Episode 123 – Spot Show Town

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In this episode, we discuss the history of professional wrestling in the city of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Update

J. H. McLaughlin also wrestled part-time. McLaughlin served as a conductor for a number of railroads around Detroit, Michigan.

Thoughts on AEW

Main Content

I recently looked at the history of professional wrestling in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Wrestlingdata.com, an amazing website, provided most of the historical information for this segment.

Cape Girardeau, founded in 1739, is the second oldest city in Missouri after St. Genevieve. St. Louis is the third oldest being formed in 1764. Cape is also the 17th largest city in Missouri. It is the economic center of Southeast Missouri.

Cape also sits 100 miles south of St. Louis and 150 miles west of Memphis. It is 100 miles from the Arkansas border.

I have a strong personal connection to the area through my natural father’s family.

Cape Girardeau has been a spot show town in American professional wrestling. The first office to run shows in Cape was the Mid-South Booking Office, the precursor to the Gulas-Welch Wrestling Office. Mike Meroney owned the promotion and served as referee.

Meroney ran the shows weekly from April to October 1934. No promotion ran the town again until the 1940s.

In December 1940, Tom Packs and the St. Louis Office booked a card that drew over a 1,143 fans to their first show. When they returned three weeks later, they drew 638 fans and stopped running shows in Cape.

In 1955, the St. Louis promotion returns but it is not Tom Packs’ promotion, which Packs sold to Lou Thesz in 1948. Thesz merged his promotion with Sam Muchnick’s at the end of 1949. Sam Muchnick promoted the Cape cards in 1955. They ran for one full year before the last card on December 12, 1955. SLWC promoted two cards a month and drew over 1,000 fans at least three times.

In 1965, Gulas-Welch Enterprises runs three shows at Cape in February and March.

In 1972, Phil Golden’s All Star Wrestling, an outlaw group, runs Cape for several months. It also runs nearby Sikeston. Golden’s group runs every few weeks from September 1972 to June 1973.

In 1980, another outlaw group, Angelo Poffo’s ICW, regularly runs monthly from June 1980 until June 1982. They have a one off ICW show, promoted by Jerry Jarrett, in 1985.

Review

Randy Savage versus Jerry Lawler from WWE Vault. It was a two match card with Leaping Lanny versus Paul Christie in the opening match.

ICW Television Show from 1981

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