WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS: GORGEOUS LADIES AND BODY SLAMS

By Howard T. Brody

It happens every spring. No, not the start of the baseball season, but what has become known as Professional Wrestling’s biggest week of the year, all centered on the event known as WrestleMania, presented by World Wrestling Entertainment.

For an event that has become something akin to the NFL’s Super Bowl, this year, WrestleMania takes place on Sunday, April 5, in Tampa, Florida. Still, once upon a time in Sin City, WrestleMania took place right here.

But let’s be honest. When we think about pro wrestling and Las Vegas, big, ugly, hulking guys sweating profusely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. The reality is that Las Vegas has a fascinating past when it comes to pro wrestling – and while we’ll certainly take a look at WrestleMania in a moment – in all likelihood, your first thought of wrestling and Vegas was on pretty women, or to be precise, gorgeous ladies. After all, Sin City was the home of GLOW, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

Now immortalized as a fictionalized series on Netflix, the real GLOW was the brainchild of David McLane, a native of Indianapolis and a lifelong pro wrestling fan. McLane was working as an announcer and promoter for Dick the Bruiser’s Indianapolis-based World Wrestling Association when he came up with the idea. Rather than going the route of using established lady wrestlers, McLane went to California and posted casting notices in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, leading to more than 500 women showing up for auditions. After selecting his cast, which would be trained by pro wrestling veterans Mando Guerrero and Princess Jasmine, he partnered with former Lorimar-Telepictures executive Irv Holender – in a joint venture with MG/Perin, a New York City-based syndicator – to distribute the TV show. Through Holender McLane met Meshulam Riklis, chairman of Rapid-American Corporation, a multifaceted organization that owned many companies and properties, including Fabergé Cosmetics (which would become GLOW’s main corporate sponsor) and the iconic Riviera Hotel and Casino (where GLOW would shoot their TV show). Through Riklis, Matt Cimber was brought on board to help with creative and direct the show; he had recently directed the movie “Butterfly” starring Riklis’ then-wife Pia Zadora. GLOW went on to become a hit TV series, and as they say, the rest is history. Matches were taped for TV on Saturdays using a casino crowd, rather than fans of pro wrestling. For McLane, he and most of the original cast left the show after the second season supposedly over a dispute in creative direction in which McLane wanted the show to be portrayed more like traditional pro wrestling. In contrast, Cimber wanted to keep the low-brow campiness. While the show had many memorable characters like Hollywood and Little Egypt, perhaps the most famous was Tina Ferrari, portrayed by Lisa Moretti, who would later go on to have a Hall of Fame career in the WWE as Ivory. McLane would go on to create POWW (the Powerful Women of Wrestling), the World Roller Hockey League, Pro Beach Hockey and the Triple Crown of Polo. Today, McLane is the co-owner of the Los Angeles based WOW (Women of Wrestling) along with Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss.

By no means was GLOW the end all to be all of pro wrestling in Vegas. Another legendary pro wrestling brand, the American Wrestling Association, held shows at another iconic Las Vegas facility, the Showboat Hotel and Casino (later known as the Castaways Hotel and Casino before being demolished). Based out of the Twin Cities, the AWA started presenting shows at the Showboat in 1983, and a few years later began taping their TV show there. Geographically, Las Vegas made sense to tape TV as Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Vancouver were all part of their travel circuit. Initially, the TV show was taped locally in Minnesota at the KMSP-TV studios but was moved when they got a contract with ESPN in order to give the appearance that the company could compete on the same level as the WWE (then known as the World Wrestling Federation), which at the time had recently expanded nationally. With a roster that included the likes of Sgt. Slaughter, Larry Zbyszko, Ray Stevens, Greg Gagne, Baron von Raschke and perennial champion Nick Bockwinkle (who made Las Vegas his home before his death in 2015), the Showboat was anything but an upscale facility, and to wrestling fans in general Las Vegas was viewed as a glamorous location for them. Behind the scenes, however, the AWA was on its last leg and by 1991 went out of business.

Announcer Mick Karch, who worked with the AWA as an announcer while they shot TV at the Showboat, had this to say about the events there: “The promotion itself was in decline at the time and only had a few years left. The glitz, glamour and prestige of running shows in Las Vegas along with an ESPN contract made the AWA, at least on paper, look like a viable and thriving promotion. It was fun while it lasted, and the Showboat was a great venue.”

Not long after the AWA’s demise, Las Vegas became a regular stop for both the WWF and its main competitor, the Turner Broadcasting owned World Championship Wrestling. It was commonplace to see WCW events held in conjunction with the annual NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) conventions, where TV shows are bought and sold and during major holidays as Sin City is one of the few places that stay open 24/7/365.

But they’re not the only ones who planted a flag in town. While Eastern Championship Wrestling was making headlines back in Philadelphia by changing their name to Extreme Championship Wrestling under the ownership of Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman, the Universal Wrestling Federation and its owner, Herb Abrams, was trying to stay afloat. At one point, Abrams’ UWF had a regular weekly timeslot on SportsChannel America, but that was about to come to a screeching halt. Herb, who had made his money in the garment industry manufacturing and selling clothing for plus-sized women, spent a fortune trying to establish his brand of wrestling using talent that had previously worked for other organizations such as “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, Bam Bam Bigelow, “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, Masked Confusion (Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell, formerly known as the Killer Bees in the WWF) and others. Abrams made a deal with the MGM Grand to hold an event on September 23, 1994, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena called “Blackjack Brawl,” which would be broadcast live on SportsChannel America. Despite an amazing array of talent on the card that included the aforementioned talent plus Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack), Sid Vicious, Bob Orton, Jr. and John Laurinaitis (as Johnny Ace), the event was a disaster, drawing only 600 people to the 17,000 seat arena. Those close to Abrams at the time knew this would be the swan song for the promotion as Herb, who was Jewish by birth, had become intoxicated during the event and during the live broadcast, shouted, “Let’s hear it for the Jews!” As predicted, “Blackjack Brawl” was to be the last event ever produced by the UWF, and the promotion officially closed in 1996 when Abrams passed away.

As so much as Las Vegas has seen its fair share of successful and not so successful events, there is a bit of a nefarious side to the local wrestling scene as well.

James “Buffalo Jim” Barrier was a local businessman who opened an auto repair shop, Allstate Auto & Marine, near the Strip. During the 1980s and ‘90s, he was also the owner of a local wrestling promotion named after himself – Buffalo Wrestling Federation. As an entrepreneur, auto repair specialist and wrestling promoter, Barrier became friends with several celebrities, including Muhammad Ali and Hulk Hogan, and owned an extensive collection of celebrity memorabilia that included a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair. In 2005, Barrier was voted “Las Vegas’ Most Colorful Character” by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, describing him as “a modern Renaissance man.” Unfortunately, Buffalo made headlines not for his wrestling school or promotion, but rather for his death. Buffalo won a lengthy court dispute about parking spaces with his neighbor and landlord, Rick Rizzolo, former owner of the Crazy Horse Too gentlemen’s club, which was located next door to Barrier’s repair shop. Rizzolo was court-ordered to sell the nightclub to satisfy debts. When the business did not sell, the U.S. Marshals Service seized the property in September 2007, forcing its eventual closure. Rizzolo was released in late-March 2008 after serving a year in federal prison on a racketeering and tax evasion conviction in U.S. Federal court. The Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported, “On the morning of April 6, 2008, the body of James Barrier was found in a Motel 6 on Boulder Highway, an older section of Las Vegas near a residential area. According to police, Barrier was found lying in bed, face-up, with an empty prescription bottle of Valium on the nightstand and his pants pulled down around his ankles.” On May 27, 2008, 8NewsNow.com reported, “The cause of James ‘Buffalo Jim’ Barrier’s death has been attributed to cocaine use. According to the coroner, the cause of death was cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed.” Additionally, 20 mg of GHB in Barrier’s system, but was not seen as a factor leading to his death, according to a June 26, 2008, Las Vegas Sun article. While Barrier’s death was ruled accidental by officials, friends and family have publicly stated that his death was a murder and remains unsolved. 

As you have seen, our fair city has certainly had an intriguing if not interesting past when it comes to pro wrestling, but as they say in the wrestling business, it’s time to “go home” or wrap things up. We’ll do so with the biggest wrestling event, stature-wise, that ever took place here.

In 1991 the then WWF wanted to present its cornerstone event, WrestleMania, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a facility that would hold more than 100,000 fans, and that could potentially break the record of 93,000-plus that was set by WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silver Dome four years earlier. When ticket sales were light, the WWF switched the venue to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, a building that held just over 16,000. Still, the WWF’s head honcho, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, wanted to have a show at the Coliseum, and two years later, he actually did – on the grounds of Caesar’s Palace. Decorated like the Roman Coliseum, the facility was the very first WrestleMania to be held outdoors, and with nearly 17,000 fans in attendance, they got an eyeful. The ten match card featured several well known WWF Superstars, including Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Sean Michaels, Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan among others. The event also saw the WWF debut of “JR” Jim Ross doing TV commentary, and the late Luna Vachon as a valet. Although the event itself only drew a $1.1 million gate and a 2.3 pay-per-view buy rate, it set the stage for events to come by, proving that wrestling could produce an outdoor event for PPV and that Las Vegas itself could draw big wrestling crowds.

While some great wrestling took place in Las Vegas’ past, Sin City continues to be a hotbed for the entertainment-based sport. In the time since WrestleMania IX took place here, the WWE continues to make annual stops in Vegas and recently drew close to 20,000 at the T-Mobile Arena, while its other brand, NXT, drew nearly 2,500 to the Pearl Theater at the Palms.
 
Both Ring of Honor Wrestling and Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA), two smaller national touring promotions frequently have events in Las Vegas and have held shows at both the Orleans Arena and Sam’s Town Live. A local promotion, FSW (Future Stars of Wrestling), runs monthly shows out of its training facility and quarterly super shows at Sam’s Town Live.

In 2015 Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling held TV tapings at the Orleans Arena. From 2015 to 2016, Paragon Pro Wrestling called Las Vegas home with a show on Destination America and then Pop TV. And in 2018 Ring Warriors taped shows at Sam’s Town Live, which were broadcast on WGN America.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that AEW, All Elite Wrestling, which appears on TNT on Wednesday nights, launched in Las Vegas with its first event in May 2019 called “Double or Nothing” at the Grand Garden Arena and will return to that facility on May 23, 2020, with a pay-per-view titled “Double or Nothing 2.”

So it’s pretty obvious, when it comes to pro wrestling, What Happened in Vegas, continues to happen, over and over again.