Karl Stern returns with another classic magazine review. Just in time for the release of my new book, DragonKingKarl’s 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus, let’s review the Fall 1983 issue of the Apter magazines’ quarterly special: Wrestling Superstars. This issue focused heavily on Georgia Championship Wrestling who
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, we travel back in time to the pioneer era of wrestling — 1877 — to see the first actual non-tournament pro wrestling cards at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. At this point, MSG was still
Dave Meltzer’s Giant Baba obituary from the February 8th, 1999, Wrestling Observer Newsletter may be one of his most massive obituaries in his history. The size of a small book, the story of Baba is woven into many of the most important stories of pro
Welcome to the first of a three-part series focused on Mr. Wrestling 2 as part of my true crime stories from the world of professional wrestling — a series that is not for the kids or faint-of-heart as we will be discussing some very
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I present to you another, hopefully laugh-filled, retro wrestling review. This week, we travel back to May 1994 when the then-WWE was really struggling to come up with something. Scandal had eroded public popularity and troubles
Round two of our GKT Greatest Kayfabe Tournament continues, pitting Chris Jericho against Jushin Thunder Liger. Though these two are contemporaries, they have actually wrestled far fewer times than you might imagine and only once in a singles match. Liger has been a
I didn’t start doing these pro wrestling true crime podcasts to be funny but then, there’s Jeff Gaylord: pro wrestling star and bungling bank robber. I had always heard that Gaylord was a little, well, not so bright. As it turns out, that
We take a deep dive into May 1982 when 21,000 people turned out to the Superdome in New Orleans to see the Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia battle The Samoans. Plus, the Buzz Sawyer vs. Tommy Rich rivalry was raging on in Georgia, Jimmy Garvin
On this edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I put a spotlight on southern wrestling as we visit the Florida wrestling territory as it begins its fall after the death of Eddie Graham. It was still a viable territory at this point with
Image: NotiCel We all know the story of the killing of Bruiser Brody. In this latest true crime deep dive, I focus in on his killer (Jose Gonzalez) instead of rehashing the whole story once again. The popular version of that story is that
We are up to April 1982 on this week’s DragonKingKarl longform history of pro wrestling with tons of interesting stuff happening at that point of time. Jerry Lawler has his famous first match against Andy Kaufman in Memphis; Andre The Giant won what
I continue with my longform history of pro wrestling podcast series with a look at March 1982. Bob Backlund was WWWF champion and feuding with both Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis, Ric Flair was facing many different opponents including a memorable series with Butch Reed,
Image: WWE This edition of the GKT (Greatest Kayfabe Tournament) features two of the best workers in modern history: Ricky Steamboat and Kurt Angle. Between the two, they have a library of some of the best matches of the last 40 years so
The votes are in and you have chosen a winner in match 26 of round one of The Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: AJ Styles vs. Booker T in a clash of two modern era wrestlers. Styles started off in the Georgia indies, got a
I had press passes to the UFC Ultimate Ultimate tournament 1996 in Birmingham, Alabama, a show that featured Don Frye, Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock, Kimo, Gary Goodrich, and others. I met and talked to all of them, as well as Dan Severn who
American Gladiators was a weird hybrid athletics show that combined a game show with basically pro wrestling style entertainment. There were even crossovers between the two, and American Gladiators was clearly marketed toward pro wrestling fans. On this retro episode, Karl Stern takes
It’s time for match 22 in round 1 of the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament, a fun way to do some pro wrestling biographies. On this edition, we have a very close match-up: Antonio Inoki vs. Harley Race. Inoki was the ace (and founder) for
The fourth part of my historical look at the NWA World heavyweight title covers the legendary Ric Flair era with the belt. Who was really promised what? Why Ronnie Garvin? This episode looks at the most famous era of the National Wrestling Alliance World heavyweight championship including
Image: Scott Bowden Straight out of 1986-87, this week’s DragonKing Karl Classic Wrestling Show takes a deep dive into the Jerry Lawler vs Austin Idol hair vs hair match that took place in a steel cage. I had such fun putting this show
The spring of 1981 saw Harley Race continue his run as NWA World champion, Ron Fuller losing his smile and going home, Junkyard Dog cranking it up in Louisiana, Hulk Hogan battling Jerry Lawler in Memphis, a big name wrestler appearing on a game show,
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