Second Match - One Fall - Brian Madden, 224, Belleville , Illinois , and Spike Huber, 235, Indianapolis , Indiana vs. Ali Bey, 250, Istanbul , Turkey , and Professor Toru Tanaka, 280, Tokyo , Japan . Referees Lee and Ed Warren.

The Professor started with the salt gimmick. (haven't seen that in years!) Big pops for the face team of Huber and Madden. Especially for Madden, the local boy made good. Oh, he had lots of 1983-looking hair! Lots of classic tag team spots: face in peril, as Madden took a beating, the hot tag to the other face teammate, Huber, who cleans house on the heels, and the heel #1 distract the referee (Bey) while heel #2 works over the opponent (Toru Tanaka). Spike Huber got the pin for the faces in 10:02 with a very nice back suplex and bridge.  Good match.

Third  Match - One Fall - King Kong Brody, 283, Sante Fe, New Mexico vs. Cocoa Samoa, 230, Samoa. Referee Mark Clemmons (spelling?).

Absolute and totally entertaining squash. Brody gets the win with the Flying Kneedrop in 1:35 . Huge pop for Brody during the introduction that lasted throughout the match. Larry kept putting over Brody's upcoming match with Nikolai Volkoff. Brody did throw in some impressive offense, like the flying dropkick (for a man Brody's size) and a few one arm body slams on Cocoa Samoa. 

Fourth  Match - One Fall - Adrian Adonis, 262, New York , New York . ("Owner of the Gold Belt") vs.  Jesse Ortega, 223, Tiajuana , Mexico . Referee Eddie Smith.

Larry put over in detail how Adonis won the "special one night tournament" on 5/21/83 ).  Larry also added in that "all world title claimants were invited" - presumably the Backlunds and Harley Races of the world could not make it. And Adrian Adonis won the title and the belt, which he wore on this TV show. The actual belt Adonis had here, did look very much like the 1973-1986 NWA belt. I have heard and read that Lou Thesz provided that belt to the territory. Adonis looked pretty good here and was starting to get kinda fat - not nearly as large as he would be later while hosting "The Flower Shop" on WWF TV, now moved quite well. Adrian Adonis moved well enough to get the pin over Jesse Ortega with a suplex in 7:48 .

Final Event - Most falls to curfew as Nikolai Volkoff, 318, Russia , and Tully Blanchard, 240, San Antonio , Texas vs. Al Perez, 244, Tampa, Florida and Cowboy Scott Casey, 235, Dallas, Texas.  

Not a bad matchup. The heels got the first and only fall in 7:12 by getting Al Perez trapped in the heel side and pinning him after a suplex from Tully Blanchard. This is the same Al Perez who later was a really big name in Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling.

All in all, not a bad card. A good mix of big names, up and comers, and St. Louis regulars. The Checkerdome Sports Stadium was full of happy customers. Having Larry as the host, and Mickey as the ring announcer, and referees Ed and Lee Warren made it seem pretty close to what we were used to on WATC. Larry's promotion would continue on, I believe through 1983 and would end when Larry took an offer with VKM and the WWF.   Thanks for your time this month, I hope you enjoyed the article. See you on the St. Louis KM board!

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The NWA Title in 1983