Waited all day for these

This is why Jim is the podcast gawd. I’m old and this is lore I never knew, and though today’s product sucks this history restores my love of the sport.

I am so glad you went over Harry Thornton and Chattanooga wrestling. I almost 59 and originally am from Pikeville, Tennessee which is about 50 miles from Chattanooga. In the 70s Gulas's wrestling was more popular than about anything. My parents didn't like it, but so many did. My brother in law's grandfather used to take him to see it. My great-aunt, Edith and her husband, Leroy never missed it. Harry was famous for saying, "He's bleeding like a stuck hog!" Oh man, the blood used to flow in those days. When I was 16, my neighbor's son, Rick moved in with her across the road. He was 29 and told me about wrestling before I was around. He completely bought into kayfabe completely. To him, no one could ever touch Jackie Fargo and Tojo in their heyday. He would ask me if I thought Hulk Hogan could have taken Jackie in his prime. There was a generation that is passing away to whom no better wrestler ever lived than Fargo. They loved to see him do the “Fargo Strut. Rick said that no one could strut like Jackie. ” Bret Hart once slammed Rick Flair saying he “I'm approximating his comment” was a knock off of Buddy Rogers and Jackie Fargo. By the time I started watching, Jackie was on the down slope of his career. I believe his peak was in the mid-60s and actually challenged Dory Funk for the NWA championship in Nashville. Funk applied the spinning-toe hold and Fargo passed out and Funk won. They couldn't let Jackie quit. Right after that, he met Terry Funk and knocked him out in a match to settle the score with the family. At one point, Fargo was the Hogan and Sammartino of this area. With fans of a certain generation, he was the greatest of all time. His feuds with Tojo were legend. Some of the other names prominent at the time were Len Rossi, Bearcat Brown, Ken Lucas, Dennis Hall, The Interns, Ken Ramey, Under Gulas is where Tommy Rich got his start trained by Tojo and was his tag-team partner. Dennis Condrey and Phil Hickerson engaged in a long running feud with Jackie Fargo. One Saturday, Promoter Nick Gulas instead of having live wrestling at the studio showed an hour of the highlights of the feud. Harry Thornton was pretty conservative once stating if half the mothers that worked stayed home, 50% of the drug problem would end. He was once doing his morning show when someone called in to tell him his barn was on fire. Thank you Corny for bringing attention to this era and the memories it holds for a lot of us.

Loved this wrestling, the whole family watched ever week. Grandparents, mom, dad, sisters, brothers. Tojo, tommy rich, bobby eaton, great shows. Thanks Jim for the show

I remember one time Harry Thornton called Tojo a punk, and a couple of other names. Some Japanese-American group got all bunged up and raised hell with the station and Harry had to get on the air and clarify that he was only insulting Tojo and not all Japanese. This was about 1978.

Tex Mackenzie got over on his personality he was just a likeable guy😁😁😁😁😁

Harry Thorton was big time when I was a young kid. If I couldn't go play after cartoons I would watch him. Still drive by wdef often

Tex McKenzie was six foot nine when he wrestled in the Pacific Northwest. That was because everybody else was five foot six

the angle for tojo burning his barn was awesome.

Yes the in studio show on Broad Street and build the big Thursday night show at Mwmorial Auditorium. So it was a cross between TBS in studio free squash matches and the way WCCW in Dallas did to buy tickets to the spot show.

Love me some Chattanooga wrestling history. Thank Jim!

Lived just outside of Chattanooga, close enough to pick up channel 12. Harry Thorton and Saturday wrestling was a big part of my childhood in the 70s. After the cartoons in the morning, it was wrestling in the afternoon with Harry… And I especially remember Tojo Yamamoto

Chattanooga 1960 - Population: 130,009. Tnks internet

Harry was to Chattanooga, like Shirley Love was to Oak Hill Wrestling in Wv.

Harry Thornton & Judy Corn. Sponsored by Charlie's Meats.

I also grew up on Harry Thorntons wrestling.

Harry and Tojo, Tommy Rich, etc... good times from my childhood

Harry passed away years ago and everyone still knows who Harry Thronton is. I doubt he'll ever be forgotten.

My parents took us to look at a property in the woods around Ringgold, Ga. and we came upon Harry Thornton out hunting. He was walking around with his shotgun and a dead snake. Good memory. He 'd say Gypsy Joe was "tough as an old pine knot" That show was the first time I saw Randy Savage. He had to be 18 or 19. Nick Gulas never could say Memorial Auditorium right. Saul Weingeroff was a heel manager back then.

Thanks for this. About the only thing my Dad and I watched together.

Thank God Gordon Solie came along. Most of these territory announcers like Big Jim Hess, Ed Whalen or Harry Thornton damaged the promotions they announced for as they thought they were the draws. The only local announcers that were worth anything was Lance Russell and Bob Caudle.

Judy was his co host.

Harry Thornton calling his son, Butch Thornton’s matches but barely acknowledging his opponent and Nick getting his son George over as a tag team champion was classic southern nepotism. My childhood. lol 😆

On Nick's show, It was always HarryThornton. One word. That is how he was always addressed. Not Harry. Not Thornton. Not Mr. Thornton. HarryThornton. One word.

And by the way at the very first of this is Jim describing Harry Thornton or Boyd Pierce? Jim certainly didn't have a problem with him at all and from what I have heard Boyd Pierce was an older very cool guy whose haberdashery could've made Ric Flair jealous at times!B.W.

Loved Harry's morning show.

LOL Why would I watch a Wrestling show to get Cooking Tips? LOL

I watched it with my grandpa to

Pre Jim's new microphone. Lol

The best storyteller since Paul Harvey.

As a lifelong fan of the Chattanooga and Birmingham Gulas era NWA MidAmerica that Cornette and Memphis recruited Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey from for his first incarnation of The MX, I must graciously and resentfully beg to differ on Cornette's opinion of The Announcers like Big Jim Hess, Harry Thornton, and Sterling Brewer. These guys were as much as a cherished part of my Pro Wrestling childhood as anyone named Solie or Russell or Boesch or Watts was for his. The late great Harry Thornton was a "legit" TV announcer as much as Dave Brown was for Memphis. And I still cherish Thornton's on air rivalry with the touring King Ripper Collins, who used to get his goat just by calling him "Harrison." So some respect please. Not the greatest Announcer in the world not exactly Pro Wrestling's answer to Ted Baxter either.B.W.

It was 130,009

I love Jim talking about wrestling when it was good .

The morning show was Harry Thornton & Judy Corn So sez the better-half kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eKild6SQyrWxpHk.html

Population of 130,000

it saddens me to say it, but i think david crockett was a smidge better than harry thornton. thornton could do outraged indignant face...and little else.

The guy in the yellow jacket looks like a mini me

You shouldn't say you're sure he's a Rep Jim bc most of your new audience are usually sure YOU are a Rep till you go off on Trump and Co lol

Cornette is basically a Republican today with his views on race, gender, and sexuality which are very much stuck in the past

Judy was his co host.