Rogers, Bob Orton Jr., his brother Barry O (named after Wild Red Berry, who had wrestled with Orton Sr. during the 60's), Tony Peters, and Randy Savage were all part of a loose conglomeration of talent known as The Slappowitz Syndicate. The leader of this band, Izzy Slappowitz, was a very vocal mouthpiece for the syndicate. He was of supposed Jewish upbringing, a fact that the Kentucky fans really didn't catch on to. Izzy's constant denial of wrongdoing was a great heat generator. If you never got to see this manager in action, try to find some video as he is what I call "a classic."

Originally Izzy managed Randy Savage during a lot of his house shows in ICW. Sometime during 79 or 80 another heel manager was introduced to see Savage to the ring for his Kentucky shows. I guess this occurred due to the tremendous travel requirements given the size of the territory. This gentleman's name was Steve Cooper. He was not a great speaker in my analysis, mainly I always remember him as kind of Savage's shadow. He certainly did not have the ability of Slappowitz to rile up the audience. I believe he may have wrestled in the Detroit area in 77, as a video I've seen advertised talks of him wrestling Austin Idol. He also had the distinct honor of marrying Mrs. ICW for 1980, Dawn Grinner. His match was advertised for the ICW card held at Rupp Arena in mid-80s, although I did not attend so I'm not sure they tied the knot.

Another person who played a large role in the early years of the promotion was Bob Roop. He was a talented mat wrestler, with an Olympic background and extensive travels in the United States. He had teamed with Orton Jr. in Florida in 1977, grabbing the areas top tag team titles there. He was very familiar with Orton, and I believe Roop started as a heel in the early all star version of ICW, but had a falling out in 79 with his former partner.    

NEXT MONTH:

We will look at the titles the promotion featured as well as who held them for the first few years.  We'll also look at which towns were hotbeds for ICW action.