For those who were alive in November of 1963, what they were doing when they heard the news of JFK's assassination is imprinted in their memories. Indeed, that historical event seems as the dividing point in the second half of the 20^th century. This article will take a snapshot of the Gulas wrestling world at that time. 

In November 1963, the great Lou Thesz was in the first year of his last run as the NWA world heavyweight champion. He would hold the title until dropping it to Gene Kiniski in 1966. The Memphis Mid-South Coliseum, home to wrestling in Memphis from the glory days of the early 1970's to the fizzle of the USWA in 1996, was in construction in the fall of 1963. The cost was 4.6 million dollars.  

The promotion team at that time was Nick Gulas, Roy Welch, and John Regus. Wrestling was held every Monday night at The Ellis Auditorium in downtown Memphis . The local TV show was on channel 13, Saturdays at 4:00 , with Lance Russell calling the action. They were 3 years into a fabulous 17 year run at WHBQ, where every Saturday a live audience and thousands of locals would watch the grudges unfold on live TV. Keep in mind at this time, announcing legend and weatherman Dave Brown hadn't yet joined the team.  

The Imperial Tojo Yammamoto was the area's top and most consistent heel at this point. Even 20 years after World War II, Tojo was still enraging fans all over the territory as the evil Japanese grappler. In November of '63, Tojo had teamed with the Russian Ivan Malenkov. Their heel tag team was in a long feud with regional legends Tex Riley and Len Rossi. 

In addition to Tojo, the Gulas promotion's other two most prominent stars of this timeframe were The Fabulous Jackie Fargo, and The Diamond Ring and Cadillac Man himself, Sputnik Monroe. Fargo and Monroe were in and out of Memphis cards in November, no doubt working other cities in the territory when they weren't in Memphis . But Yammamoto and Malenkov were constants at The Ellis Auditorium every week. 

Also working the Memphis cards at this time were: Sam Steamboat,  Karl and Skull Von Strohiem, Rocky Montero, Chris Belkas, Don "Lawman" Slaton, Alex Perez, Joann Phillips, Mae Goodner, the team of Mephisto and Dante, who had been unmasked by this time, and "Colored Girls" (hey, 1963) Sweet Georgia Brown and Madge Bailey, Corsica Joe, Don Greene, Mario Milano, Gene Dandridge, and midgets Sonny Boy Cassidy and Fuzzy Cupid.  

Monday night November 26 1963, Gulas had advertised a night of "World's Greatest Professional Wrestling" to start at 8:30 at the Ellis Auditorium. But the shocking events of the previous 4 days necessitated the canceling of the action:

Tonight's Mat Show is Off 

Out of respect to President Kennedy, Memphis wrestling promoters have cancelled tonight's scheduled program at the Auditorium. 

The next show will be held a week from Monday. The program will be announced later.   

To see an image of this show's newspaper clipping, click here.

 As America began to try to return to some resemblance of normalcy after the events of late November 1963, wrestling too resumed. The first Memphis card back was December 2:

Tag Team Event Heads Mat Card

Monroe returns to Tangle with Milano 

A tag-team affair pitting Tojo Yammamoto and Ivan Malenkov against Tex Riley and Len Rossi features the wrestling program at the Auditorium tomorrow night. 

Two referees have been engaged to oversee the  tussle which was set up at the request of Riley and Rossi. The teams' previous meetings have been near riots. 

Sputnik Monroe returns to the Memphis scene in another main event, taking on the popular Mario Milano. 

Two of the country's top midget wrestlers will be making their Memphis debut in the second event on the night's card - Sonny Boy Cassidy and Fuzzy Cupid. 

Don Greene, another familiar wrestler, will meet Lawman Don Slaton in the opening bout at 8:30 .    

To see an image of this show's newspaper clipping, click here.

Yes, wrestling paused along with the rest of the world, took a breath, and marched on. Many things were never the same after November 1963. But Tojo, Fargo , Rossi and Sputnik would be with us through it all, for years to come.

NEXT MONTH:   

Must-have footage for Memphis fans.