For example, (now I haven’t seen this match, but if it did follow the usual formula) Garea and Haystacks would beat on both members of Albano’s team for a time at the opening of the match.  Then Fuji and Tanaka would get the big farmer in their corner and beat him down for a while, before the hot tag and Garea would clean house before being pinned, probably by some chicanery, like the famed salt to the eyes.

Anyway, back to the matches, one of the WWWF greatest tandems came in around early 1974.  They were the Valiant brothers, “Handsome” Jimmy, “Luscious” Johnny, and yes, they too were managed by Lou Albano.  They ended Garea and Ho’s six-month tag title reign by defeating them on television, and went on to one of the federation’s longest title reigns in history, lasting exactly one year and five days before Dominic DeNucci and Victor Rivera ended the reign on television.  However, River left the WWWF in June of 1975, so DeNucci found Pat Barrett to replace him.  They reigned until Albano’s next tandem, the Blackjacks, Mulligan and Lanza, came about and defeated the team on television in August of 1975.  But the Blackjacks’ reign was short-lived as a high-flying pair of ethnic superstars came about to defeat them in November.  They were Tony Parisi and Louis Cerdan (later known as Gino Brito).

The next team champions were filled with controversy from day one.  Killer Kowalski had been in the sport for so long, he was beginning to slow down on wrestling, and began training some guys.  He found one big 6’10” guy, and thought he was so awesome; he wanted to use him as his new partner.  But they required a disguise, so Kowalski put a mask over himself and his partner and called themselves The Executioners.  The man who Kowalski trained and teamed with would later be known as Big John Stud.  They were two huge men, who looked completely unbeatable, and they defeated Cerdan and Parisi on television in May 1976, and yes, they were managed by Lou Albano.  Eventually, the Executioners brought in a third giant member (later known as Nikolai Volkoff).  However, when they tried to defend to belts using Executioner #3 in a match against Chief Jay Strongbow and Billy White Wolf (later Sheik Adnon Kaissey), they were stripped of the belts, and a tournament was formed to crown new titleholders.  Most of the tournament was done off television (or was a phantom, not sure which), but two matches that were held on television were Strongbow and White Wolf defeating The Executioners and Strongbow and White Wolf defeating Nikolai Volkoff and Tor Kamata (formerly Mr. Moto, if my sources are correct).  However, the Native American team found their own problems, as a young newcomer, who was a weightlifter in the Olympics named Ken Patera injured White Wolf, and sent the belts vacant again.

Mr. Fuji and Prof. Tanaka made a comeback to vie for titles, as Garea found a new partner to make his own grab for the belts, as Garea teamed with Bruno Sammartino’s own protégé, a young Larry Zbyszco.  The two teams met for the straps in Philadelphia on September 27 1977, and when the dust cleared (or perhaps salt in this case), the Japanese tandem were champions for the third time.

I think I’ll close out the column here for now, and take it up again next time. 

The tag titles make their way to Allentown, as teams like The Samoans, The Moondogs and yes, even a few more partners for Garea and Mr. Fuji come about.