So many people remember the wrestlers who have gone through the NW as their proving ground and their chance to be on top. People point at Jesse Ventura, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and many others. But this particular column is going to look at some of the preliminary stars that passed through the NW.

Three stars come to mind, guys who didn’t make it out of prelims but later became some of the biggest stars in the business:

Gino Hernandez... Gino had been to Detroit where he had shocked the country and captured the US title beating Don Kent. He later lost the title to The Sheik. Hernandez had also been to Texas and had gotten a few shots at being on top there as well. When he came here the area was in great shape with the likes of Lonnie Mayne, Ron Bass, Dutch Savage, Jesse Ventura, Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskwoski ect. This was 1977. He had one chance to get in a main event when he saved Lonnie Mayne during a double team. He later proved to be a very good wrestler with a lot of charisma.

Tully Blanchard... Right along this same time period came Tully Blanchard. Blanchard had a few shots at being on top in San Antonio where his father promoted. I kept expecting him to get a shot. But he never moved out of the preliminaries. This was also 76-77. In fact his stay was so forgetable not many people even remember he was here. Tully was never the most charismatic wrestler but later his work was so good that he was elevated to main events.

Terry Allen...Terry Allen came to the NW in 1981 after being trained by Buzz Sawyer. Sawyer was in the area at the time and no doubt got Allen booked. This had to be a very interesting time behind the scenes because later Allen was very bitter at Sawyer at the amount he was charged. This being the first territory that Allen had worked in, he didn’t show much. He stayed in opening matches his whole stint here and even before he left was delegated to referring. Four years later, he was one of the top stars in the country.