SPECIAL: History of McLanahan Pro

[Joe Snack Road]

McLanahan Pro - like many of the great wrestling organizations - traces its history back many decades, into the 1950's, when the company was known then as "Midwest Wrestling" (MWW)...

Like many promotions of the day, it was territorial, focusing on (SHOCK!) the midwest. Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, it promoted shows in North/South Dakota, Michigan, and went as far south as Iowa and Ohio... with its champions being recognized world wide, wrestling in nearly every state of the US (except for Hawaii and Alaska, which to this day, McPro doesn't recognize as real states for some reason or other), Canada, Japan, as well as Puerto Rico. Charles Nelson, the owner/booker of the promotion wasn't a wrestler, but a returning troop from the Pacific theater after World War 2 when he began entering pro wrestling after hearing a number of stories from men like Fred Blassie... not a very athletic man himself, Nelson instead learned about the finer points of promoting, making plenty of solid contacts among the wrestlers until he organized Midwest Wrestling in 1958 - the Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship was established that year, culminating a championship tournament, the finals seeing first champion Chris King defeat Dick "The Crusher" Hertz in a 57 minute long match up.

Other notable heavyweight champions include Baron Ruthke, "Big" Steve Stevenson, Tommy Douglas, "F.N. Awesome" Fred Nelson, "The Big Scary Black Man" Teddy Brown, Santa Claus, and its final champion, Kingpin. The championship was retired in 2005, after Kingpin's victory, paving the way for the new McLanahan Pro to rise to the IntraWebNet community...

Rumors
No (e)wrestling promotion is without its share of backstage politics, stories, and drama, and Midwest Wrestling was no different - in 1963, Chris King was banned from MWW by owner Charles Nelson, reportedly over King having a number of sexual encounters with teenage girls backstage - only being fired after it was discovered that two of these girls were owner Nelson's twin daughters!

Actual History
Baron Rathke's title run was EXPECTED to be merely a transitional reign as a large amount of publicity had been centered upon US Olympic Gold Medallist Nicholas Ryder (father of noted pro (e)wres power broker Jo Ryder) and his imminent entry into pro wrestling, before injuries ended that before it could ever start - Rathke, accepting he may be asked to become the face of the promotion worked harder than ever before, carrying the championship PROUDLY across the country for four years, even turning into the sort of "babyface" the promotion liked to have as its champion... he proclaimed his sadness over Ryder's injury, and expressed deep sorrow that he couldn't face the ABSOLUTE BEST America had to offer in pro wrestling - he continued that if he couldn't face the BEST of America, he would work to make himself just that, and his time as an EVIL Cold War era Russian was instead focused upon his defection, his over the top disrespect to his former country, and his pride in the United States.

Tommy Douglas was a unique case of a wrestler when he defeated Baron Rathke in 1967 to become the MWW Heavyweight Champion... He had been with MWW for the entire time of its existence, but was often knocked for his small size, but praised for his charisma, his innate ability to connect with a crowd and how "Television friendly" he was - Douglas had appeared on MWW television EVERY WEEK from 1958 - 1967, with an exception for three weeks in 1961, when he visited Japan on behalf of the company. Pro wrestling was in a time of change, and as a "feel good" story, Tommy Douglas was given the MWW Heavyweight Championship, winning it in front of a sold out audience in Tommy's hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota.

With television becoming more common in the upper plains states, it made perfect sense for Tommy Douglas to ren a long term champion, which he did, keeping the MWW Heavyweight Championship until August 1972, losing it to Japanese wrestler Boss Uehara. Uehara held the championship from 1972 until spring of 1973 - his victory however, gave credibility to the championship, and allowed the promotion to claim that the Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship was truly of a WORLD class. The MWW Officials rechristened the title the "Midwest Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship" and the belt was proudly defended in the US, Canada and Japan until 1981.

Rumors
Boss Uehara (real name, Ichigo Uehara) was widely disliked by most wrestlers for his stand-offish attitude backstage. Douglas - who had strongly championed Uehara based on his talent - often clashed with the Japanese grappler. The two reportedly came to blows a number of times, with Uehara often threatening to leave and never return. These threats rened hollow until the late-70's when Uehara brought his young wife on tour with him - rumors have it that Tommy Douglas and Chiharu Uehara were together one night when Uehara was out on the town with the boys at a local strip club... Uehara left without incident, but nearly a year after returning, Uehara divorced his wife, who had just given birth. Chiharu Kubo (taking to American traditions and retaking her den name) allegedly left Tokyo with her young son and moved to San Francisco shortly after.

[Joe Snack Road]

And so, back to the History
In 1977, Douglas took a venturous step, buying Midwest Wrestling from its owners - when he spoke of the product (which he had been booking since 1973) he was hopeful and confident he could continue its "golden age" far enough that he might be able to turn his regional promotion into a national powerhouse. Out of fondness for his hometown, he relocated MWW Offices to Rapid City, South Dakota, where he had puchased a home and settled down with his wife and young son.

As all promotions must do, newer stars were brought in from across the country, including three men who's influence extends to this day...

From Los Angeles, California, "F.N. Awesome" Fred Nelson came to the company, bringing his "surfer boy" good looks, and a genuine talent for wrestling, having traveled up and down the West Coast, wrestling nearly every great of the day. A favorite among the ladies, Nelson stayed popular with the men for the "before its time" Spicolli-esque attitude, calling it as he saw it.

From Greenbow, Alabama, "The Big Scary Black Man" Teddy Brown brought a rough and tumble Southern style that saw it develop from a man who, quote, "Got into wrestling to STAB ME SOME FUCKIN' HONKIES!" Despite his attitude in ring, Brown was well liked by those backstage as a polite, intelligent man.

And from Dublin, Ireland, Colin McLanahan, who had immigrated to the United States with his family at the tender age of five. McLanahan wrestled in the South as well, and in fact trained with the Funk brothers! Adapting to their technical (and later, rough) styles, McLanahan came to MWW after being voted Pro (e)Wrestling Illustrated's "Wrestler to watch" for the year of 1977.

These three men helped usher in an age of profitability that only Douglas could have predicted, and the heightened television exposure brought the attention of another man - Vincent Kennedy McMahon. McMahon, in the midst of his own expansion dream product, began wooing Midwest Wrestling regulars away with a regular basis, first taking the mid card stars and making a number of them into popular wrestlers... Tommy Douglas got cocky and said in an interview with Pro (e)Wrestling Illustrated that, quote, "It doesn't matter what happens - the biggest names in Midwest Wrestling will STAY with Midwest Wrestling because Midwest Wrestling is the place to be and will stay so!" ...however, when high value offers were made to the top tier stars of MWW (who had seen the success of their former colleagues), few had qualms about where their loyalties lied - with the man offering the big money.

Midwest Wrestling began to limp along, trying to create new stars of the same caliber as those that were taken, but the product had become a shell of its former self, and despite the loyalty of Teddy Brown, Fred Nelson and Colin McLanahan, the promotion saw its territory shrink, its television contracts cancelled, and with less and less fans in the seats.

Quote McLanahan, "We knew things were bad with the company, but Tommy, he was a hell of a guy, he said, "Wait until we run the Civic Center" - meaning, the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, in Rapid City. We had a STACKED card, solid top to bottom, and when we went out there, there weren't more than 300 people out in the stands for what turned out to be our biggest show of the year."

In 1981, Thomas Douglas was found dead in his office, suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The three men who had formed the pillars of Midwest Wrestling found themselves at a crossroads - Fred Nelson declined a position of power out of desire to return to California and its quote, "Gnarly waves." Nelson retired from pro wrestling in 1990, and formed the Wrestling Team Fortune (WTF) Academy in Los Angeles which still runs to this day, training pro (e)wrestling hopefuls.

Colin McLanahan and Teddy Brown sat and discussed in depth - and at the end of the meeting, seven hours later, it was agreed: Colin McLanahan would purchase the failing promotion, and Teddy Brown would ren in the company.

Midwest Wrestling underwent a restructuring, which allowed it to make it through lean times by promoting smaller shows at smaller venues, instead of touring - using a small gymnasium in New Underwood, SD, as its venue. As time went by, the loyal stars of before were replaced by newer, unknowns, and Midwest Wrestling limped through the 1980's, appealing mostly to old men who remembered the days of before, when everything was better than it was now. The shining spot of the 1980's, Teddy Brown reinvented himself as a wrestler, abandoning technical prowess for pure power, becoming the "Big Scary Black Man" that he was called on to be - famously defending the MWW Heavyweight Championship against all comers in matches so brutal they began to revolutionize an industry.

Television cameras were on hand October 19th, 1986 when McLanahan and Brown matched for Brown's Heavyweight Championship, and a phrase was coined by the announcer, when cursing Brown's violent actions while giving McLanahan his trademark move, the "Big Scary Powerbomb" onto barbed wire that McLanahan had brought into the ring... the announcer, Timothy Coachman, Sr., bellowed, "THIS KIND OF HARDCORE BRUTALITY ISN'T FIT FOR TELEVISION BROADCAST!"

After showing the title match on television (at 2 AM, granted), the broadcast station agreed, refusing to air any future Midwest Wrestling televised shows, no matter what. But a phrase was coined, and fans were intrigued - "Hardcore Wrestling" became the trademark of Midwest Wrestling, which flourished with its new generation of wrestlers, mixing the brutality in with traditional wrestlers who declined to work that style. Over time, even they were forced to take up the mantle of hardcore wrestling.

In the mid 1990's, Midwest Wrestling saw its largest boom as "Hardcore" wrestling started becoming a viable alternative for people trading tapes over a unique new invention known as the "internet." While this "internet" was viewed as a fad by most in Midwest Wrestling, including owner McLanahan, he accepted the need to make their product available to wide audiences...

In the place of technical feuds featuring Tommy Douglas v. Baron Ruthke, there was the sheer brutality of Monkey! v. Jimmy Sludge, or the insatiable bloodlust of men like Milkman Dan and his "toy" Puppet. Midwest Wrestling's ties to the phrase "wrestling" had become only coincidental, as wrestling was phased out in favor of "Blood and Guts wrestling" championed by the iconic figure of Midwest Wrestling in the 1990's, Drunk Guy. Tag team wrestling found its ultimate villains in Jimmy Jack and Big Moe, known collectively as "White Power" while women being stripped in ring forcibly was a common occurance, unless the women stripped themselves, such as Tess "Bunny" Harper...

And through it all, the Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship rened the prize most contested for.

Rumors
Colin McLanahan reportedly was seen as incredibly drunk throughout most of the 90's, and was reportedly the cause of Teddy Brown leaving the promotion in 1994... Teddy Brown has LONG been sensitive to issues of race, and saw the creation of the White Power tag team as a slap to his face, but still rened loyal to the company. However, despite all of this, Brown has publicly admitted to leaving after seeing Colin McLanahan cane his biological daughter Jenny and adopted son (current McLanahan Pro owner) Twinky after they had spilled a beer he had opened - and forgot about until they had spilled it. "That was the last straw," Brown, father of current McPro wrestler Mikey Brown, continued, "You just don't treat your children like that and expect to have anybody listen to you!"

[Joe Snack Road]

And now, the rest of the History...
Colin McLanahan's Midwest Wrestling had a minor revolution as a few new debuts happened within his company...

The Man Called Kingpin debuted on a Midwest Wrestling show, working with another debut, Twinky McLanahan - Twinky and Kingpin having been tighter than most brothers in real life, and their attempt to work a traditional match had them both boo'ed out of the ring before they could finish - as a security reason, they had to leave the ring as the fans demanded bloodletting.

According to people backstage that night and verified as truth, Twinky was seen punching himself in the face after the match was declared a no contest - when asked why, Twinky responded, "If I bleed, they'll let me wrestle..."

Kingpin didn't appear on any further Midwest Wrestling shows, despite being touted as "The Next Big Star of Midwest Wrestling!" by Colin McLanahan, instead leaving for Parts Unknown, where it is said he trained in the art of AWESOME by (Painting Guy) Bob Ross and (Wendy's founder) Dave Thomas.

Chapel Hillcrest debuted later, as the Midwest Wrestling company was crumbling under the weight of Colin McLanahan's drinking problems. Taking over the promotions and booking of the company, Twinky McLanahan (pre-17,000 head drops between 2002-2006) managed to steer the company AWAY from its hardcore "blood and guts" path, onto becoming a full on wrestling SHOW, managing to reduce the Hardcore quotient to a number that the majority of fans were still okay with - the company seemed to be righting itself until Twinky left on various international tours, and later, turning into the "Hardcore Icon" of the M-DWF and C-CWA.

The Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship retained its importance, and it was in this time of Twinky controlling the company that Santa Claus made his debut...

Chapel Hillcrest was involved in a feud with Jimmy Sludge when Santa Claus appeared on a show only to be demolished by the "New York Bad Ass" (eat a trademark suit, Baroni!) - Santa appealed to Chapel, asking to "PLEASE step aside and let me face Sludge for the Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship! In return, YOU will get first crack if I win!" - Chapel did and Santa proceded to DEFEAT Sludge in a 19 minute bout that saw the two battle into the stands, the parking lot, and back into the gymnasium, into the ring, back to the outside of the ring, and eventually ended with the Kringle Crash Dynamite, Santa Claus declaring himself the GREATEST champion MWW had ever seen - but, reneging on his word to give Chapel a title match.

They fought back and forth on the issue, Santa eventually aligning himself with White Power, using them to fend Chapel off... and when Chapel left for bigger and better things, Santa was it. None could match his power or strength as MWW Heavyweight Champion.

2003 saw a big chance in fortunes, though... Twinky McLanahan had grown homesick, and Colin McLanahan was to the point where he was HEAVILY intoxicated most of the time, Twinky buying the company from him for a two-four/case of Budweiser, a carton of cigarettes and an undisclosed sum of money.

McLanahan's first step was to CEASE putting on shows, instead refocusing on training quality talent - he brought in loyal friends from across the globe, to help train the youth of what he rechristened the "McLanahan Gym" in New Underwood, South Dakota - by September of 2003, McLanahan ran the first show featuring McLanahan Gym-trained wrestlers heavily, seeing Mexican lucha libre superstar El Spatula become the NEW Midwest Wrestling Cruiserweight Champion... the show is also notable for the debuts of two men who've been at odds in McLanahan Pro: Nick Strife and Johnny Wang.

Through the next year and a half, Midwest Wrestling had plenty of internal warfare - Colin McLanahan fought with Twinky McLanahan regarding the direction of the company near weekly, and often changed things on the shows that Twinky was not present at - making certain wrestlers do things that were out of sorts for them, or would often "give away" big matches that McLanahan was building to. This sabotage of MWW created a rift in the "Old Guard" who believed the path of "Hardcore Wrestling" would bring them back to fame, while the "Youth Movement" - derogatively known as the "McLanahan Cult" - placed their faith in the new owner, Twinky.

The internal strife eventually lead to the firing of Colin McLanahan, and the deemphasis of a number of Midwest Wrestling Hardcore stars...

With only the Midwest Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (and its Champion, Santa Claus) along with Midwest Wrestling Tag Team Champions White Power present, it was within the first few months of the official "McLanahan Pro" stage of MWW's existance that Santa Claus was toppled by the "Next Big Star of Midwest Wrestling" in his last match - Kingpin defeating Santa Claus to take the championship, the belt retiring with The Man Called Kingpin.

White Power was kept around as they had pledged to "play nice" but after inciting a near riot in 2005, they were fired, and have yet to reappear on the pro (e)wrestling circuit...

With Twinky McLanahan in charge, Midwest Wrestling faithful, who had left for one reason or another began returning - Teddy Brown commented that Twinky "Reminded him of Ol' Tommy (Douglas)" and was for a period of time, the McPro Head of Security - he stepped down from that position in 2006 to manage Generation NEON. Monkey! - who had left MWW over a number of paychecks bouncing - returned after having all monies he was owed paid in full...

McLanahan Pro moves forward, growing in popularity, and with the focus on newer stars (such as McPro Cruiserweight Champion Travis Wilkes, GHP Wearer Visper Karr, Taco John's Employee Jeff) and the smart use of established stars (Bak Fu, The Upper Class Connection (Jason Wesley/Chapel Hillcrest), OrochiGeese), McPro is starting to look forward, towards touring a little more freely in the midwest.

The Future, as they say, is wide open...

Written by Timothy Coachman, Sr., with interviews from Teddy Brown, Colin McLanahan, Fred Nelson, Vasiliy "Baron Rathke" Rasputin, Twinky McLanahan, Scott Harvey (aka, Monkey!). copyright McLanahan Pro, 2006