Wrestling Heritage

The Calgary circuit

Geoff Portz, perhaps one of the most under rated wrestlers we ever had in the UK. A trail blazer. A man I enjoyed very much on T.V. and live and a man that was not so far behind anyone rated as world class.

In 1968 Portz had fought in the Summer series in Japan, and in 1971  had spent a short time in Germany.  Always worth a mention that in Germany Portz worked with Don Vines, Terry Rudge and Tony Charles who again were perhaps never to get the recognition that they should have had with Joint Promotions. In Japan Portz worked with Ian Campbell and the Outlaw, even doing triple tag. I remember being at the bill above, right near the end of 1971, a draw with Billy Howes, and probably the last time I saw Geoff live.

By March 1972 Portz had gone. Arriving in Stampede enough months ahead of Kendo Nagasaki to get established in Stampede Wrestling. Kendo was another story and there are legends of his defeats, unsubstantiated, but one defeat I did nail fair and square was that Portz did beat Kendo in December of 1972 to take back the Stampede North American title. Don’t ever knock Portz, he impressed enough to get a clear pinfall decision over Nagasaki, and it was pretty much kept secret for many decades.​

The difference between the Nagasaki tour of no more than 5 months and the short five and eight week stays of Billy Robinson in Stampede was that Geoff stayed for almost a full year. It was a one time only experience, but in that time I believe that Portz hit the pinnacle and that it is here on Heritage that we should just stop and analyze his achievements.​

In writing Stampede articles on Nagasaki and Robinson I have established that Stampede Wrestling was a very successful deception of a company looking huge. Probably a territory about the same size and shape of the old English kingdom of Wessex  and a wrestling Roster that probably never had even two dozen wrestlers at any one point in time. A spot on local television every week and the slack taken up by a few part timers, even Stu Hart himself was still at it when required.

The sheer number of people who did wrestle in Stampede made it look huge, because the constant changing of all except core members helped with the illusion. Crowds were as little as a few hundred at house shows and probably seldom reached 2000 except  every July  if Stampede week showed wrestling at the Corral.​

The earliest I could find Portz is on the bill below against veteran Frank Butcher. A good man to work with for your induction. The jewels in the crown at this time were Tor Kamata and Abdullah the Butcher
 

By staying a long time Portz was able to test himself against a far bigger variety of opponent than probably any other British Wrestler. Not only were the two above a big challenge but there also fights with George Gordienko and Dory Funk Jr.

​In my Nagasaki in Stampede write up I explained how Portz had lost the North American belt to Kendo for exactly three months and then regained it, a secret here in the U.K not just at the time but for many decades, unless you were part of the inner circle . In that time Portz and Kendo met a minimum of fifteen times, such is the true nature of wrestling. Not unusual over a longer period anywhere in the world, but accentuated in Stampede because of the small roster.

September – December 1972 after the Calgary Stampede was a relatively quieter time. Nagasaki had his glory and in the end so did Portz, but we have only just found out.

It is my tribute to Geoff that I am not going to produce the statistics for all his fights on this tour. I found over 100 bouts and in twelve months Geoff took a couple of breaks. For example he seemed to be missing for most of October 1972 after dropping the title. It is possible that he was injured.

What I will say about Portz is that he worked with them all and did lots of tag and triple tag and Battle Royal. My tribute is to show that Portz took on some greats. Lets start with Calgary Stampede week.

Stu Hart was only able to tempt Dory Funk to do a week or so with his promotion and as Billy Robinson had found, you were not permitted a win over Funk. That title did not belong to Stampede. It travelled with Funk.  I am a little surprised that this special event was only at the Victoria Pavilion as other years the Corral had been used. Sadly I cannot report a result although a loss to Funk is described in a Bob Leonard article in The Wrestler magazine, but as we are now learning, these events were not as special as we had always imagined. The word multiple time comes to mind. 

Friday 7th at Calgary
Monday 10th at Taber
Tuesday 11th at Red Deer
Thursday 13th at Regina

That final bout was a time limit draw, so whatever way the series went Geoff  has to come out of it with a lot of credit.

What I can prove is that they did not do a full seven days, because on the Saturday 8th at Edmonton Portz fought Gordienko and again the following Friday the 14th at Calgary he fought Gordienko again. I feel really cheated at no results here as on the 14th Funk fought The Stomper Archie Gouldie and won on a controversy, but no mention of the Portz/Gordienko match in the write up.

A week like that is an incredible thing to have on your CV.

I can tell you however that Portz and Gordienko had fought on the 9th June at Calgary and that had been a one hour 1-1 result. This match was a title defence as the week before Portz had taken the title off  Tor Kamata at Calgary.

With regards Gordienko, Portz also met him at Edmonton in the December of the same year 1972 and again at a House Show in Taber.

So there we have it four matches with Funk and five with George Gordienko identified and certainly the possibility of more. Below is the first time Portz won the title.

Portz and Kamata swapped the title twice over and worked together in multiple fights leaving a difficult trail as to how many times it was actually swapped. Kamata though was the real deal and a great opponent to work with. For some reason Nagasaki appears not to have met him in singles competition.

As well as Geoff Portz’s series with Nagasaki he also had multiple bouts with Les Thornton.. In my opinion both made for each other. They had a no contest in Regina and an unknown verdict in Edmonton.

The most difficult  bout at this time seems to be with Abdullah the Butcher. Stu Hart valued this man and one wonders if it was the way he was so willing to spill his own blood to great effect. Billy Robinson had gone through a perceived struggle to get much from Abdullah and I think so it proved for Geoff. I found them five times, three of them being at Calgary.

​​Not even one month after Portz had defeated Nagasaki to regain the title he lost it  to Abdullah. After leading 1-0 Portz was pounded by the 300 pound monster until he could not continue.
 
About seven weeks later Portz made another attempt and was leading again through his speciality Air Plane Spin when Geoff received an Elbow smash neck breaker and again ended up outside the ring unable to recover in time.    
As far as I can find, I don’t think Geoff ever got awarded a decision over Abdullah, but you just never know in wrestling. Having covered his highlights, I can only leave the reader to speculate on Geoff’s finest hour. From a British point of view it may the defeat of Nagasaki,

​But then again what about being good enough to take Dory Funk all the way?

Or what about getting the title off Kamata? 

Well it is subjective and I will give you my view on it. Geoff Portz was born in 1931 and so was 41 when he had this great year with Stampede wrestling. He took with him more than two decades of experience and he fitted in.​

In the 1960’s six British men were chosen to be champions. Robinson, Joyce, Wall, Davies, Ian Campbell and Portz. I think the promoters got it right.  News from Stampede was choked out, we the fans were cheated, there was no internet in those days. We were fed a small slice of kayfabe. After all the years I went to wrestling to see if Kendo Nagasaki would be defeated, Portz never got the credit back home. He did it.

Geoff went on from Stampede to work in the AWA both sides of the border so continued to be seen in Canada in Winnipeg. Also small galleries of his time in USA and Winnipeg. In the main Stu Hart was swapped for Verne Gagne as his employer.

His finest hour though……..for me……most of it.

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