Big Time Wrestling – also known as the American Wrestling Alliance ( AWA ) or National All-Star Wrestling , and sometimes referred to as NWA San Francisco – was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in San Francisco, California , in the United States. Founded by "Professor" Roy Shire (1922–1992) in 1960, the promotion emerged as one of the most profitable in the United States thanks to its "red hot angles " and "good TV". The promotion's heartland was the San Francisco Bay Area , with the Cow Palace as its core venue, but it also ran regular shows in cities including Fresno , Las Vegas , Oakland , San Jose , and Sacramento . Shire folded the promotion in 1981.
28-627: From November 1935, professional wrestling in San Francisco was dominated by Joe Malcewicz's NWA San Francisco promotion, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance . After sustaining a severe knee injury, NWA San Francisco wrestler "Professor" Roy Shire decided to move into promoting in direct competition with Malcewicz. In October 1960, Shire registered the Pacific Coast Athletic Corp. with
56-517: A bout between Mitsu Arakawa and Bill Melby, the event recorded an attendance of 16,553. A show staged by Malcewicz three days later attracted 2,841 people. Shire would ultimately prevail and NWA San Francisco folded in 1962. Together with Los Angeles –based Worldwide Wrestling Associates , Big Time Wrestling challenged the control of the NWA over the Pacific Coast . In Shire's first year of trading,
84-474: A dozen towns and cities in Northern California and Nevada . On November 26, 1949, Malcewicz joined the newly-formed National Wrestling Alliance . His promotion became NWA San Francisco, the NWA affiliate for San Francisco, giving Malcewicz an effective monopoly over professional wrestling in the area. He remained a member until 1962, although his membership briefly lapsed in 1956–1957 when he
112-622: A live show recorded in the KTVU studio that aired at 19:00 PST on Friday evenings, originally hosted by Bill Welsh and then by Walt Harris. Shire would later begin producing a second weekly show, Big Time Wrestling this one airing on KOVR . Big Time Wrestling was originally hosted by Harris, then later by Hank Renner. Shire staged his first show in the Cow Palace in Daly City on the outskirts of San Francisco on March 4, 1961. Headlined by
140-505: A tour of Japan. Bouts between the Sharpe Brothers and Rikidōzan provided a patriotic outlet for citizens of occupied Japan , with the Sharpe Brothers using villainous tactics against the heroic Rikidōzan, who would inevitably rally to defeat them, drawing chants of "Long live Japan!" Malcewicz regularly recruited athletes from other sports in an attempt to create new stars. Crossover athletes appearing with NWA San Francisco during
168-567: The California State Athletic Commission over Malcewicz's objections. Big Time Wrestling was an "outlaw" promotion that did not respect the territorial boundaries decreed by the NWA. Shire secured a television slot on the fledgling independent Oakland television station KTVU in 1961 and spent several weeks airing tapes of matches from the Midwest . In January 1961, he began airing National All-Star Wrestling ,
196-526: The Kezar Pavilion as a cost-cutting measure. Despite this, Shire prevailed in the short territorial battle, with his roster – built around the flamboyant aerial performer Ray Stevens – proving more popular than the slower-moving heavyweights who made up Malcewicz's roster, and Malcewicz folded NWA San Francisco in 1961. He died on April 20, 1962, of a heart attack. Leo Nomellini Leo Joseph Nomellini (June 19, 1924 – October 17, 2000)
224-532: The Marine Corps . It was there that in 1942, he first started playing football. After the war , he received a football scholarship to the University of Minnesota , where he became a two-time All-American and the 49ers' first NFL draft choice in 1950. While at Minnesota, Nomellini was a member of Delta Chi fraternity. Nomellini was selected in the 1st round (11th overall) of the 1950 NFL draft by
252-836: The NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) . Four months later, Nomellini and Gino Garibaldi won the NWA Pacific Coast Tag Team Championship. In April 1953, Nomellini regained the NWA Pacific Coast Tag Team Championship while teaming with Enrique Torres when they defeated Fred and Ray Atkins. Nomellini and Torres defeated the Mike and Ben Sharpe on May 6, 1953, for the NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) . On May 11, 1954, Nomellini teamed with Rocky Brown to defeat
280-594: The San Francisco 49ers , the NFL draft in which that former All-America Football Conference team was a part. As a professional, he appeared in 174 regular-season games and started 166 for his 14-year career. While with the 49ers, he played both offensive and defensive tackle , winning All-Pro honors at both positions. He was selected to the All-NFL team six times: two years on offense and four years on defense. "He
308-693: The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship on several occasions in the 1920s. He retired from professional wrestling at the age of 38 and moved to promoting . In November 1935, he succeeded Jack Ganson as the leaseholder of San Francisco's New Dreamland Auditorium , buying out Ganson's interest for $ 15,000 (equivalent to $ 333,000 in 2023) after Paul Bowser and Toots Mondt convinced him to step aside. He held his first show on November 26, 1935. Malcewicz subsequently entered into an agreement with Dan Kolov that gave him exclusive rights to promote wrestling events in
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#1732798705729336-404: The 1950s included strongman Doug Hepburn and National Football League players Art Michalik , Gene Lipscomb , Leo Nomellini , and Cy Williams . After sustaining a severe knee injury, NWA San Francisco wrestler "Professor" Roy Shire decided to move into promoting in direct competition to Malcewicz, defying the territorial boundaries decreed by the NWA. In October 1960, he registered
364-532: The Los Angeles–based promotion was involved with many successful shows during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Attendance was not robust enough to support regular appearances and the promotion did not return; the next wrestling show in Anchorage was not until 1974, featuring talent booked through Detroit's Big Time Wrestling . By the late-1970s, attendances had begun to dwindle. In 1979, Big Time Wrestling
392-475: The Pacific Coast Athletic Corp. with the California State Athletic Commission over Malcewicz's objections. In response to the threat posed by Shire's Big Time Wrestling promotion, Malcewicz – who had long resisted the emergence of televised wrestling, fearing it would compete with live events – begun running shows each Monday night on KTVU in 1961, as well as moving from the Civic Auditorium to
420-580: The Sharpes and win the NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) . In 1957, Nomellini, again teaming with Torres, defeated Lord James Blears and Ben Sharpe for the NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) . While working for the National Wrestling Alliance , Nomellini once defeated Lou Thesz in a two-out-of-three falls match, but was not awarded the NWA World Heavyweight Championship because
448-527: The championship on 18 occasions. In 1951, Malcewicz and 50th State Big Time Wrestling promoter Al Karasick organized the "Shriners" tour of Japan. Malcewicz and Karasick built a strong relationship with Rikidōzan and his Japan Wrestling Association , with the promotions trading wrestlers across the Pacific. In May 1956, the Sharpe Brothers briefly lost the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship to Koukichi Endo and Rikidōzan during
476-554: The first fall was a disqualification. Also Nomellini wrestled in Hawaii where he feuded with Gene Kiniski . Nomellini would leave NWA San Francisco to head to Minnesota to work for Verne Gagne and the NWA Minneapolis Wrestling and Boxing Club . On May 15, 1958, Nomellini, teaming with Verne Gagne defeated Mike and Doc Gallagher for the NWA World Tag Team Championship (Minneapolis version) . He would win
504-524: The matches he promoted were staged. NWA San Francisco NWA San Francisco was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in San Francisco , California in the United States. Founded in 1935 by "The Utica Panther" Joe Malcewicz (1897–1962), the promotion joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1949. It traded until 1961, when it folded due to competition from the upstart Big Time Wrestling promotion. The promotion's heartland
532-474: The organisation for a period in the early-1970s. KTVU cancelled Big Time Wrestling in 1970. In 1970, Shire secured a new deal with the Sacramento station KTXL , airing Big Time Wrestling at 19:00 PST on Saturday evenings. The show featured Hank Renner as play-by-play announcer. He was later joined by Pepper Martin as color commentator . In 1970, the promotion expanded into Anchorage, Alaska , where
560-552: The promotion brought in revenue of $ 175,000 (equivalent to $ 1,784,298 in 2023). Big Time Wrestling promoted shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area . Its base was the Cow Palace, where it held shows each Friday. Together with his bookers , Johnny Doyle and later Red Bastien , Shire built the promotion around the principles of "action, high spots and realistic matches". Shire positioned Ray Stevens as
588-460: The promotion's main heel . The promotion's flagship event was an annual 18-man battle royal , with the winner receiving storyline large sums of money. As Big Time Wrestling expanded, it began promoting in other Californian cities including Fresno and Sacramento , as well as Las Vegas in Nevada . In August 1968, Big Time Wrestling became a member of the NWA. Shire served as vice-president of
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#1732798705729616-620: The title again on July 14, 1959, while teaming with Butch Levy and defeated Karol and Ivan Kalmikoff. He would win it for the last time on July 19, 1960, once again teaming with Gagne and defeating Stan Kowalski and Tiny Mills . Nomellini won his final professional wrestling championship on May 23, 1961, when he and Wilbur Snyder defeated Gene Kiniski and Hard Boiled Haggerty for the AWA World Tag Team Championship . He retired from wrestling in 1965 in Hawaii. Nomellini died on October 17, 2000, after suffering
644-555: Was San Francisco, with the San Francisco Civic Auditorium as its core venue, but it also ran shows in other Northern Californian cities including Fresno , Oakland , Richmond , Sacramento , San Jose , Santa Rosa , Stockton , and Vallejo . "The Utica Panther" Joe Malcewicz was born on March 17, 1897, in Utica, New York . He had his first recorded professional wrestling bout in 1914 and challenged for
672-623: Was a seven-time tag team champion in wrestling for two different versions. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969 and to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1977. Nomellini was born at Lucca , Tuscany , Italy , and immigrated to the United States as an infant to Minnesota, before later moving to Chicago, Illinois , where he attended Crane High School . After high school, he joined
700-563: Was an Italian-American professional football player and professional wrestler . He played college football for the Minnesota Gophers and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 1950 NFL draft . He played 14 seasons as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL), all of them with the 49ers, playing his first three years as an offensive tackle as well. Nomellini
728-662: Was as strong as three bulls," said 49ers teammate Joe Perry . "He'd slap you on the back and knock you twenty feet." He was selected as the defensive tackle on the NFL 50th Anniversary All Time Team. During the off-season Nomellini often wrestled professionally as Leo "The Lion" Nomellini debuting in Minnesota in 1950. For his career, he was a 10-time tag team champion. He won his first tag team championship in NWA San Francisco on March 14, 1952, when he teamed with Hombre Montana. The duo defeated Ben and Mike Sharpe for
756-556: Was cancelled. In 1980, Shire suffered a heart attack. A burned out Shire retired from promoting in January 1981 after Verne Gagne 's American Wrestling Association , through local promoter and former wrestler Leo Nomellini , moved into San Francisco. Shire's final show was a battle royal at the Cow Palace that reportedly drew $ 64,000 (equivalent to $ 214,000 in 2023). In 1984, a disgruntled Shire gave an interview to The Sacramento Bee in which he broke kayfabe by acknowledging all
784-427: Was late signing paperwork. Over the course of his membership, Malcewicz sat on both the board of directors and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship committee. In 1950, Malcewicz created the NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) , the second regional NWA World Tag Team Championship . Malcewicz built a strong tag team division, with the top stars including brothers Ben and Mike Sharpe, who held
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