Billy Robinson’s Stampede Days

By Ron Historyo

Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.

In The Wrestler magazine Bob Leonard wrote some fantastic reports of Billy Robinson’s 1969/70 Calgary tour. Bob though was an insider as well as a great journalist. He stuck to kayfabe. I partly work the statistics and show the working of the business from the point of view of how it was all repeatedly played out. Bob almost makes you believe that some of these battles were a one off fight of a lifetime.

By 1968 I speculate that there was not a lot of challenge for Bill Robinson. He undertook the first of many visits to Japan. Wrestling in Britain was still healthy but it has to be said that Billy was simply World Class. In the early sixties Billy had battled his mentor Billy Joyce more times than you could imagine and slowly turned into the more dominant one. These must have been great exhibitions.

It was not just by a little but Billy had something to spare if pitted against Albert Wall, Gwyn Davies or Geoff Portz’ and even Kendo Nagasaki had been lucky that the promoters had decided that he was not to be unmasked by Billy. The only man who perhaps could hold his own reputation was probably Gordienko on his long visit here.

As I have mentioned before there are some great statistics sites on the web these days and we owe them a lot, and I believe that in 1969, just five weeks in,Stampede Wrestling was Billy’s first visit to North America. I will qualify that by stating that Bill did wrestle in America first, but only in the far off state of Hawaii.

Opponents were such as Dave Ruhl, a Stampede veteran and main booker, who significantly Billy had been working with over in Japan just a few months before, one wonders if this was the way in. Also the Stomper Archie Gouldie who looked a fearsome adversary, all leading up to a statistically recorded battle with Dory Funk jr on July 7th in Calgary.

However there is a story behind this match that on June 26th at Calgary, Stomper Gouldie walked out mid match and went to Stu Hart and quit. At the time he was champion but it seems Robinson would not sell and had no respect for him, giving him a real roughing up.

By default Robinson was awarded the title which seems to fit as after that he was billed as champion on the bills that I have found. And for sure Gouldie went missing. Strangely on July 4th July, Billy and Gouldie were billed in the evening paper at Medicine Hat, and I can only assume that if history is correct then this must have not gone ahead.

The thing is though, was that it was Gouldie who was supposed to be fighting Funk in Stampede week and Billy was now a North American Champion. So it was champ against champ.

Funk held a version of the world title and it did not belong to Stampede and Stu Hart, so it was by special arrangement that Funk would fight in Stampede, but not a cat in hells chance that he could drop the strap to anyone.

Stampede, however had two of the very best wrestlers in the world to boost their shows. What kind of money was paid we can only speculate, because the scale was nothing like Bret Hart v Davey Boy at Wembley or for that matter Big Daddy v Haystacks.

For those of us older fans , this was simply “The old days.”

Lets get it into perspective though, the normal Calgary venue was the pavilion with a capacity of less than 2000. For the most part Friday night was TV night.

But July was the month of the Calgary Stampede and The Corral was the venue for this one and the Corral was on a Monday night. For the Corral , think the Kings Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, possibly Britain’s biggest regular wrestling hall. Yes a capacity of 6500 and good wages.

How did it go? Well they had to work hard , with Robinson gaining the lead with a back drop and Funk getting level with a spinning toe hold. The battle played out for an hour and was a time limit draw with Funk retaining, but no doubt a fine exhibition. And, of course, our hero Billy was to finish the tour still the North American Champion.

Now you might think that this was a monumental occasion and a rare occurrence.

The trouble is that I have already looked at Nagasaki in Stampede, and what materializes is that the roster is actually pretty small although to a good extent ever changing. Also, the main cities had the dominant night whilst some smaller town hosted house shows that I have proved were just a repeat of the City show. The same was true in the UK , but the UK was not a circuit of a few venues like the Stampede Wrestling Loop.

So what looked to be a famous classic on the one hand is just a little exposed by the fact that after Monday at the Corral, the bout was repeated at least once on the loop, as I have found the battle again on the Friday at Medicine Hat.

I really don’t know how the house shows were viable as, for example, the The Westerner venue was a capacity of only 400. And does the result matter? Well, I don’t really think so, because for me, how many more times have they met that we don’t know about?

I always say, where there is one there is more, and there are many more undiscovered bills than those discovered by all of us researchers. Furthermore, according to the Meltzer report it states that four one hour draws were done on the circuit over two weeks and also that Funk won on a KO at Saskatoon.

I have no real reason to disbelieve that, just a bit frustrated that we don’t seem to have picked up the evidence statistically, nor can I find the newspaper reports. It is no wonder with the endless repetition of wrestling bouts that the press did not deem reports and results important.

Wrestling was not boxing. To us wrestling fans, the result, the memory and the nostalgia are paramount, but that is the nature of the deception. The Canadian Press had it sussed.

I will leave 1969 claiming that Billy may have been unbeaten or might just have dropped a match to Funk and state that this was the first glimpse of Britain’s finest in North America. Our hero was off to Australia via Hawaii for the rest of the year.

The new year of 1970 saw Billy back with Stampede Wrestling, the stay was to be eight weeks, but for sure this time he worked a full time schedule doing the loop. Again if the history sites are to be believed, Stampede brought Billy back still as champion. It does seem to check out.

Talking of champs. The week he arrived back Billy crossed paths briefly with Danny Lynch who was Canadian heavyweight champ at the time, a story that I have also told on this site.

The Loop at this time was about 470 miles across and at it’s greatest depth nearly 300 miles. A six day a week circuit of travelling across parts of two states.

Dromo was a Canadian family man who was a good big guy of about six three about the same age and experience as Robinson. He could wrestle a hard and tough bout making it look real. In the main Robinson won most of the bouts with Dromo hanging on for an odd draw.

As always with ever changing Stampede at this time Abdullah was the man, and what a man. If you know anything about WWE,he is in the hall of fame. In truth Abdullah was a Canadian from Ontario, again a similar age to Billy, real name Lawrence (Larry) Shreve. Specializing in gory blood matches he went on to be Stampede North American champion six times. He was sued by another wrestler who he bladed without consent and infected with Hepatitis C.

For the first month of 1970 Robinson remained champion and it was the 6th February when the title changed hands at Calgary. Each Friday night was to be a repeat fight. The initial script was that Billy had Abdullah on the rack with his powerful back breakers only for the Butcher to somehow get a slippery pin (maybe a foreign object at work). On the 13th Abdullah won again and on the 20th this time it was Robinson who had put up 1000 dollars if he was not victor. At one fall each Abdullah went out of the ring banging his head and whilst dizzy Billy finished him. The newspapers described Billy as one of the most popular wrestlers ever in Stampede.

Here is the souvenir and even though not advertised as a title match, before and after newspaper reports confirm the details that I have stated.

The next week there were at least three other shows where they met, in Edmonton, Lethbridge and Saskatoon probably with all the inconclusive results you could imagine, because it was almost always that the title had to change hands at Calgary. And so it proved for the fourth Friday night in succession with Abdullah grabbing the title back on the 27th. In one more week Billy was off to Japan so his swan song was to fight The Butcher probably at every venue such was the nature of the Loop. Hence we are talking Edmonton Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in Alberta and then Regina and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. And in those matches there were at least three more defeats. A fifth Friday night 6th March they were billed again at Calgary, but the match never happened and Billy had gone with less than a week away from the world series in Japan. Instead Abdullah started a feud with Ursus with a double DQ.Two short stints in Stampede and that was it, Billy was to do a lot more in North America but no more for Stu Hart. My guess is that it was the size of the roster. Having said that, Stampede have always had a damn good product and an illusion of a bigger company due to their skill of changing the roster round with short term contracts. On the face of it Billy did not get many clear cut wins over Abdullah, but he had a two time champion run and thrilled the fans.

Robinson’s Stampede Bouts

9/1/70 beat Alex the Butcher at Calgary
12/1/70 fought Alex the Butcher at Lethbridge
14/1/70 beat Alex the Butcher at Saskatoon
15/1/70 beat Alex the Butcher at Regina
16/1/70 fought Jack Kris at Calgary
18/1/70 fought Alex the Butcher at Edmonton
19/1/70 fought Dan Kroffat at Lethbridge
21/1/70 beat Dan Kroffat at Saskatoon
22/1/70 beat Dan Kroffat at Regina
23/1/70 beat Gil Hayes at Calgary
25/1/70 fought Gil Hayes at Edmonton
26/1/70 fought Gordon Ivey at Lethbridge
28/1/70 beat Gil Hayes at Saskatoon
30/1/70 beat Bill Dromo at Calgary
1/2/70 beat Dan Kroffat at Edmonton
2/2/70 fought Gil Hayes at Lethbridge
3/2/70 fought Angelo Mosca at Medicine Hat
4/2/70 tagged with Dave Ruhl to beat Bill Dromo and Gil Hayes at Saskatoon
5/2/70 beat Jose Quintero at Regina
6/2/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Calgary (Title Lost)
8/2/70 beat Bill Dromo at Edmonton
9/2/70 fought Bill Dromo at Lethbridge
11/2/70 drew with Bill Dromo at Saskatoon
12/2/70 tagged with Dave Ruhl and lost to Dromo and Hayes at Regina
13/2/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Calgary
15/2/70 fought Abdullah the Butcher at Edmonton
17/2/70 fought Bill Dromo at Medicine Hat
18/2/70 beat Bill Dromo at Saskatoon
19/2/70 tagged with Ruhl against Dromo and Hayes at Regina
20/2/70 beat Abdullah the Butcher at Calgary (Won Title)
22/2/ 70 lost but by DQ to Abdullah the Butcher at Edmonton
23/2/70 fought Abdullah the Butcher at Lethbridge
25/2/70 fought Abdullah the Butcher at Saskatoon
26/2/70 beat Bill Dromo at Regina
27/2/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Calgary (lost title)
1/3/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Edmonton
2/3/70 fought Abdullah the Butcher at Lethbridge
3/3/70 fought Abdullah the Butcher at Medicine Hat
4/3/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Saskatoon
5/3/70 lost to Abdullah the Butcher at Regina
6/3/70 billed to meet Abdullah at Calgary (Pulled out….off to Japan)

Read Billy Robinson in Australia