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For many years, the Dallas territory was controlled by Fritz Von Erich, the owner of World Class Championship Wrestling. WCCW was an important member of the National Wrestling Alliance for a long time, including a sting by Fritz as President of the NWA, but they decided to break away in 1986 and they managed fairly well on their own for several years, but eventually a variety of problems (mainly a large drop in attendance) caused Fritz to sell World Class to Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett, the owners of the Memphis-based CWA. Lawler and Jarrett merged the two companies together to form the USWA, with the Memphis and Dallas branches mostly promoted independently of one another. However, Jarrett and Lawler couldn't build the Dallas territory back up to their satisfaction and the USWA pulled out of there as well, instead choosing to promote exclusively in the Memphis area.
With what had been a major territory now laying unoccupied by any promoter, former NWA announcer Joe Pedicino and former USWA Commissioner Max Andrews stepped in, taking over the territory and setting up shop in June of 1991 in the Dallas Sportatorium, which they renamed the Globaldome. The GWF falsely claimed to be a worldwide wrestling organization that had only recently decided to start promoting in the United States (strangely enough for a worldwide company, they decided to only run in Dallas). However, the talent they brought in for the first few months was a pretty good talent base to launch a promotion with. During the course of the summer of 1991, the GWF held tournaments to fill all of their titles, and these tournaments featured nationally recognized names such as Terry Gordy, Stan Lane (along with Jim Cornette), Bad News Brown, Austin Idol, Big Bully Busick, Adrian Street, Al Perez, and Axis the Demolisher (formerly Ax of Demolition in the WWF).
None of these national stars would win any of the titles in these tournaments, as the GWF chose instead to use the titles to push new, young talent. The Light Heavyweight Title was won by the Lightning Kid, a 19-year old prodigy out of Minnesota who would go on to great fame in both the WWF and WCW under such names as the 123 Kid, Syxx, and X-Pac. The Tag Team Title was won by Chris Walker and longtime Dallas mainstay Steve Simpson. Both the TV and North American Title tournaments were won by the Patriot, a future WCW World Tag Team Champion and top contender to the WWF World Title. After his impressive performance in both tournaments, it was obvious that this was the man around whom the GWF would build their promotion in its infancy.
The Patriot, a powerfully built, flag-waving, All-American hero was a solid enough choice to headline the company at a time when American pride was riding high following the Gulf War of 1991, but his title victories were not without controversy. He had defeated Al Perez in the finals of the North American tournament, but Perez's foot was on the ropes as the deciding fall was counted. The honorable Patriot decided that he couldn't accept a title victory in such a manner, and handed the North American Title back to GWF officials and offered Perez a rematch in the spirit of fair play. Patriot and Perez met again soon after in a rematch, and Perez was in control of the match when Eddie Gilbert, interfering on Perez's behalf, accidentally cost Perez the match. This time Patriot accepted the victory and the North American Title, having apparently not seen the replay of Gilbert's interference backfiring.
Now with Perez behind him, Patriot had other things looming on the horizon. For one, he was now both the North American and TV Champion, and was told by GWF officials that he couldn't hold both titles, so he gave up the TV Title to concentrate on being the #1 titleholder in the GWF. Things wouldn't get any easier for the man in red, white, and blue because as soon after he gave up the TV Title, a man appeared in a black body suit and mask with red stars and calling himself the Dark Patriot. The Dark Patriot claimed that he had come to Global not only for the North American Title, but also the Patriot's very soul.
The appearance of the Dark Patriot consumed the Patriot, and it seemed he could not escape the specter of his evil counterpart. Indeed, during the third fall of a 2 out of 3 falls title defense against Scott Anthony, Anthony suddenly attacked the referee and then he and the Dark Patriot attacked the Patriot, culminating with the Dark Patriot spraying something in Patriot's eyes and temporarily blinding him.
After several weeks, the Patriot had recovered enough to get back in the ring, and he ended up having to put up his North American Title just for an opportunity to get the Dark Patriot in the ring. The Patriot was in control of the match when commentator Bruce Prichard (whom you might remember as Brother Love in the WWF and had up to this point been playing a neutral announcer on TV) suddenly went nuts, launching an expletive-laced diatribe against the GWF and fellow announcer Craig Johnson. Prichard then went down to the ring and, as the referee lay unconscious from an errant blow, hit the Patriot with the North American Title belt, allowing the Dark Patriot to score the three count and win the North American Title.
To the dismay of the Dallas crowd, the Dark Patriot had won. The Patriot left the GWF following the loss, and would never return. The fans awaited the emergence of a hero who could take back the North American Title from the hated Dark Patriot.
Chaz, a popular young rookie from Los Angeles, did very well in the inaugural Light Heavyweight Title Tournament. Although he didn't win the tournament, his performance was good enough to earn him a title shot several weeks later. He defeated the Lightning Kid for the LHW Title, but lost it back two days later. While he remained in contention for the LHW Title, he was also part of a popular tag team with Terry Garvin, with the pair splitting matches with Mike and Tom Davis, otherwise known as the Dirty Davis Brothers. They had a third match to settle the series, but the Davis Bros were not interested in winning matches this time around. As they beat down Garvin and taped him to the ropes, the Lightning Kid came down to the ring and handed wads of cash to the Davis Brothers. The Lightning Kid laughed as his hired goons viciously attacked Chaz's knee in an attempt to put him on the shelf for good and ruin any chance of him ever challenging the Kid for his title again. As Mike and Tom attempted to cripple Chaz, Tug Taylor, a 300 pound Texas mainstay came down to the ring and, after accepting a wad of cash from the Kid, went up to the top rope, presumably to come down Chaz's knee and put him out of commission once and for all. Instead, Tug delivered a double clothesline to the Davis Brothers, sending all three of the evil conspirators packing.
In an interview soon after, the previously heel Taylor admitted that Chaz was in fact his son, and that he had been keeping an eye on him since he entered the GWF to make sure nobody messed with him. Although he was happy to step back and let Chaz handle his own matters, the time had come when his son had needed him, and he came out to help the younger Taylor in his time of need. Tug Taylor and Terry Garvin teamed up while Chaz was on the shelf, and had several matches against the Davis Brothers, but none conclusively ended the feud. Finally, it was decided that a cage match was needed to settle the score. The Lightning Kid attempted to distract Tug and Garvin by attacking Chaz outside the cage, but Tug and Garvin pulled out the win regardless.
The Davis Bros might have thought that they were done with the Taylor family, but they were mistaken. Tom Davis was set to meet an unknown masked wrestler shortly after the cage match, when the wrestler unmasked and revealed himself to be Chaz, who had finally recovered from the knee injury they had inflicted upon him. Chaz cleaned house on both Mike and Tom and sent them scurrying to the back, but it wasn't enough for a man who had spent weeks on the shelf because of a vicious, premeditated attempt to end his career. It was clear that the GWF was not big enough for all these men, and someone was going to have to go. Chaz decided that since the Davis Brothers had tried to end his career, he was going to do the same to one of them, and met Mike Davis in a match where whoever won would get to pick somebody from the other family to be banished from the GWF forever. Despite threats by Mike that he was going to send Chaz's father packing, Chaz won the match and chose Mike's brother Tom to leave the GWF.
With Tom Davis banished, Mike decided that he didn't want to face Garvin and the Taylors by himself, and also left shortly thereafter. As for the guy who instigated the whole thing, the Lightning Kid, he was not long for the GWF either. After months of instigating trouble everywhere he went, he lost the LHW Title in a 2 out of 3 falls match to the man he had scored a tainted victory over in the initial tournament finals, Jerry Lynn, and left the GWF as well.
In a territory that had long been terrorized by a legendary heel faction known as Devastation, Inc, it was only natural that any company that ran Dallas needed a major heel faction to keep the babyfaces on their toes, and the first heel faction to try and step up and claim that mantle was the Cartel. Led by the mysterious Boss, who nobody outside the Cartel knew the identity of, the group consisted of Mahkan Singh (the former Norman and future Bastion Booger), "The Hustler" Rip Rogers, a young Cactus Jack, and "The Palm Beach Heartthrob" Scott Anthony, who would later be known as Johnny Polo and, still later, Raven. They did well in the tournaments, including all four members making the three-team finals of the Tag Team Tournament.
However, the tournaments would more or less be the end of the Cartel as a group, as only Scott Anthony hung around after the summer of 1991. However, The Boss was still in the picture, and Anthony would speak of him constantly. Now that he was on his own, Anthony's first target was the Handsome Stranger, a well-built young man with a Lone Ranger mask who was a favorite of the female fans in the audience, whom he would give roses to on his way to the ring for his matches. Scott Anthony, disgusted with his classy demeanor and popularity with the ladies, set his sights on the masked man from Monte Carlo almost as soon as he debuted. Anthony made his first strike by dressing as a woman and hiding in the crowd at the Globaldome, launching a surprise attack on the Stranger as he made his way to the ring for a match and leaving laying in a heap.
The next conflict between the two came at the second TV Title Tournament that was held to fill the vacancy created when The Patriot gave up the title. At the beginning of the night, Joe Pedicino and Commissioner Max Andrews drew the six names that would be entered in the tournament, and the Handsome Stranger was among them. Not among them was Scott Anthony, but Anthony came out and asked "Max" (whom he appeared to be on a first name basis with) to enter him in the tournament since he had beaten up the Stranger and apparently chased him out of town and straight to WCW where he began wrestling under his real name, Marcus Alexander Bagwell. To the shock of Pedicino, Andrews agreed and Anthony was entered into the tournament.
It was not to be, because as Anthony made his way to the ring for his opening round match, the Handsome Stranger made his return, chasing off Scott Anthony and taking his rightful place in the tournament. The Stranger made his way to the finals of the tournament, finding himself up against Eddie Gilbert. Although the Handsome Stranger dominated the match and appeared close to putting Gilbert away, the referee got knocked out and was unable to count the Stranger's pin on Gilbert. The match continued, and when both Gilbert and the Stranger wound up unconscious after a double knockout and Anthony jumped at the opportunity to even the score with the Stranger, climbing into the ring and planting knucks in the Stranger's tights. The referee finally revived, and found the knucks on the Stranger. Seeing Gilbert knocked out, the referee had no choice but to disqualify the Handsome Stranger and award the vacant TV Title to Eddie Gilbert.
The Handsome Stranger left the GWF following the tournament (heading to WCW, where he would gain fame under his real name of Marcus Bagwell), but Anthony's celebration would be short lived. Shortly after the tournament, Joe Pedicino came out to the interview set with a tape recorder and interrupted an interview with Anthony, claiming that he had learned who the Boss was. The next week, he played the tape and revealed The Boss to be none other than GWF Commissioner Max Andrews. It all made sense now, as Anthony had been referring to him as "Max" and alluding to some sort of personal relationship the two shared.
Although Max Andrews would eventually retain his position as commissioner, saying that he had gone undercover in the Cartel to cut the legs out from under them before they had a chance to get off the ground, Scott Anthony stuck around and continued to cause havoc in the GWF. Worse, now he had a very valuable ally in TV Champion Eddie Gilbert, and time would tell what sort of trouble the pair would cause.
Skandar Akbar, who had spent many years terrorizing the Dallas territory as the head of Devastation, Inc, returned to the scene in late 1991. Instead of reforming Devastation, Inc, he instead simply took a seat at ringside during a tag match pitting Gary Young and Jeff Gaylord against John Tatum and Rod Price, all former charges of his. He soon made his allegiance known when he interfered and helped Tatum and Price beat Young and Gaylord. Young did not appreciate his former manager's treachery, and went to war with the Coast To Coast Connection, as Tatum and Price now called themselves. Young painted a target on himself when he accidentally injured Price's knee in a subsequent singles match, and in an attempt to get revenge, Price, Tatum, and Sweet Daddy Falcone (who had later joined the Connection) attacked Young during a match against Wild Bill Irwin. Tatum and Falcone beat Young down and held him for Irwin, expecting that he would help his fellow heels in the attack. Instead, Irwin turned his bullwhip against the Connection and ran them off.
Irwin would continue to be a thorn in the Connection's side in the coming weeks, and the Connection attempted to put Irwin out of commission (since that's what heel groups do in Texas), but Irwin had put together a group of his own with Black Bart and Rattlesnake Raitz, and they came to be known as the Wild Bunch. Now that the numbers were a little more even, Irwin was determined to take out the Coast To Coast Connection, and the two sides battled constantly. A six man tag was signed to settle things, but that match ended in a double disqualification when the referee lost control of the match. Nothing had been settled, and the two groups would continue to interfere in each other's matches and get into big brawls seemingly every time they were in the same building. In another attempt to settle the feud, a Russian Roulette series of singles matches were signed, with $10,000 going to the winning side. Irwin beat Falcone to take the Wild Bunch ahead 1-0, but then Tatum beat the Rattlesnake and Price scored a cheap countout win over Black Bart due to the interference of Akbar to win the series. But winning the series wasn't enough for the Connection. They dragged Bart back in the ring, beat him down, and shaved his beard off, an act that is acceptable in Texas state courts as legitimate grounds for death.
This was too much of an indignity for the Wild Bunch, and they challenged the Connection to a 2 out of 3 falls six man match, and they'd put up another $10,000 against the money the Connection had just won, winner take all. The Wild Bunch won the match and got all the money, seemingly ending the conflict between the two groups. However, the Wild Bunch were drawn back by the promise of championship gold, as Tatum and Price had defeated Steve Simpson 2-on-1 for the Tag Team Title when Simpson's partner Chris Walker no-showed. Irwin and Bart got the title match and, despite gratuitous cheating on the Connection's part, the Wild Bunch defeated them for the GWF Tag Team Title to close out the year. The Connection had been defeated by the Wild Bunch, but would soon regroup and come back to try and regain their lost title.
As we saw earlier, "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert came to the GWF and almost immediately made a nuisance of himself, getting involved in the rematch between the Patriot and Al Perez for the North American Title and accidentally costing Perez the match. Because the Patriot retained the North American Title, he had to give up the TV Title because the GWF would not allow him to hold both titles simultaneously. Ironically (or perhaps by design), Gilbert would benefit from this situation by winning the tournament for the now vacant TV Title, albeit due to interference from Scott Anthony.
Regardless of his methods, Eddie Gilbert was now the GWF Television Champion, and in one of his first matches after winning the TV Title, he faced Terry Garvin in a non-title match. Garvin, fresh off helping the Taylors win their feud against the Davis Brothers, pinned Gilbert cleanly in under five minutes. Gilbert was in shock at the loss, and would now be forced to face Garvin in a title match, but he was able to escape the second match with his title intact when he used brass knucks to knock Garvin out.
Garvin was given another shot at the title and this time not only the referee, but also three fans would search Gilbert for any weapons he had brought to the ring with him. Each of them found a foreign object on Gilbert, and the now seemingly unarmed Gilbert was sent into the ring to defend the title against Garvin. However, Rule #7 of the Official Texas Wrestling Laws Of Physics states that no matter the situation, the heel always has a weapon stashed somewhere, so of course Gilbert still had one trick up his sleeve. As Garvin again seemed ready to take the TV Title from Gilbert, Gilbert threw a fireball at Garvin and rolled him up to again retain the TV Title.
Yet another match was signed between Gilbert and Garvin, this time with the stipulation that there would be no disqualifications or countouts, so instead this one ended in a countout. The issue between Gilbert and Garvin was far from settled: Garvin had proven that he could beat Gilbert, but was unable to do so with the title on the line. Gilbert had made it through the end of the year with the TV Title around his waist, but he would face Garvin again in 1992, and it remained to be seen whether he'd be able to hang onto the title much longer.
The GWF had had a terrific first year with lots of great storylines and angles, hot feuds, and good matches. But would they be able to keep the momentum going in 1992? As with the end of any year, the events that closed out 1991 would bring other new questions.
The Dark Patriot had succeeded in running the Patriot out of the GWF forever, and was now the reigning North American Champion. Would anybody be able to unseat him in the new year? Speaking of champions, Eddie Gilbert had weaseled his way into the TV Championship, and was willing to do anything to sneak out every night with the title still around his waist. Although he had been able to hold off the challenges of Terry Garvin, would his luck run out in 1992?
The father and son team of Chaz & Tug Taylor had won the family feud against Mike & Tom Davis and driven them from the GWF. What was next for the Taylors? Would Chaz attempt to regain the Light Heavyweight Title from new champion Jerry Lynn? Or perhaps he and his father would challenge GWF Tag Team Champions the Wild Bunch? Or would the Wild Bunch first be faced with another challenge from the Coast To Coast Connection?
I'll be back on Friday as we answer all these questions and more, as we look back at the GWF in 1992!
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