag partner, but the damage has been done. Koko gets up to his corner as Brunzell is slow to get up. David Crockett says “he’s busted wide open!” and blood is dripping from Brunzell’s forehead. Brunzell tries to get into the ring, but Austin stomps him in the head. Referee Rick Hazzard tries to get Austin to back off and as he does, Koko steps off the mat apron and goes after Brunzell, ramming his head into the mat apron. Koko then throws Brunzell into the ring where Austin drops an elbow and covers him. 1, 2,…Brunzell gets his leg on the rope.

It’s ten minutes into the match, and David Crockett says Brunzell looks like he’s been in a war. Tag to Koko as the P.Y.T. hit a double forearm smash on Brunzell’s back, knocking him down to the mat. Koko goes for a suplex, and for a moment, it looks like Brunzell will block the move. Koko headbutts Brunzell then lifts him up for a suplex. David Crockett says Koko is known for his devastating brainbuster, but he didn’t use it. That may have been a mistake. Koko covers Jim, but Gagne comes in for the save, stomping the once and future “Birdman” in the head. Koko doesn’t’ like this and starts to scuffle with Gagne, coming up short in the fisticuffs department and landing flat on his back. Elsewhere in the ring, Norvell Austin sees a chance to punish Brunzell while the referee is attending to Gagne and Ware. Austin bounces off the ropes and drops a big elbow. The only problem is that no one is home. Norvell lands hard and goes for another one, only for Brunzell to roll out of the way again. “Jumping” Jim shows off his remarkable agility as he rolls over to his corner, tagging in Gagne. Gagne comes in and continues slugging at Koko. Gagne whips him into the ropes and hits a back body-drop followed by a bodyslam. Dropkick by Gagne as David Crockett says things have quickly turned around for Gagne and Brunzell. Bob Caudle says you’re looking at a team that held the AWA World Tag Team Championship two times with their second reign going over two years. 

15 minutes into the match and Gagne whips Ware into the ropes, applying the famed Gagne sleeperhold. Gagne has the hold on in the center of the ring and there’s nowhere for Koko to go as he quickly sinks to one knee. Norvell Austin runs in, but Brunzell intercepts him, landing a dropkick that sends him over the top rope. Whether or not this would have been a disqualification is a moot point as the referee is checking on Koko. Brunzell goes out of the ring and slams Austin on the floor. Back in the ring, it’s nighty-night for Koko as he drifts off into dreamland, courtesy of Gagne’s sleeper. 

Winners: “The High Flyers” (Greg Gagne and “Jumping” Jim Brunzell)

The High Flyers celebrate while Austin gets back into the ring and seems to be motioning to the referee that he got knocked over the top rope. Rick Hazzard shrugs his shoulders as Norvell starts to shout at him. Hazzard wisely rolls out of the ring, avoiding any unwanted violence. 

 

Join us next time as round two of the tournament continues with Rick Rude and Jesse Barr battling Kevin and Mike Von Erich while Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura take on the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid).  Stay tuned wrestling fans as the quest for tag team immortality and some serious cash continues!

********************************************************

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS FANTASY SERIES
Tournament Announcement
Seedings and First Round Pairings Announced  

SECOND ROUND
Second Round: Matches 1 & 2 (Tournament 17 & 18)
     Mulligan/McDaniel vs. The Russians
    Rock & Roll Express vs. Maharishi/Nagasaki
Second Round: Matches 3 & 4 (Tournament 19 & 20)
    Brown/Jannetty vs. Inoki & Sakaguchi
    Ole & Arn Anderson vs. Windham/Rotunda)
Second Round: Matches 5 & 6 (Tournament 21 & 22)
    Midnight Express vs. Hart Foundation
    PYT Express vs. High Flyers

FIRST ROUND
First Round: Matches 1 & 2
    Hennig/Blackwell vs. Mulligan/McDaniel
    Tyler/Whatley vs. Maharishi/Nagasaki
First Round: Matches 3 & 4
    Windham/Rotunda vs. Bockwinkel/Saito
    Rougeaus vs. Inoki/Sakaguchi
First Round: Matches 5 &6
    Barbarian/Graham vs. Hart Foundation (Hart/Neidhart)
    High Flyers (Brunzell/Gagne) vs. Savage/Poffo
First Round: Matches 7 & 8:
    The Von Erich vs. Blanchard/Abdullah the Butcher
    Tenryu/Tsuruta vs. The British Bulldogs
First Round: Matches 9 & 10:
    Graham/Blair vs. DiBiase/Williams
    Valiant/McGraw vs. Lawler/Dundee
First Round: Matches 11 & 12:
    Piper/Orton vs. Patterson/Fernandez
    Rock & Roll RPMs vs. Youngblood Brothers
First Round: Matches 13 and 14:
    Dynamic Duo (Gino & Chris) vs. American Starship
    Sawyer Bros. vs. Steamboat/Snuka
First Round: Matches 15 and 16
    Batten Twins vs. Fabulous Ones
    Weaver/Houston vs. Sheepherders