ITS WAR, ITS WAR...the greatest angle EVER

As I may have stated earlier ..I got into wrestling sometime around 1967...black and  white tele in the corner of the living room, where every Saturday and Sunday I parked  myself for an hour and got thoroughly absorbed by the shenanigans of the guys on the  screen...I seem to recall my first match being Alan Pinfold getting splattered by, I think,  Cheif Billy White Wolf...anyway I was hooked and maintained my spot in front of the tube  for yonks...

now after all this time, the various angles have become a blur, I seem to  remember Killer Kowalski jumping off a ladder onto Pepper Gomez and various tag  teams trying to de-hood the Masked medics...and Ox Baker heart punching all and  assundry and commentator Jack Little getting dropped on his scone courtesy of Killer  Karl Kox and his "Brainbuster"....I even wondered if Kox apologised when he turned face

BUT....the one angle I do remember, and the one angle I still put right up there today  with the
night the nWo formed and the Stone Cold v Vince fued of the late 90's...was THE WAR..

.this  storyline filled every stadium or hall the boys worked for at least 18 months, the biggest year being 1973....there was cage matches, Texas death matches, strap matches  ..suffice it to say if you were a gimmick match junkie or enjoyed a chaotic schmozz, then  you were well looked after

and the list of talent working both sides of the fence was just phenomenal...lets start with  the heel's, Big Bad John was the leader and he had at his beck and call, at any given  time.ABDULLA THE BUTCHER, HIRO & HITO TOJO, CYCLONE NEGRO, DON "The Hog"FARGO, WALDO VON ERICH, BULLDOG BROWER, BRUTE BERNARD,  MR.FUJI, TIGER JEET SINGH and KILLER KARL KOX ( who swapped sides mid  war..and wasnt John pissed!) and on a lesser note BLACK JACK SLADE and HANS  SCHREODER who were bit players at best

then there was the PEOPLES ARMY and this group of super over faces included MARK LEWIN, KING CURTIS, SPIROS ARION, ANGELO MOSCA and SHEIK WADI AYOUB, Mario Milano was in THE PEOPLES ARMY also but he often seemed to be the heel bait from the People's Army.

AND there were some moments that have stuck in my head, like when I had the pleasure of seeing Kox give Brower the Brainbuster..Dick Brower barely sold it, but he got it done to him
, and then there was the Tojo brothers  throwing salt in Mark Lewins eyes and Lewin trashing the set...and there was a cage match where Fuji got sloppy with his blade and sliced his arm wide open.

Big Bad John and Brower hanging Lewin in the ropes, the voice of aussie wrestling, Jack little reminded us that the  ropes were steel cable wrapped in HARD RUBBER and the resulting schmozz with  blood flying everywhere was great...Big Bad John brain busting Wallaby Bob McMaster (  the best ref ever) on t.v...or to quote commentator Mike Cleary, Wallaby Bob is down and  knocked rotten...and the use of juice was off the chart...there was claret flowing  everywhere at all time's.

The cage matches at the Hordern and Festival hall were riot inducing, the cage was a  tad flimsy in hindsight but the in ring work could have been classified as ECW's  grandfather...BUT, for some strange reason these 10 man cage matches had two refs, a  first for wrestling I believe...poor old ref, Morrie West got grabbed by Big Bad John and  used as a shield while the Peoples Army was beating on him....probably more than once

the in ring stuff was awesome..but the promos were off the hook,

 I think we must of had  every decent promo guy in the industry on channel 9 during this time..King Curtis, Big  Bad John, Mark Lewin, Karl Kox, Don Fargo, hell, even Waldo Von Erich let loose with a  few classics

One match that stands out in memory is a cage match, the Peoples Army (Mark Lewin  and King Curtis) on one side, and Big Bad Johns Army(Tiger Singh and Abdullah the  Butcher) on the other. Now, matching the foreheads of Abdullah and Curtis up in a cage  match, there is a fair chance of buckets of claret flowing, but in this one, everyone  decided to get in on the act, including Big Bad John from outside the ring. The upshot of  the match was, with King Curtis non-compis mentis in a corner somewhere and the cage  door open, Abby, the Tiger and Big Bad John were all taking turn at turning Lewin's head  into hamburger.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, bounding down the aisle came another of Big Bad John's  army, the one and only, Killer Karl Kox....who wasnt even supposed to be in Australia if memory serves (I remember watching the replay of this and  commentator Mike Cleary's plaintive cries of “Oh no! This is Lewin's deathbed!”

To the stunned surprise of everyone in the place, Kox did the biggest turn since Mussolini and cleared house. After encouragement, Lewin embraces Kox, and the  crowd went stupid. Pro wrestling just doesn't get any better than that.....The next day on  TV Kox gave that unforgettable speech about how his mother on her death bed  made  him promise to "turn good"...Big Bad John was livid over all this because he had paid for  Kox's ticket out here to Australia.....

Big Bad John in his interview the next day kept saying  in that great southern preacher style voice of his "I WANT MY MONEY BACK  KOX". Bulldog Brower grabbed the microphone and said "I'll get your money back for you  John" and launched into a scathing attack on Kox.....I don't think wrestling in this
country ever got any better than that time right there!

Looking back I think one of the highlights of the war for me was one night at the Hordern Pavilion, at what is now Fox Studios in Sydney, during its peak I got there prior to the  matches starting and they had a small table set up at ringside. The general idea of this was that "somebody" had organised for a petition to get Big Bad John and his soldiers  banned from Australia. At the table was King Curtis who was encouraging the fans to  come up and sign the petition!

It was one of those rare moments when young and old wrestling fans alike had a chance  to kind of get up close and personal to..."The King".

It was sheer pandemonium as literally hundreds of fans mobbed the petition table  pushing and shoving to put their names down at the urging of Curtis who was spruiking  in that booming voice of his .

The War never really had a definitive end.... Lewin,Curtis & Arion were still going at it in  November 73 against Abdullah and Brower & The Tojo Brothers at the Hordern Pavillion

When  Jim Barnett sold out at the end of 1973, it appears the "war" participants nearly all left with him.  a sad way to end a great angle, but what can you do...luckily there is a heap of video about with promos and matches.....look, I even included some promos ....