By 1968, many of the top stars had wrestled in main events in the SF booking office among those not mentioned above were Dom Denucci, Bobo Brazil, Bill Watts, Bearcat Wright, King Curtis Iaukea, Mitsu Arakawa, Jose Lothario, Dan Manoukian, The Destroyer, Billy Red Lyons, Ciclon Negro, Mongolian Stomper, Haru Sasaki, Mr Saito, Red Bastien and a very young Puerto Rican wrestler by the name of Pedro Morales, a future WWWF champion. There was also a match in San Francisco between Ray Stevens and Bruno Sammartino with Ray winning by countout and originally being named the WWWF champion but later being stripped of the title because of not winning by pinfall or submission. Also in 1968 is when the SF booking office joined the NWA and their tag team title was renamed the NWA World tag team title and the singles title was now known as NWA U.S. Championship.

By the middle of 1969 Ray Stevens out of the ring antics again got him hurt while motorcycle-racing Ray broke his leg. This again left the singles championship vacant where Pat Patterson now emerged as a big star in his own right winning the vacant championship from Pedro Morales. By the time Stevens returned to wrestling he came back and announced to the public that he was tired of his cheating ways and wanted to follow the rules and be a role model for the youth. Well the fans fell in love with Ray and he was now not only one of the most popular wrestlers in the promotion but one of the most popular people in the area. From musicians to politicians everyone loved Ray Stevens in the Bay Area. Everyone that is except for his former tag team partner Pat Patterson. Pat said he was going to beat some sense into Ray. This started one of the greatest feuds in Bay Area history. Pat and Ray fought in all kinds of matches. Cage matches, Texas Death matches, tag teams etc. One of the best matches had to be their series of matches with Archie Moore as the referee. The result was always the same. Archie would get fed up with Pat and punch him and Ray would cover him for the pin.

By the start of 1971 Ray held both the US championship and also shared the World tag team belts with Peter Maivia. (The Rock’s Grandfather). Ray also felt he was getting stale in the Bay area and after a ten year run as the man in SF, Ray decided to leave for Verne Gagne’s AWA territory. Before he left a couple of wrestlers were brought in to help make up for the upcoming loss of Ray Stevens. On his first appearance in the territory Superstar Billy Graham was given the tag team titles with his partner Pat Patterson on television by beating Ray and Maivia. Ray and Superstar had some great singles matches during that time frame also. The US belt was dropped to Mr.Paul DeMarco and his hated manager Dr.Ken Ramey.

With the loss of Stevens, many were worried about how the territory would do. Their concerns were alleviated because Dr. Ramey became one of the most hated managers to ever appear in the area. Along with Paul De Marco, Pat Patteron, Billy Graham as the heels facing off against Peter Maivia, Rocky Johnson and Pepper Gomez as the heroes, wrestling was still drawing huge crowds everywhere in the territory. Around this time with Stevens gone, Patterson did the turn and soon became the top face. Roy Shires did a fantastic job in bringing in talent such as Lars Anderson, The Great Mephisto, Stan Stasiak, Moondog Mayne, Angelo Mosca, Mr.Fugi,The Brute (Bugsy McGraw) The Interns, The Von Brauners, The Royal Kanaroos, Tony Garea, The Invaders, the Valiant brothers and the Von Steigers. Ray Stevens also came in and worked the area a couple of times a year.

By the mid 70’s Pat Patterson had decided to revive his tag team with Ray Stevens once more, only this time they were a team in the AWA. In the SF area Bob Roop and Alexia Smirnoff were brought in along with Dean Ho while Moondog Mayne was the top face in the area, The crowds started to drop off and wrestling just wasn’t drawing in the Bay area the way it used to. Kevin Sullivan tried his luck at being a face for awhile and while drawing respectably he was not the answer either. In an interview around this time, Pepper Gomez said that Roy Shires had almost stopped caring and Pepper felt Bob Roop as booker was killing the area.

Tragedy struck the Bay area as US champ and top drawing card Moondog Mayne died in an automobile accident on 8-13-78. From there, hoping to rekindle past success, a Ray Stevens clone was introduced… a young 230 pound Buddy Rose was brought in to the area. While Rose drew ok at the box office, the next two years also brought in an array of talent to continue trying to rekindle this booking office to its glory days of yesteryear. Others brought in were: Red Bastien, Ron Starr, Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper, The Guerreos, John Mantell, Bob Sweetan, George Wells, and Ed Wiskowski. By 1979, the tag team titles were abandoned. The crowds were numbering in the 100’s in some sites instead of the thousands.

Dusty Rhodes came in and won the US title in a tournament victory over Dick Slater after Bob Sweetan had just left the area without losing the belt. Four months after Dusty won the belt the SF booking office with Roy Shires closed in January 1981. It was an incredible 20-year reign as one of the great wrestling areas in the United States. Pat Patterson used many of the booking ideas that originated here in the SF booking area when he was part of the expansion of the WWF in the early 80’s. After the booking office closed here, we had a Texas promotion come in and promote for awhile as well as Verne Gagne’s AWA with such stars as Hulk Hogan. While the AWA shows drew well they were not run on a consistent basis and lacked any long term success. A few independent groups worked here including Woody Farmer and Red Bastien’s group. None brought back the magic of the Shires promotion.

We will take a closer look at the promotion in the 1970’s as well as a history of the SF Battle Royals.