- Mike Rodgers

Chris Adams was killed by a gunshot wound on October 7th. Adams was shot by a friend after a evening of heavy drinking. The activities of the night got out of hand and his friend William Parnell shot Adams claiming that he feared for his life.

Adams came to the US in 82 where he debuted in Los Angeles. He debuted in Oregon May 20th, 1982. During his time here he beat such people as Mike Miller, Tiny Anderson, Dizzy Hogan (Brutus Beefcake), Tommy Rogers, Gene Kiniski, TG Stone, Tapu, Assassin, Tio, Chris Colt, Billy Whitecloud, Rip Oliver and JJ Dillion.

Adams was never at the top of the card in Oregon but was recognized as a good worker in the territory. On March 2, 1983 he lost a hair match to Rip Oliver and 3 days later he worked his last match in Oregon before he headed to Texas and really caught on.

This and That

I came across some interesting research from 1944 from Portland. Elton Owen actually wrestled during this year. It looks like he wrestled about 10 times including going over Gorgeous George Wagner. 

Also during this year there were some cards that featured ladies Mildred Burke wrestling Gladys Killem’ Gillem. From this point ladies were banned in Oregon until around 1975 when Sue Green, Jean Antone, Paula Kaye came in.

I will try and do some more research and find out what the reasoning for the ban back then.

Other recent research had some interesting information on Tony Borne.

Tony has always been on top in the NW but he had a tremendous run in Mexico and had been on top in some other big areas through the 60’s.

I have heard some interesting stories on Eric Pederson. Seems like he was a “free soul”. Several times in the NW title history you see where Pederson had the tag title and then someone took his place or the tag titles became vacant. One can speculate on the reason why. I then heard the story of when Pederson had a NWA title match scheduled with Pat O’Connor and he had gotten a metal detector or something similar and got busy using it and totally blew off his match.

NEXT MONTH:

It is getting close to the time where I consider the awards for the year for my bulletin Ring Around the Northwest as far as who were the wrestler and tag team of the year. In determining this I usually list all of the wrestlers matches and who won over who. This determines who was the most successful in the eyes of the fans. Next month, I will list all of the Wrestler of the Years and Tag Team of The Years from the past.