Filling in some Southwestern and Rocky Mountain champs

[Hammer to Fall]

A couple of months ago, I put together results for Albuquerque from 1951-mid 1959. I kept up with champions as they came through the area.

The dates listed by each champ are the dates of the Albuquerque card which mentioned them as champ. For example, Frankie Murdoch was listed in the paper as being Southwestern champ as early as the June 29, 1951 card and as being such as late as August 10, 1951.

Miguel Lopez is better known as Mike DiBiase. I'm not 100% for sure, but I believe Mike London began promoting in Albuquerque in October 1951.

tc = title change
All the title changes I've verified took place in Albuquerque, unless noted. Where 'tc' is marked, the name(s) listed directly above is/are the one(s) he/they won the belt from. I know a good bit of the lineage of the Rocky Mountain title.

SOUTHWESTERN JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP
Dory Funk - 03-29-51
Frankie Murdoch - 06-29-51, 08-10-51
Dizzy Davis - 12-07-51
Dory Funk - 01-11-52, 04-04-52
Tony Morelli - 04-11-52, 04-18-52
Ivan Kalmikoff - 12-05-52
Dory Funk - 07-03-53
Bob Geigel - 10-15-54 said to have won tourney, 03-25-55

SOUTHWESTERN HEAVYWEIGHT
Dory Funk - 08-29-52
Ivan Kalmikoff - 11-07-52

SOUTHWESTERN TAG
Cowboy Carlson/Dory Funk - 08-08-52
Dory Funk/Cowboy Carlson - 06-26-53
Cowboy Carlson/Dory Funk - 05-24-54
Bob Geigel/Dr. Gallagher - 54, (lost in Lubbock)
Jesse James/Johnny James - 11-19-54, 01-14-55
Bob Geigel/Boris Kameroff - 02-04-55
Danny Plechas/Ben Sherman - 05-30-55

SOUTHWESTERN JUNIOR TAG
Pepper Gomez/Gory Guerrero - 09-17-54, 10-01-54

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHAMP
Danny Loos - 52
Juan Garcia - 05-05-52 tc
Al Williams - 07-07-52 tc
Danny Loos - 52
Juan Garcia - 08-04-52 tc, 09-29-52
Hans Schanbel - 53
Miguel Lopez - 04-27-53 tc
Danny Loos - 55
Juan Garcia - 08-15-55 tc, 09-19-55
Lee Grable - 56
Tom Renesto - 02-13-56 tc
Juan Garcia - 06-20-56, 02-25-57
Danny Plechas - 04-08-57 tc
Cyclone Anaya - 04-08-58 tc
Rip Hawk - 06-30-58 tc
Ricky Romero - 09-22-58 tc
Danny Plechas - 12-01-58 tc
Lou Thesz - 02-09-59 tc
vacant - 02-24-59 (after Thesz-Plechas match on 2/23)

ROCKY MOUNTAIN TAG
Danny Plechas/Ali Bey - 53
Fred Blassie/Miguel Lopez - 03-30-53 tc, 06-01-53
John Simms/Jack Allen - 04-11-55 tc (probably a one night tournament; did not win belts from Blassie/Lopez)
Jack Allen/Jerry Woods - 56
Juan Garcia/Elias Garcia - 05-28-56 tc, 01-28-57
Jerry Woods/Rip Hawk - 07-14-58
Danny Plechas/Rip Hawk - 58
Miguel Lopez/Juan Garcia - 11-24-58 tc
Al Costello/Roy Heffernan - 59
Juan Garcia/Tommy Phelps - 02-16-59 tc
Doug Donovan/Art Nelson - 07-06-59 tc

NEW MEXICO STATE CHAMP
Stan Kowalski - 55
George McKay - 10-21-55 (won from Kowalski)

NEW MEXICO TAG
Golden Terror/Danny Savich - 52
Juan Garcia/Pierre LaBelle - 04-22-52 tc

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Thanks for the info!

According to Tim Hornbaker's NWA history book, London started promoting in Albuquerque in the late 40s and then bought the El Paso territory. He also got the promoting rights of Denver in Jan., 1950 and was admitted to NWA as a rep in Denver in Sep of that year.

Is it possible that SW Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight titles are actually the same title...? I have separate listings for those titles on this site, but more results I find, I started wondering they may be the same title after all and newspaper/promoter sometimes made mistake and billed it as a heavyweight title.

[Hammer to Fall]

Looks likely that it's the same belt, considering Kalmikoff is listed as holding each. Both Albuquerque newspapers generally did a pretty good job reporting, but during the early 1950s, they could be a little suspect.