The interesting fate of the Fred Kohler Enterprises and other DuMont Wrestling Tape Libraries

For those that do no know, Fred Kohler was a wrestling promoter that ran Chicago and pretty much TV for the NWA back in the 40s and 50s. Although he did not create the first Wrestling TV program (that goes to Wrestling from Hollywood) but he definitely took advantage of the media format. Fred Kohler had a deal with the Dumont Network and had them show Wrestling from Marigold in which showcased stars like Pat O'Connor, Verne Gagne, Dory Funk Sr., Lord James Blears, and the list goes on, and became to be one of the most important wrestling TV programs historically. Also from Chicago and maybe from Fred Kohler's promotion could be Wresting from Columbia Park Arena
Outside of Chicago DuMont also had other wrestling programs such as Wrestling From Jamaica Arena (out of New York City), Wrestling from Sunnyside Gardens ( also from new York).

So with four shows of wrestling, how come we don't see a whole lot of wrestling from the Dumont Network or from Fred Kohler Enterprises. Well it's because only 10 episodes still exist from all of wrestling from the Dumont Network and only 4 are labeled wrestling from Chicago (and no one is sure which episodes from the 4 are Wrestling from Marigold or Columbia Park). However there is some good news after Dumont's demise Wrestling from Marigold did continue on WGN so episodes after the Dumont era may survived. But to get back on tack, what happened to the library itself, was it lost in a fire, was it destroyed for the silver? Well no, according to a hearing conducted by the Library of Congress, the Dumont Wrestling library and the majority of the tape library from Dumont sat in a warehouse. Then it got bought by someone and the owner had the library dumped in the East River in New York City, or in the upper bay by Liberty Island. That's right it's under water, an entire Television Network's tape library gone, except stuff that was already in the collections of Dumont Networks stars Jackie Gleason and Dennis James. No excavation attempts have been made to recover or restore the tape library, so whatever is left of the libraries is still under water, waiting to be rescued.

Link to what happened to the Dumont Library
https://web.archive.org/web/20070927072638/http://www.loc.gov/film/hrng96la.html

My Brackett and other Predictions for the Crockett Cup

Ok with the bracket now officially shown, it's time to through out some predictions, but first a disclaimer. This is not how I think this is how the event should be booked (as in who should win or who should lose) I am not a booker or promoter, I am a wrestling fan and attempted journalist. Therefore I am analyzing this in kayfabe and how it makes sense to me in kayfabe.With that all being said, with my previous brackets I've made for the NFL playoffs, march madness, and the current NHL playoffs ended in disaster (and with my NHL bracket, probably going to be a disaster), I expect nothing less for my predictions to be completely wrong.

Anyway with the seeding so far we got The Briscoes vs. The Rock N Roll Express, both phenomenal teams. The Briscoes are a hard hitting take no prisoners, and just overall badasses and will leave a path of destruction against any team that they'll face, and the Rn'R Express are old time veterans and legends, that have competed in the Crockett Cup in the 80s. Granted despite being in their early 60s the Rock N Roll Express can still go, but can they beat the Briscoes. I personally don't think so, The Briscoes are a tough team to beat, even with younger teams, and i'm not sure if the Rn'R Express will be able to pull of a win since I do believe the brute force of the Briscoes will wear down the Rn'R Expresses' agility which one can predict has lessened with age. If the Rn'R Express do make it past the Briscoes by the skin of their teeth, I think they'd be too battered and beaten to get past the second round, I'd say that for any team that faced the Briscoes. However, like I said I predict that the Briscoes will win the first round.

Next match is Villain Enterprises vs Kojima and Nagata. I will say I do not know much about Brody King or Yugi Nagata. But I definitely have seen PCO in action and heard a lot of great things about Satoshi Kojima. Out of PCO and Kojima, Kojima looks to be the better and more successful wrestler, especially with all the titles he's aquired, but PCO has a few championships himself, especially in tag team wrestling being a 3 time winner of the WWF Tag team championship as one half of the Quebeccers. So i'd honestly would give it to PCO, due to his tag team accomplishments (and also his partner Brody King's accomplishments as well being a 1 time ROH tag team champion, with PCO), but Kojima has won several tag titles as well, and so has his partner Yugi Nagata, so I'm giving it to the team from Japan. They got more titles between them, they're in their prime still, and I don't see much of anything stopping them.

Third match is Flip Gordon and Bandido vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. and Stuka Jr. from CMLL.  CMLL is a really prestigious wrestling promotion and despite what the National Wrestling Alliance says, CMLL is actually the oldest still active wrestling promotion (founded in the 1930s as EMLL), so Guerrero Maya and Stuka Jr. are definitely going to be a tough team to beat since a company doesn't stay in business for that long by training a bunch of slouches, CMLL has the best luchadors in the business. However me being a fan of Flip Gordon, I believe that him and his partner Bandido can pull of the win. Both Flip and Bandido had runs in CMLL so they are aware of how well trained the wrestlers there are and knowing this, they will be well prepared for this match.

Last match in the first round will be the winner of the tag team battle royal vs the War Kings (former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jax Dane and his partner Crimson) who seem to be managed by Road Warrior Animal. If so the War Kings are probably going to be groomed as the second coming of the Road Warriors and man are they tough. on top of that the team they are facing is entering a battle royal so they are at a disadvantage unless the wild card team can get a quick victory in the battle royal. I really shouldn't be making a prediction (due to not knowing who's in the battle royal), but I'm going with the War Kings since the WIld Card is going to be at a disadvantage.

Ok with that being said We got the Second Round Match 1 of the Second round, I'm going with the Briscoes, because they are the younger team and possibly more well conditioned than Kojima and Nagata who are in their 40s and 50s. For Match 2 I'm going War Kings. For one the War Kings are managed or mentored by a previous Crockett Cup winner and also they are more physical than Flip and Bandido, due to having Jax Dane. Also with Crimson you also have agility in the mix as well so you got power and agility vs agility and agility and I believe the more variety will get the win.

Now the final, who will it be, will it be the Briscoes or will it be the War Kings. Normally i'd say the Briscoes, but ya know I think under Animal's leadership the War Kings are going the do it. Plus I need more than one upset here besides  Flip and Bandido beating the team from CMLL.

So There you have it my predictions and bracket. I can't wait to see it fall apart.

The Rock N' Roll Express To Compete At The Crockett Cup

Would have a pic of them in their prime,
but this is the only photo I found that allows for reuse

On April 6th 2019, Nick Aldis made a somewhat head scratching announcement on Busted Open Radio. The Rock N Roll Express are completing at the Crockett Cup. Granted Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson are WWE Hall of Famers, and even more so. They're definitely in the top 5 tag teams of all time, if not top 3 of all time, however they are up there in age. On paper it doesn't make much sense to book a tag team that consists of two men in their early 60s, but like Tim Storm (being in his 50s) if they can still go they can still go.  So I looked up a couple of their more recent matches, and well it looked like their glory days were behind them, and it seemed wrestling fans on the NWA's twitter questioned the decision like I did ( although many also supported the decision, it was a mixed bag).  With all of the negative comments like I sure hope they get a first round buy or the even worse comment, Will Medicare cover broken hips?, you can't blame people for questioning why they are in the tournament. Of course you can leave it to the Rock N' Roll Express to silence critics, by retweeting  a video of Ricky Morton hitting a Canadian destroyer with the comment the old man can still go. That being said I am super glad I made this post today and not yesterday since I'd be putting my foot in my mouth. That being said although I'm not so sure they would win the tournament, but they'll give a cocky young team a run for their money and could at least make it to the second round. Hell if the 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers can lose to the 2018 Oakland Raiders, anything is possible when you under estimate your opponent. Can't wait to see these guys silence the critics once again.

Who owns the USWA's Tape Library: A Wrestling Mystery

For those who don't know, the USWA was a wrestling promotion than from 1989-1997. It was formed when Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) had merged with Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) as an attempt to create a third national promotion to compete with Ted Turner's WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (Now World Wrestling Entertainment). During it's existence the USWA managed to unify the WCCW's Heavyweight title with the American Wrestling Association Heavyweight title, thus creating the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship, and also managed to have a talent exchange deal with the World Wrestling Federation in which the WWF would use the USWA to groom upcoming talent and the USWA could feature WWF starts like the Undertaker.

Still from USWA Championship Wrestling

 During it's lifespan the USWA went through many ownership changes. Fritz Von Erich pulled the WCCW out of the USWA, so therefore leaving Jerry Jarret soul ownership, and leaving the USWA with primarily the Memphis area. Jarrett then sold the company to the main star of the promotion Jerry "The King" Lawler who then sold the company to Larry Burton and Burton's financial backer Mark Selker. However, due to the USWA being unable to compete with WCW and the WWF, the USWA folded. Afterwards there was a lawsuit between Selker, Burton, and Lawler and this is where ownership of the library gets a tad fuzzy. Now Jerry Lawler has stated on his podcast that he owns the CWA tape library, but does not think he does with the USWA library, so it can be safe to assume he does not own it. Which leaves Larry Burton and Mark Selker. Selker at the very end backed out according to Lawler and sued Larry Burton for deceit and damages  (due to how quickly the USWA became defunct) and won. So the question is if Selker got the company and it's assets from that or was he was just financially compensated? Well from what I could dig up, it seems he was just compensated financially. This leaves Larry Burton who through this en devour let the USWA become defunct, and got sued in the process, one would think he would have the ownership of the footage, however that can not be confirmed since he himself if he did own the footage while buying the USWA, he could've sold it to someone. However there is still the factor that the TV station/studio that broadcasted USWA's TV probably owns the footage as well so further investigation would have to be done

With this all being said why should anyone care? Well the reason being it's a large part of wrestling history. Not only did the USWA showcase up and coming WWE wrestlers like Brian Christopher,

The USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship

Jeff Jarrett, Glen Jacobs (Kane), and many other, but the USWA had footage of legends outside the WWE like Eddie Gilbert, Bill Dundee, Danny Davis, Dutch Mantell, and the list goes on. Also a big  factor is the USWA is one of the few tape libraries that the WWE doesn't own or have the rights to use, so therefore an indie promotion could buy the USWA tape library and stream the footage as a source of revenue or even just buy the company totally and revive it, similar to how Billy Corgan revived the NWA (although the NWA was not completely defunct, it just had it's glory days way behind it). Regardless it's an interesting mystery and hopefully we can get answers soon.