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Beginnings of Motor City Wrestling; Detroit's bloody territory
Topic Started: Sep 4 2016, 04:41 PM (101 Views)
dalbellorage
Carl Brutananadilewski
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Hey guys, so I worked up this territory in my head and now I'm putting it out there for you to read and flesh out with some of the more historic guys coming in for runs, etc. Please feel free to shoot me your ideas and input.

Thanks
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Motor City Wrestling ran out of Detroit and promoted east to Montreal, Canada, north to Thunder Bay, Canada, west to Green Bay, Wisconsin and south to Cincinnati, Ohio. MCW captured the feel of Detroit: roughneck, unpolished, violent. Noble would delight in bringing in men who thought they were tough and pretty boys from the West coast, snobs from the East coast and having them wrestle under the local style. The matches were wars of attrition, going twenty to thirty minutes at a time. They were fought with lax disqualification rules. You had to be tough to survive and those who weren’t tough enough didn’t last. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Noble paid his talent well, drawing touring wrestlers to go up against the local acts. To say blood wasn’t uncommon was to say the sky was above your head. It didn’t need to be said.

The 60s

The promotion centred around Jock Bunch in the 60s, a working class hero. Known for his crushing bearhug, Bunch was a fan favourite known for submitting California guys like Calvin Clarke and New York guys like Johnny Gagliano. MCW storylines in that era would involve these coastal invaders coming in for a few months and beating some of the upper mid card heroes like Roger Crabbe and “Sweet Soul” Gordy Hamilton before taking off and proclaiming that the Motor City wasn’t so tough. Then on a return tour they would take on Bunch and he would submit them all with the bear hug. The formula was red hot for years as the Motor City crowds were vindicated and the outsiders were vanquished.

Motor City Wrestling also did some edgier matches in the late 60s as the Civil Rights movement heated up. “Sweet Soul” Gordy Hamilton was featured in a feud against “Bone Saw” Jake Rich where Rich promised to make Hamilton his “boy” like in old times. Rich would rile up the diverse Motor City crowds with his promises to bring back decency to the ring and the world. “Sweet Soul” would respond by saying that the world was a different place and everybody could stand together. The feud lasted years as they would clash, separate and clash again, never getting a definitive winner until Hamilton and Rich sold out house shows with a series of violent cage matches in the wake of the Detroit riots. The matches would see Hamilton beat Rich with a sleeper hold and “Sweet Soul” would sing with a choir at the end of the matches.

Trailblazer Roosevelt would visit the territory during the period, bringing with him some wrestlers from Japan. Roosevelt Wright and his technical wrestling style were big draws during that period as Wright would stretch out a number of good ol' boy wrestlers. He also wrestled some Japanese and Mexican workers to introduce the audience to an international style that attracted more world wide wrestlers to the territory.

Kitao and Goto also worked tag team matches in the promotion. The invaders from Japan and Golden Gate wrestling ran roughsod over the MCW tag-teams, recreating their invader match formula from Golden Gate wrestling until they again lost a loser leaves town match to Jock Bunch and Roger Crabbe.

The 70s

Top hand, Roger Crabbe, retired after a vicious match with newcomer to the territory Bull Busiek. Busiek was a monster of a man who vowed to crush everybody under his heel. He possessed a devastating Piston Punch, a right hook to the temple. After working his way through the undercards Busiek clashed with Crabbe. A series of vicious matches went to time limit draws and Busiek vowed to end Crabbe once and for all. In a towel match, Crabbe faced Busiek with still champion Bunch as his second. Busiek brought as his second a Wildman from Canada known as Adrian Rage.

The match was a slugfest, each man pummeling the other and the blood ran freely. Rage proved to be a Wildman on the outside, liberally inserting himself into the match and even burning his towel so it was impossible to throw in. At one point rage jumped in the ring and caved in Crabbe’s knee with a dropkick that allowed Busiek to pin Crabbe in the corner and unleash Piston punch after Piston punch after Piston punch. In an infamous Detroit moment, Bunch had no choice but throw in the towel as Crabbe collapsed in convulsions under a double team attack from Busiek and Rage. The arena rioted.

A championship match was set up between Bunch and Busiek. The crowd was ready for the Bunch formula of a long, hard fought match and Bunch winning with the bearhug. They were robbed as Rage used ether on Bunch outside the ring to dizzy him and set him up for the Piston Punch from Busiek. The long championship of Bunch ended quickly and with chicanery, a first for MCW. The MCW crowd was white hot in outrage.

The rematches were sold out as Bunch tried to regain the title and Busiek became more and more dominant, stopping Bunch with the Piston Punch repeatedly in a move that sent Bunch out of the main event. He would maintain a presence as a foil for incoming Russian heel Ivan Povlochev, but his top of the card days were done. Povlochev would often go over Bunch and Busiek’s beatings were to blame.

The 70s featured many wild brawls between Adrian Rage and “Sweet Soul” Gordy Hamilton as Rage’s more militant schtick didn’t jibe with Hamilton’s all together gimmick. Rage would savage Hamilton repeatedly in matches considered too violent for even MCW. Hamilton would often win via disqualification but end up a bloody, beaten mess for it. MCW got a TV deal but part of the requirement was that no Rage matches would be shown. Rage would sometimes show up on TV and beat up a wrestler, challenging him to a match and demanding TV time but those matches were held on the circuit.

Big Chick O’Connor and “Big Steel” Paul Anderson also came in to represent the MCW brand against Povlochev, “Playboy” Richie Lee and Rage as they tried to work their way up to recapturing the Heavyweight title from Busiek. The two big powerhouses were strong success around the horn as they chased Busiek. Anderson got made the night that Busiek landed the Piston Punch and he no sold it, laughing and tapping his “Big Steel” jaw. Busiek would turn cowardly heel against Anderson until he was trapped in a lumberjack match and before a record crowd lost the championshop to Anderson after eating a Piston Punch of his own and finally tasting his own medicine.


The 80s

As Detroit faced a crisis from foreign car companies, MCW mirrored that challenge in its programming. This was the era of the foreign heel as MCW imported Japanese wrestlers under obvious monikers like Kensuke Honda and Toyota Matahashi. The dastardly duo, backed up by third heel, Russian Ivan Povlochev ran roughshod over the holdover 70s faces like O’Connor and a still hanging on Jock Bunch. Toyota Matahashi beat Anderson for the title with salt to the eyes and things looked grim for MCW as he arrogantly destroyed the title belt and brought one in “made in Japan” that was supposedly better quality but less expensive.

Bunch would try to rally against this foreign threat but he was taken out and forced to retire when he was sneak attacked by Adrian Rage who hit him with the edge of a chair to the back of the head. Rage then tore apart the old man’s knee with a hold called the Constrictor, a kataha jime choke and step over knee lock. Rage was summarily fired for the act and without Bunch to rally a new crop, the foreigners ran roughshod longer while the promotion scrambled to find a new face.

Rage would be rehired and fired several times as he was brought in as an attraction but he was more and more erratic in the ring as his personal demons got in the way. He would take too many liberties with opponents and his matches were literally bloody messes. After seriously injuring another up and comer in Marcus Wallace with the Constrictor, Rage was ultimately blackballed.

MCW finally decided on a duo wrestlers to take over the mantle of MCW, local boys Mike Regan and Darnell Johnson, were tabbed to as a salt and pepper dup that would prove America’s greatness against the foreign heels. First the duo known as “Made in America” teamed up against Honda and Povlochev in a series of tag matches that saw Matahashi interfere to cost the young duo. Finally, Matahashi was barred from ringside and the stipulation was made in a major TV match that whoever got the pinfall in a tag team rematch would face Matahashi for the title.

In the big match Johnson pinned Honda to win the match and the shot. In an America versus Japan match, the white hot crowd saw Johnson fall to Matahashi after Matahashi’s new manager, Yamamoto, hit him with a kendo stick. Mike Regan stepped up to defend his partner and Matahashi challenged him to a match right there. In a bonus match the fans were sent home happy as Regan pinned Matahashi after Yamamoto accidentally hit his man with the kendo stick.

The remainder of the 80s saw MCW follow a formula of bringing in a big foreign heel to be fed to Regan, with the exception of a period in the mid 80s when star wrestler Hamilton Graham invaded the territory and challenged Regan to see who the realest man in the mid west was. A series of violent matches between the two concluded with no conclusive winner except the fans who flocked to arenas to see the matches.

The 90s

With the economy in recession, MCW was forced to shut its doors as it could no longer draw large houses and afford the salaries commanded by its talent. Noble, still a great man at heart and now a very old man, too, brokered deals for his talent with the proliferation of federations that were coming up around the world. Detroit’s homebase of wrestling went dark, but the heart and soul of MCW remains in their memory.
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