http://www.luchawiki.org/index.php?title=Les_Thornton His debut match in Mexico was teaming with Mil Mascaras & Ringo Mendoza against Alfonso Dantes (whom he later feuded with), Gran Markus, & Sangre Chicana. Interesting that he was a technico in Mexico, since by 1980 he was primarily a villain in the U.S. and Canada.

It was a bigger issue with three "World" titles, albeit ones that got some token coverage in the British press but didn't make their way to Europe for actual defenses (outside of three appearances by the AWA World Champion in Germany--two by Verne Gagne in 1972 and one by Nick Bockwinkel in 1981). That was something the boxing world used to make fun of wrestling over, until the rise of boxing's alphabet-soup era in the 1980s.

Supposedly the practice of actual belts being on the line (as opposed to being a reward for winning a championship, to be kept by the winning boxer) started in wrestling and moved to boxing afterward.

If he's protected by rule from an attack, then shouldn't a count be administered? I'd walk over to a neutral corner and tell the ref to either count Saint out or make him engage first.

According to wrestlingdata, Verne apparently worked two shots in Germany in late September 1972, one match against Steve Wright and then one again Dave Morgan. Verne Gagne vs Billy Robinson,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue9Zs1yS3Jk Verne's title match with Billy Robinson in 1974 drew about 22,000 fans to Chicago's Comiskey Park in what is probably the biggest show in AWA history--their quasi-infamous WrestleRock '86 show drew about the same number of fans to the cavernous Metrodome in Minneapolis, but it was sort of a last-gasp show for a promotion that had seen its best days already. 1974 was much closer to the peak of the promotion.

The Super Destroyer in Japan was Canadian Don Jardine, more commonly known as the Spoiler. The Super Destroyer name was used multiple times in the U.S. as well. Scott Irwin being the most prominent, as well as his brother Bill (with whom he often teamed as the Super Destroyers), Jardine, "Super Destroyer Mark II" (who would later become Sgt. Slaughter, managed by Alfred Hayes), and "Super Destroyer Mark III (Neil Guay, who also wrestled as the Hangman among other names.)

I think the Dr. Death nickname is just coincidence. Steve Williams got that nickname in junior high school when he broke his nose and had to wrestle in a hockey goaltender's mask (this was pre-Friday the 13th or he'd probably have been nicknamed Jason). Jerry Lawler's King gimmick, while hardly original, also pre-dates the Harts' appearances in UK rings by several years.

Great stuff. Because this is the type of thing I notice, I'm about 90% sure that "The Sheik" that Robinson wrestled on that Winnipeg bill was Adnan al-Kaissie. I don't know of Farhat working for the AWA at that time, though he and Robinson definitely met up in the ring in Japan and maybe other places.

If you're going to do a "celebrity wing" then Trump was as good of an inductee as any at the time. His Atlantic City properties hosted two WrestleManias (4 and 5) and he was part of one of the most successful PPVs in history (the Trump vs. McMahon hair vs. hair stip at whichever Mania that was). Even took a Stunner from Steve Austin in the process. All this was more innocent when he was just a goofball businessman/TV host and not the worst President in American history.

There's also further film footage of Kendo hanging out with Hayes in Japan, sightseeing, so Hayes was definitely there. Almost all of IWE's foreign talent was European in its early days, since most NWA promotions had working agreements with the JWA. When the JWA split into New Japan and All-Japan in '72, things changed, but even then, most American talent that worked IWE came through the AWA.

The film is of a 6-man tag, and these are the 6-man tags he competed in on that tour: IWE Dynamite Series - Day 10 1968/10/05 @ Yokohama, Kanagawa (Japan) Great Kusatsu, Thunder Sugiyama and Tadaharu Tanaka defeated George Gordienko, Mr. Guillotine and Al Hayes IWE Dynamite Series - Day 13 1968/10/09 @ Kanuma, Tochigi (Japan) Masao Kimura, Takeshi Oiso and Tadaharu Tanaka defeated Mr. Guillotine, Al Hayes and Mammoth Suzuki by disqualification IWE Dynamite Series - Day 16 1968/10/13 @ Shibata, Miyagi (Japan) Great Kusatsu, Mammoth Suzuki and Toyonobori defeated George Gordienko, Mr. Guillotine and Ray Hunter That's definitely Al Hayes as his partner, and I believe the guy in the white trunks on the opposing team is the Great Kusatsu, so I'm inclined to believe that it's the 5 October match.

Tyrone went back to Japan in the mid-'90s and this time wrestled under the name Nigel Towers for reasons unexplained.

Ritter was the JYD, yes. Duke Kono would be better known as Siva (or Sivi) Afi. Jones appears to have been in Stampede from February through April of '79, usually wrestling against Bret or Bruce Hart.