On today’s DragonKingKarl, our Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame candidate discussion moves to “Bullet” Bob Armstrong.
Armstrong (and family) was among my favorites growing up, the hometown hero of my regional wrestling promotion, Southeastern Championship Wrestling, and later as “The Bullet” in Continental. Does he belong in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame?
Plus, I have a discussion of both 1934 at Madison Square Garden where Jim Londos finally got his title back from “Pig Farmer” Jim Browning and more 1990s Tokyo Dome.
This week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling show features a look back at a weird time in the fall of 1985 where Southeastern/Continental Wrestling took over Memphis for a few weeks.
This included Mr. Olympia (Jerry Stubbs) coming in as a fake Masked Superstar, Scott and Steve Armstrong, Mongolian Stomper, Mr. Class (Ken Timbs), The Heavenly Bodies (no, not the real ones), and more.
A look at the life and wrestling career of Bob Armstrong is the lead in this week’s double issue of the Observer. We go through what made him a star, his appeal in the Southeast, his role in the famed Atlanta promotion war, what his booking by Bill Watts in Florida inspired more than a decade later, the Roddy Piper feud, the numbers Georgia wrestling did on cable, his success in different territories and his authority roles later in his career.
Also in this issue:
Thunderdome, what hit, what missed, what audience came back for it, what has been learned so far, the sweetheart business deal, the Payback card and booking, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Television situation changing for Bellator and what that means, including the unique nature of their ownership that explains why it was purchased in the first place.
Karrion Kross injury and Tuesday’s NXT show to fill the title vacancy.
A look back at the first NXT Takeover and at the 30th show, with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results.
New Japan’s first major outdoor stadium show in 21 years, the last non-Tokyo Dome stadium show before this, what Jingu Stadium is most known for historically, an show preview and a look at this past week’s Korakuen Hall show.
The economics of WWE, the Sonya Deville court hearing, return to action of the U.K. crew and plans, Renee Young talks her time in WWE, Big E/Miz talk, WWE new hires, Orton and Flair talk their angle, how wrestling did compared to other sports this past week, Canadian & U.K. ratings, rewriting of Raw this past week, most watched shows on WWE network this past week and company current market value.
Saturday’s UFC show with business notes and match-by-match coverage.
Return of CMLL, its plans for this year’s anniversary show and how the voting for specific matches is doing.
Television viewers per home for the biggest sports events of the past week and how wrestling fits in.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Payback and taking questions. you can send to [email protected]
The funeral of Joseph James aka Bob Armstrong will be this coming Saturday at the Cornerstone Christian Church at 14047 S. Albama St., Jay, FL 32565. There will be a viewing at 1 p.m. and the service is at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family would like people to send donations to the American Cancer Society and use the name Bob Armstrong.
WWE Payback is tonight at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on the WWE Network. We’ve got polls for the weekend for both this show and for yesterday’s NJPW show at Jingu Stadium, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to [email protected] Odds listed here are from Kambi or 5Dimes through WWELeaks.org
Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan vs. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce – This is the preshow match. Just there. Nothing major to it. Riott & Morgan are -350 favorites.
Big E vs. Sheamus – Big E pretty much has to win because this is the beginning of the Big E singles push. Should be a good match as well. E is a -500 favorite
Matt Riddle vs. King Corbin – Similarly, this is more a test to see what kind of a match Riddle can get out of Corbin, but Riddle should win. He’s listed as a -275 favorite
Apollo Crews vs. Bobby Lashley for the U.S. title – Lashley is a -390 favorite here. Lashley has been heavily protected since the loss to Drew McIntyre, so him getting pinned here would be a surprise unless it leads to a split with MVP on a screw-up finish. And it’s WAY too early to do that one.
Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy – This should be a very good match and give all the lumps the Mysterios have been taking in the program, they are the favorites to win at -290
Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax for women’s tag titles. This is a weird match. Both teams have had teases of not getting along. Then again, almost every team in WWE is being booked that way. Baszler & Jax are -140 favorites which means the split would be coming sooner than later.
Keith Lee vs. Randy Orton – This is the most interesting match on the show, only because no match means more to anyone on the show than this match means to Lee. Him losing this early makes no sense, especially after the lackluster debut. But Orton is being groomed for McIntyre, and he is the -140 favorite. Lee doesn’t have to win to get over, but he does need to do a lot of impressive things, win or lose. I’ve laid out why I think Lee should win, and it makes sense, and WWE will sometimes book this way, but time will tell.
Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns no holds barred for Universal title – To me, the first match with Reigns with Paul Heyman and he needs to win. Reigns is now the -200 favorite with Strowman +4,000 and Wyatt +100. I think either way, the big favorite is Strowman loses the fall.
Kambi has star ratings betting although the only numbers I’ve seen are Big E vs. Sheamus at over/under *** and the Riot Squad vs. Iiconics at over/under *3/4
Regarding Google searches for this past week, nothing from either boxing or wrestling cracked the top 20 all week. Yesterday’s UFC show did 200,000 which is more than I expected. The show itself did 100,000 while Robbie Lawler was the 18th most searched topic yesterday at 50,000 and Anthony Smith was No. 19, also at 50,000.
The new issue will have all the breakdowns in all the demos for the shows the past week. It was dominated in particular by the strong showing of Raw. AEW’s best growth segments Thursday were Young Bucks vs. Best Friends, Best Friends vs. FTR and the Jon Moxley/MJF contract signing based on data we have. The minute-by-minute data is not in yet.
AEW tickets for Saturday’s All Out sold out in five minutes, which is more a factor of only having just over 500 seats to sell. It is now the highest get-in price on the secondary market of any pro wrestling show in history, but that’s a function of only 12 secondary market tickets being available and isn’t far to compare that with a normal show with 12,000 tickets and anywhere from 1,500 to (for big WWE shows like Mama) where you can have 30,000 or more tickets bought by scalpers.
However, at this point there were still 247 tickets left for Wednesday’s tapings.,
Two fights scheduled for this coming Saturday’s UFC show are off due to COVID related reasons. Nicco Montano vs. Julia Avila, first scheduled for 8/18 but moved to 9/5 because one of Montano’s corner tested positive, is being moved again to 10/3 because Montano tested positive. Ricky Simon vs. Brian Kelleher is also off because one of Simon’s corner tested positive. No makeup date has been announced.
WWE
The WWE Network is adding the Spanish and German language commentary for a number of PPV shows from 1995 to 2015.
The Cambridge University paper has a piece on Drew McIntyre.
UFC
Mikey Gall is scheduled to face Miguel Baeza on the 9/19 show.
Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contenders lineup at 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+:
Dennis Buzukja vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan – featherweights
Jimmy Flick vs. Nate Smith – flyweights
Jose Johnson vs,. Ronnie Lawrence – bantamweights
William Knight vs; Cody Brundag – light heavyweights
Tucker Lutz vs.; Chase Gibson – lightweights
AEW
Pentagon Jr. is now going as Penta Cero Miedo for marketing reasons.
As was written about a few weeks ago in the newsletter, but is now official, the All Out Countdown show will air at 5:30 p.m. on 9/5, one hour before the Buy Out match starts.
MISCELLANEOUS
Warrior Wrestling will be doing shows on 9/5, 9/12 and 9/19 at the Marian Catholic High School football field. These shows are loaded with some of the best indie talent working in the U.S.
PWP from Thursday night in Omaha: Con Artiest b Duke Cornell, Omar Pacheco b Xander McIntosh, Logan Ocean b K-Dos, Branden Juarez & Seto Kobara & Tim Boston b Brett Bishop & Paul Daniels & Joey Daniels, Lars Metzger b Ryan Monroe, Branden Juarez won gauntlet rumble, Pat Powers b Tony Cortez. Next show is 9/18 at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha.
CW from last night in Adelaide, Australia: Anti-Virus b Lil Onyxxx, Nick Armstrong & Tony Toro b Mike Boomer & Zak Sabbath, Redshaw b Tyler Daniels, Brandon Black & Cadie Tre b Dean Brady in a handicap match, Havok b Adam Brooks (Brooks first match in Australia since February), Izzy Shaw b Miki Fortune, Chris Basso & Matt Hayter b Eli Theseus & Gabriel Aeros in keep the tag titles, Rocky Menero b Jett Armstrong to keep RCW title (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
KSW results from yesterday in Warsaw, Poland:
Mateusz (17-0) retained the lightweight title over Marian Ziolkowski (21-8-1) on 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46 scores
Iza Ugonoh (1-0) b Quentin Domingos (5-2) via TKO due to injury at 2:22 of round one
Michael Kita (20-11-1) b Michal Andryszak (21-9) via knockout at 2:59 of round one
Maciej Kazieczko (7-1) b Karlo Caput (8-2) via ref stoppage from punches 4:30 of round three
Pawel Polityio (5-2) b Bogdan Barbu (16-12) via straight 29-27 scores
Lukasz Rajewski (10-6) b Bartlomiej Kopear (9-6 via split decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 , 28-29
Sebastian Rajewski (9-5) b Armen Sepanyan (6-4) via decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-25
Bob Armstrong, one of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling throughout Georgia, Alabama, the Florida Gulf Coast and Tennessee, passed away on 8/27 at the age of 80.
He had been suffering from prostate cancer and it had spread to his bones. He had decided against treatment and it was known for some time that the cancer was terminal. His wife, Vida Gail James had passed away on 6/28. The two had been married about 60 years.
A perennial babyface with the gift of gab and an understanding of timing and firing up in the ring, Armstrong epitomized the type of babyface that was more your badass bar fighting neighbor than a larger-than-life superstar. He first got over as “The Fighting Fireman from Marietta, GA,” and as a former marine who learned martial arts and was a specialist in hand-to-hand fighting.
“Bullet” Bob Armstrong, the leader of the famed Armstrong wrestling family, has passed away at the age of 80.
The news was first announced by his son, Scott, on Twitter Thursday night. In March, Scott tweeted that his dad came over for a workout despite bone cancer in his ribs, shoulder and prostate — all of which he refused treatment for.
His wife, Vida Gail, died in late-June.
The U.S. Marine born Joseph James began his career in 1960 in Georgia and became an NWA mainstay in the southeastern U.S. before retiring in 1988. He would return to wrestling sporadically from 1992 through 2019, appearing for Smokey Mountain Wrestling, WCW, and TNA/Impact Wrestling as well as various indies. Incredibly, the Georgia-born powerhouse wrestled his last match in 2019, wrapping a career that spanned six decades.
All four of his sons also got into the business in lengthy careers. Brian gained fame as the Road Dogg in WWF/E and still works for the company; Brad (Robert) was a standout for both NWA and WCW, passing away in 2012; Steve wrestled for more than 10 years for several top organizations; and Joseph (known as Scott) has been in the business since 1983 for several top organizations including WWE.
Bob held a litany of titles in Mid-South, Southeastern Championship Wrestling, and various other NWA affiliates. He was named to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Southeastern Championship Wrestling was built around the feud between “The Stud” Ron Fuller and “The Bullet” Bob Armstrong.
In late 1982, both men were babyfaces until Armstrong shocked everyone and turned heel, something few thought he could pull off. But, he did and it was incredible. What happened next is wrestling booking at its finest as Armstrong wants to be good again…but Ron’s not so sure.
Enjoy this look at the rivalry and storyline between “The Bullet” and “The Stud” on this episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show.
Many people mistakenly believe that the “Tennessee Stud” was Robert Fuller (AKA: Col. Rob Parker) since Robert and his cousin Jimmy Golden were active during the cable TV era and the end of the territories.
Together Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden were known as The Stud’s Stable but the original Stud’s Stable had actually existed long before. The first version of the stable was managed by Ron Fuller and included people like Arn Anderson, Lord Humongous, and others.
The original Tennessee Stud was the 6’9″ older brother Ron Fuller.
Fuller was a businessman who bought out territories and ran a huge geographic area from the Ohio River to the Gulf Coast. He owned the Nashville hockey team and made it successful in a region of the country where hockey had no foothold.
He wrestled multiple NWA world champions for the title and was a member of the NWA Board of Directors.
So why have so few people heard about Ron Fuller? In today’s show we will look at the man who could look Andre the Giant in the eyes, the Tennessee Stud Ron Fuller.
Time is running out to order a Super Stern Stick 16gb Flashdrive. The flashdrive is full of pro wrestling history audio series, audio files, pdf and text files, newsletters, and much more. Over 500 podcasts dealing with pro wrestling history and over 500 readable files. You can order it at this link.
“Bullet” Bob Armstrong was the perfect babyface character for his era.
Back in a time when people still believed in babyfaces and hated heels, “Bullet” Bob was a firefighter and former Marine from Marietta, Georgia. He spoke like others spoke, and he acted like you would expect him to act. He had a code of honor. In today’s cynical world, it’s hard to releate to a character like Armstrong, but in the 1960s through the early 1990s, it wasn’t that way.
As great of a babyface as Armstrong was, he was an even better heel. Though his heel run was short and, by his own admission, he did not like being a heel, he was honestly one of the best heels I ever saw.
On the latest entry into the Classic July Wrestling marathon, we will talk about a man who fathered another generation of wrestlers after him: Scott Armstrong (still a WWE referee to this day), Brad Armstrong (one of the best in ring wrestlers of his day), Steve Armstrong, and Brian “Road Dogg” James (a WWE agent today). Enjoy Karl Stern’s look at the career of “Bullet” Bob Armstrong!
Super Stern Stick flash drives are still available through this month only. Order now!
