THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES... By Rock Rims

     “If I could make it there I can make it anywhere” might’ve been song lyrics written about New York, but in the 1960’s world of professional wrestling, the same thing could probably have been said about any territory with a strong television presence.  Los Angeles certainly had that and Lonnie Mayne had certainly made a good impression there.  But as would be his habit, he would soon get the itch to move on.

   In October of 1966 Lonnie had a match against the original Paul Diamond at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene, Oregon, and apparently he hadn’t gotten enough of either Diamond or Oregon because he returned on November 4, to defeat Diamond, this time in Portland.  For the rest of the month Lonnie occupied himself with wrestling Diamond, participating in an 8 man battle royal, tagging up with a visiting Pat Patterson, and giving Diamond the occasional breather by taking on a different opponent.

   And it was in December that business would really begin to pick up.  “Tough” Tony Borne had recently beaten Shag Thomas for the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight title and as if didn’t already have enough on his plate defending that belt, he would have his hands full with a new responsibility.

   “Lonnie came to the area and Ken Mayne, his father, phoned me and said ‘Kind of look after him’.  Little did I know what a job this would be”, Borne recalled years later.  “I did know that Lonnie possessed much talent.  Also he had strength that was second to none.  Everything he did was different and this included his lifestyle.  To Lonnie every day was like Christmas and mornings when he awoke his eyes would sparkle like a little boy arising on Christmas morning.  He was a guy with a big heart and couldn’t say no to anybody.  At times I would get so angry with him I wouldn’t speak to him for days, but he would always win a person back with his unselfish ways.”

   “Tony Borne was really the strength behind Lonnie’s start in his whole career,” reflects Lonnie’s younger brother, Shawn Mayne.  “Tony just really brought him along.  Lonnie had been around the business all his life, so he had that natural feel for it.” 

   Pacific Northwest promoter Don Owen wasn’t terribly impressed with Lonnie his first few weeks in the territory but Tony Borne went to bat for Lonnie, suggesting that the two become a tag team and in no time at all the pair began the first of what would be 11 Pacific Northwest tag team title reigns for them as partners, unseating Pepper Martin and Shag Thomas on December 14, 1966.  It would also be the beginning of a very heated feud between Mayne and Pepper Martin, the professional wrestler and sometimes ringside commentator.

   “When he came to the Northwest, the wrestling fans in the Northwest had never seen anything like Lonnie Mayne.  He would do crazy stuff, and he just got over,” Martin would later say.  “He just got over like a million dollars.  I mad a lot of money with him in the Northwest.” 

   The feud, consisting of both tag team matches as well as singles matches, was intense, with many of the matches ending in disqualification, enough times that sometimes they’d have matches with a “no disqualification” stipulation.  On June 26, 1967, Lonnie Mayne would defeat Pepper Martin in a Texas Death match in Portland, and their feud was pretty much at an end…for now.

   Other feuds would commence, including those with Paul Jones, Johnny Kostas, and Stan Stasiak, Luther Lindsay, Dean Ho, and after a falling out between the pair, Tony Borne as well.  Tony Borne proved to be right when he had told Don Owen early on that Lonnie “has got more color than any man you’ve ever had here.”  Lonnie had established himself as both a top heel and a big draw, enough so that he was tabbed to square off against Gene Kiniski on November 28, 1967 in Portland, for Kiniski’s NWA World Heavyweight tile.  Kiniski would win the first fall and in the second, Lonnie Mayne would prove that he was more than just a brawler, as he pinned Kiniski after a leap off the top rope.

   Don Muraco witnessed Lonnie’s high flying on numerous occasions, including his first night working in Portland: “”Lonnie Mayne was standing on the top turnbuckle and somebody drop kicked him from the back and he went right from the top turnbuckle right onto the cement.  This is 1970.  You talk about “Cactus Jack” Mick Foley…Lonnie was taking insane bumps!”  Muraco would also add: “I could have seen him taking a bump off a cage, given the opportunity and the venue.  He was like that.” 

   Ron Bass, who worked with Lonnie in Texas, Portland, and Los Angeles echoed those sentiments.  “He was one of the first ones of the high flyers.  Period. He’d be soused to the gills, but you’d never know it in the ring.  He was a top flyer, man.”

   However in the match with Kiniski, Lonnie’s aggressive manner got the better of him and he continued to beat on the defending champion who was still prone on the mat after having been pinned.  Lonnie was disqualified and would lose the match before the third fall even got started, but there would be more opportunities, both for title shots and mayhem.

 

Time For A Change

 

   Along with reigns as the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion and another tour of Japan near the end of 1968, Lonnie and Tony Borne would patch things up and reunite as a tag team to battle with Kurt and Karl Von Steiger over the tag titles.  That reunion would eventually break up again and Lonnie would change his ways, becoming a “good guy” and forming an alliance with Dutch Savage against the new villainous duo of the Skull and Bull Ramos. 

   The late great Dutch Savage said on his website regarding Lonnie Mayne: “Lonnie was one of the better workers to ever come out of the Northwest.  He was my partner for a couple of years after I turned face.  We made an awful lot of money working against one another before he left for Hawaii.”

   “Lonnie Mayne made Bull Ramos in Portland, Oregon” Ramos would later say.  Contrary to what people believe, Bull Ramos didn’t actually break Lonnie’s arm in a match but rather it was a way of explaining Lonnie’s absence while shuttling back and forth between the Northwest and Hawaii.  In addition, it was a great way to “put over” Bull Ramos as a heel, as Lonnie never hesitated to do what was good for the business and to help those he worked with. 

   Working in Hawaii, Lonnie continued to distinguish himself as an impact player in pro wrestling, wrestling to time limit draws with the likes of Sam Steamboat, Mil Mascaras, promoter Ed Francis, and winning the NWA Hawaiian Heavyweight title from Bearcat Wright.  Unfortunately for Superstar Billy Graham, who was also working in Honolulu at the time, Lonnie didn’t take it easy on inanimate objects either.  Always curious as well as mischievous, Lonnie wondered what it’d be like to body slam a friend off of the first floor balcony of the hotel they were staying at.  Not wanting to injure his friend on the concrete, he figured the roof of Graham’s car would make a much better landing spot.  He was right, as his friend walked away without injury, but the roof of Graham’s car was caved in.  There was never a dull moment in the life of Lonnie Mayne. 

 

Enter The “Moondog”

 

   1973 rolled in, and so did Lonnie Mayne, or rather “Moondog” Mayne, into New York and Vince McMahon Sr.’s World Wide Wrestling Federation.  While Lonnie had nice exposure in Los Angeles and Portland, and had wrestled in the historic Olympic Auditorium, New York’s Madison Square Garden was still considered to be the “Mecca” of pro wrestling venues.  The Lonnie Mayne who hit the East Coast wrestling rings was indeed a Wildman and every night he lived up to the reputation he quickly established for himself there.  After defeating a succession of preliminary wrestlers he beat ring veteran Chief Jay Strongbow on January 13^th in the Boston Garden, a site where the wrestling fans were almost as rabid in the stands as he was in the ring.  And then 2 days later, after being in the area only two weeks, he was in the main event in Madison Square Garden.  As always, his path to the main event was the same as his path in life: In the fast lane.

   On January 15^th “Moondog” Mayne attempted to take the WWWF World Heavyweight title from Pedro Morales, and while he was unsuccessful in the attempt, it wouldn’t be his last opportunity.  Mayne would take enlist “Captain” Lou Albano as his manager and continue to challenge the champion up and down the East coast, including a title shot he earned after winning a battle royal in the Boston Garden in front of 15,600 screaming fans.  

   His character, charisma, and ring psychology captured the imaginations of East Coast fans as well as the wrestling magazines, in which articles appeared describing their shocked responses to his baying like a wild dog in the middle of the ring, his brutal assaults on his opponents and his eating glass during interviews.  Even though his time in the WWWF would be brief, his impact on the East Coast scene was memorable.  Nearly 40 years later while being inducted into the 2012 WWE Hall of fame, “Iron” Mike Tyson cited Moondog Mayne as one of his favorite and most memorable wrestlers from his childhood.  In between title shots Mayne also battled Tony Garea, Gorilla Monsoon, and even the “Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino, and occasionally paired up with another ring legend, “Classy” Freddie Blassie.

   However on June 29, 1973, Lonnie’s time in the WWWF would come to an end in Madison Square Garden. Ever the professional, Lonnie did what was good for the business, putting over Haystacks Calhoun and getting pinned cleanly in the middle of the ring in a little over 6 minutes. 

   His time there was memorable not only for the fans but also memorable for him as well.     Shawn Mayne remembers: “He had come home for a visit and he told my Dad, ‘You know this guy, Vince Jr., he’s really something.  He’s going to go places.  He doesn’t think like the other promoters’ meaning that he really thought out of the box.”  It was one creative mind and innovative mind showing appreciation for another.

   However on June 29, 1973, Lonnie’s time in the WWWF would come to an end in Madison Square Garden. Ever the professional, Lonnie did what was good for the business, putting over Haystacks Calhoun and getting pinned cleanly in the middle of the ring in a little over 6 minutes.

 

 

 

Going Back To Cali

   In the fall, Lonnie would begin an extended run in San Francisco working for promoter Roy Shire, and this time, the Northern California fans would get the “Moondog Mayne” treatment.  Wrestling announcer and commentator Joe Sousa remembers first seeing Lonnie Mayne on Portland television in 1972 while he was living in Medford, Oregon.  “I was nine years old and he was wrestling as a ‘good guy’ when I first saw him and I thought ‘This guy is awesome!’”

   However Lonnie soon went to New York and then San Francisco, where Joe could resume following Lonnie’s exploits.  “Living in Medford, not only could I watch Portland wrestling on television, but on cable we could also see wrestling from San Francisco.  Referee turned Wrestler Ed Moretti would later give me heat for that because I had the best of both worlds” Joe recalls with a laugh.  “The ‘Moondog’ character was quite different from the Lonnie Mayne I saw in Oregon.”

   It would also be a reunion of sorts for Moondog Mayne and Pepper Martin, although not nearly as pleasant.  Martin had retired from the ring after an injury sustained in a match with Lonnie several years earlier in Oregon, and had turned to acting part time and doing ringside commentary during Roy Shire’s “Big Time Wrestling” television shows, with the occasional wrestling match thrown in for good measure.  His commentating style was one that sometimes led to verbal confrontations between him and some of the heel wrestlers.  On one occasion he made the critical mistake of calling Lonnie “crazy”.

   Long time San Francisco wrestling fan Fred Lazarus remembered that incident vividly: “Mayne busted open Pepper Martin and commentator Hank Renner went nuts, yelling over and over again, ‘My friend! My friend!  What have you done to him?!’  Then at the Cow Palace when Pepper got his chance at Moondog, you know the outcome…Moondog busted him open again big time and Pat came to the rescue and that started their feud!”

   The match that Fred Lazarus spoke of between Lonnie and Pepper took place at the Cow Palace was on October 13, 1973, and the “Pat” that he referred to was Pat Patterson, former “bad guy” but current “good guy,” as well as the current United States Heavyweight Champion.  He had just successfully defended his title against Dutch Savage that night and now he had his sights set on Lonnie Mayne.  And that suited the Moondog just fine.  – RR

 

 

I’d like to thank Shawn K. Mayne, Joe Sousa, and Fred Lazarus for sharing their fond memories of Lonnie Mayne. - RR

 

 

Sources:

Wrestlingdata.com

“Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels” By Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson

“Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Team” By Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson

Don Muraco Shoot interview – RF Video

“Regional Territories: Pacific Northwest” by Mike Rodgers – Kayfabememories.com

DutchSavage.com

“’Apache Bull Ramos Still Battling” By Greg Oliver- Slam! Wrestling, October 13, 2014

Thehistoryofwwe.com

RON STARR: GOOD AT BEING ROTTEN - PART II - By Rock Rims

                                                                   About Face

     In 1980 while the Southern California wrestling territory still had some talented workers, the roster wasn’t anywhere near as deep as it once was and ticket sales and interest were becoming negatively affected.  Ron Starr along with John Tolos were the biggest heels at the time but they were sorely in need of a strong babyface to work with.  Chavo Guerrero had been the top babyface for years but he was wrestling less frequently in the territory as he was earning more money on his tours of Japan and was occasionally doing shows in other U.S. territories as well.

     Walter Johnson was given a push but both his promo skills and ring work were solely lacking.  While Al Madril, Tom Pritchard worked well in the ring and Chavo’s brother Mando was even better, they all lacked the charisma and presence that Chavo had.  He had left some awfully big shoes to fill.

     By this time, Ron Starr had begun teaming with Tolos and the decision was made to turn Ron into a “babyface”, a “good guy.”  While Ron preferred to wrestle as a heel, the fans responded well to his face turn and one of the most hated heels in the territory was then voted “The most popular wrestler” in the area by the fans as he now had begun to battle Tolos and his cronies.  And it was late in the year that Al Madril was receiving a beatdown in the Olympic Auditorium ring as Ron Starr stormed the ring and delivered standing dropkick after dropkick, including a missile dropkick off the top rope to even up the odds.  The fan response was tremendous as many were jumping up and down and screaming enthusiastically as their new hero was cleaning house of Tolos, the Assassin, and Prof. Ito.

     But while this type of fan reaction to Ron Starr was something new in L.A., it had been going on for nearly two years up North in Roy Shire’s Big Time Wrestling promotion and almost nearly as long in Don Owens’s Portland Wrestling territory.

Anything but “Rotten”

     It was late in 1978 that Ron Starr entered Roy Shire’s Northern California territory but as would be his habit, he was quick about making an impact.  In his first few months in the territory he would have 2 reigns as one half of the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team champions, first with Dean Ho and then later winning the tag team titles on November 23, 1978 with partner Enrique Vera, who was a former National Champion and future UWA Heavyweight Champion in Mexico.

    Ron was soon positioned as one of the top babyfaces in the promotion engaging in both a singles and tag team feud with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski who were managed by the hated Dr. Ken Ramey, who was excellent at drawing heat.  While Big Time Wrestling was undoubtedly at it’s strongest during the 60’s, this feud was definitely a bright spot in the late 70’s and featured 4 people who were all excellent when it came to cutting compelling promos.

     “Roy liked the way I did my promos” Ron says.  “He said ‘I like that you don’t yell and scream like so many other guys.’” And the feud was one that Ron enjoyed working and considering that things were changing for California Wrestling as a whole, it still did well and was even later extended to the Portland Wrestling territory as well.

     “I liked Buddy Rose and felt that he was a real good worker and good on the mic.  He was this fat, pudgy kid and sometimes he would ‘blow up’ on me a little bit in the ring but he would always drag out enough to do what he needed to do in the match.  He’d get winded but I’d just tell him ‘Just stay down for a minute and catch your breath’.  Yeah, he was a good guy to work with.”
 

     Ron began to be pushed more as a singles wrestler and won the Annual 18 man San Francisco Battle Royal in 1979 which included the likes of Superstar Billy Graham, Dory Funk Jr., and Harley Race, and was awarded a trophy as well as a $30,000 dollar check.  Later that night he would face Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight title.  Actually, Ron wasn’t the opponent that was originally slated to face the World Champion that evening in the Cow Palace.

     “Jimmy Snuka was originally scheduled to face Harley for the title but he missed his flight.  I then went up to Shire and said, ‘Hey Roy, I don’t want you to think I’m an asshole or anything, but since Snuka couldn’t make it, I’d like to be the one to wrestle Harley for the title.  I think we could have a good match.’ “

     “Roy thought about it for a second and said, ‘I think you’re right.  Alright, you’ll be in the match with Harley tonight.” Ron then went out and cut a promo to set up the match.  “I went out and got on the mic and said ‘I know that Jimmy’s not here and he was supposed to wrestle Harley for the title tonight, but since he’s not here…I’ll challenge Race for the title…that is if he’s man enough to accept the challenge!”

     Snuka had been in the territory for a few months by that time and had been engaging in a feud with the United States Champion Buddy Rose over the title belt.  Although he was popular, the Cow Palace fans in attendance cheered enthusiastically when it was announced that Starr would in fact be substituting for Snuka and facing Race for the World Heavyweight title.  “They just ‘popped’ when they heard that.”

     Robert Counts who grew up within walking distance of the Cow Palace and was a regular for years at the wrestling events, was there that night at well and remembers his reaction to the announcement.  “I was thrilled!  Though Snuka was popular and impressive, Ron was a step higher in most minds.  Starr was the technical wrestler that I always felt could out wrestle most, and out maneuver the rest.  The ‘dumb wrestler’ is the one who interferes with the twenty count at 18, and instead of attacking, would argue with the ref.  I was a fan who wanted the story to make sense, and Starr was ‘real’, as far as that’s possible to be in wrestling.  Snuka could hit Race with a crowbar and get rolled up in a small package by Race.  That wouldn’t happen to Starr.”

    Starr’s match with Race would be the first 1 hour Broadway (draw) that he was ever involved with.  Always priding himself on never “blowing up” or running out of gas, the match with the Wrestling Legend was a new experience for Ron.

        “I thought I was going to drop dead before it was over!  You talk about someone who could run you ragged…Harley Race could do it.  I was really nervous, worried that I might make a mistake or mess things up because I was in there with Harley Race, even though I had years of experience.  But Harley, he just took me by the hand and led me through it.”

     Roy Shire had definitely taken notice of what Starr could bring to the table, and as it turned out, he was not alone.

     “Buddy had gone up to work for Don Owens in Portland and Roy Shire then asked me ‘What do you think about working in Portland?’  I told him ‘I’ll go wherever you want me to go.’  My first time wrestling there I heard that Roy was talking with Don Owen while watching my match with Buddy Rose and Roy said ‘Now that’s what I call wrestling!’  I liked working there and we taped at the Portland Sports Arena, which was an old skating rink and Don Owen was always pretty good about the payoffs.  The first night I was there I heard some of the other guys griping about the payoffs but I told them ‘I don’t know what you guys are complaining about, because I’ve been to a lot of different territories and I’ll tell you, just from tonight, this is the one with the best payoffs yet.’”

     Tagging with Adrian Adonis, Ron continued the feud with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski as it had worked so well in Shire’s territory and in April of ’79 they defeated Rose and Wiskowski for the Pacific Northwest Tag Team titles.  Ron was beginning a collection of titles as the month before, he had defeated Piper at the San Francisco Cow Palace for the U.S. Heavyweight title.  That feud was also extended to Owens’s territory and even featured a memorable angle where Starr came to the rescue of Women’s wrestling legend Vickie Williams.  Apparently Piper felt that all women should stay in the kitchen and tossed Vickie around before Ron intervened. 

     Like several of the wrestlers in the area, Ron split time during 1979 between Portland and San Francisco, driving back and forth to shows.  In Northern California he also picked up another rival in Bob Sweetan as they competed over the U.S. heavyweight title.  Another veteran that Ron would face is Ernie Ladd, whom he wrestled on the annual San Francisco Battle Royal card on January 26, 1980.  After a brief stop in the Leroy McGuirk’s Tri-State area, Ron soon wound up in L.A. where he split time between there and Roy Shire’s territory for much of the remaining year. 

     Roy Shire had been burnt out on the wrestling business for a few years by that point and by his own admission was running out of finishes and creative ideas.  The strongest years for his promotion had been during his first 24 months of operation and since then there had been a gradual decline in attendance at the shows.  Even when Patterson and Stevens were on top during the late 60’s and early 70’s there were fewer and fewer sellouts at the Cow Palace and 8,000-9,000 attendance numbers became more and more the norm, and by the time the late 70’s rolled around, it was more like 5.000-7.000.  While there were occasional spikes in attendance, they were rare and more often than not came on the nights of the annual battle royals.

     Shire would close shop in early ’81 and Ron Starr would work then work a bit for Antone Leone’s Western States Alliance promotion which was running shows in some of Shire’s former towns.  Ed Moretti worked as a referee for Roy Shire and later as a wrestler before Shire’s promotion closed.  Like many, he had great respect for Ron Starr and even faced him in the ring and had this to say about him on WrestlingClassics.com:  “Bobby Eugene Nutt (Rotten Ron Starr) is/was one of the best workers I have ever seen, a really nice guy, a good booker…”  With a great track record as a worker, Ron would soon be off to new territories, reprising some old roles and finding himself in new ones.

 

Next time: We’ll visit some of the other places Ron’s career takes him, we’ll also travel back to the beginning, and we’ll hear the good advice Ron gave Hulk Hogan.