In 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave an historic speech in Fulton, Missouri, a small central Missouri town between St Louis and Kansas City. Since this speech, world royalty Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Michail Gorbachev, Gerald Ford, and George Bush followed Churchill to Fulton.

From the big picture above, but on a smaller scale, in 1999 Harley Race started a wrestling school and promotion in Eldon, Missouri, another small Missouri town between St. Louis and Kansas City. On October 3rd, this school and promotion celebrated its tenth anniversary by attracting world renowned wrestling royalty to this small Missouri town to pay tribute to Harley. NWA world champ Terry Funk joined fellow NWA champ Harley Race as did WWF world champ Bret Hart, and WCW world champ Big Van Vader. Multi time regional title holders Bob Geigel, Tom Andrews, and Roger Kirby added more celebrity to the occasion. Ten years longevity for a school and a regional independent wrestling promotion is as rare today as the one-hour draws that some of these guys would wrestle on a regular basis.

The World League Wrestling 10 year anniversary show was held in the Eldon High School gym. The gym was decorated with multiple banners paying tribute to the regional and state achievements of Eldon's volleyball teams. The big sport of the moment in Eldon though is pro wrestling WLW style and Eldon's most famous resident (according to the Wikipedia website) and sports person is Harley Race. Harley was introduced and called to the ring by singer Dale Blue who entertained the crowd prior to the matches. Harley mentioned wrestling both Bret Hart and Bret's father Stu Hart. Those that did not know, were informed the Race name trumped the famous Funk name on two NWA title winning occasions. Harley said he was both Big Van Vader's manager and friend. (Eldon is located close to the Lake Of The Ozarks which just may be the biggest boating area in the country. I am not one for pictures but getting a picture of Vader parasailing at The Lake, if that ever happened, would be a keeper.) Fellow Central States stars Geigel, Andrews, and Kirby got their names shouted out. Trevor Murdoch one of WLW's most successful students came to the ring. Trevor recalled having his first match at the Eldon high school gym and then gave a heartfelt thanks to BJ and Harley Race for all their help and friendship. By the way, debuting in two weeks as Eldon's newest business is T Murdoch's Bar&Grill. Next, the man who started in 1965 calling the Central States TV action was introduced, Bill Kersten. Bill's pipes seemed as strong (or stronger) as ever and this was amply evidenced by a demonstration of his signature attention grabbing “HELLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wrestling fans.”

A hot tag opened the card and this set the pace for the rest of card as the matches and the crowd stayed hot all night long. This was followed by a six man tag and then by a three way match. Can't recall the names of all the workers so go to www.harleyrace.com to get more info on all the fine athletes who performed.

Then the ring announcer (who is very good at his job) made a comment on the “integrity” of the promotion. That was interesting as often in the business the words integrity and wrestling are separate and distinct. Congrats to Harley, BJ, and all those involved to inspire an announcer to make a sincere statement like that.

During the first intermission about 40 fans payed $25 to have their picture taken with all the wrestling legends.

This card was the culmination of a week long wrestling camp. The 62 participants were introduced and they all came out wearing their camp t-shirt and walked around the ring. WLW has a relationship with Japan's NOAH promotion. A tribute was paid to NOAH's executive who recently passed away, Mitsuhara Misawa. The camp participants pounded their hands on the ring apron and filed out. Next up was a Chris Masters look a like in both body and arrogance. Calling the crowd “white trash” he received strong boos from most of the crowd and from the rest of the crowd a kind of “yeah, so what's your point” attitude. He went against the charismatic Vietnam Phenom and they matched cheers and boos and got the crowd hot again after the long intermission. Coming to the ring next was a lady (Becka) billed as the strongest woman in the world and who looked it with her flexing and posing. She went against a lady named Lucy and also against yet another generational athlete whose family knew she would get top training from the Race school. Amy Henig came out with the WLW ladies belt and left without it but not before showcasing her athletic ability. Before one gives too many accolades to Harley and BJ for the ten years of WLW, heel manager Johnny Gold let the crowd know that it is indeed he who should get credit for whatever WLW has achieved. Johnny then proceeded to manage his tag team to a defeat in the next hot tag match.

Next up was Harley receiving more accolades and awards in the form of plaques from the NOAH promotion, Japan's Pro Wrestling Weekly, and Japan's Samurai TV. This was followed by a spontaneous “thank you Harley” chant from the crowd. Then there were more giveaways to the crowd by the fan friendly promotion with items donated from the national promotions. The main event for the WLW title featured Brian Breaker managed by Johnny Gold against champion Superstar Steve (a former Cauliflower Alley Club honoree). While nobody believed manager Johnny Gold was responsible for WLW's 10 years of success, they did see he was responsible for Superstar Steve losing the WLW title to close down the entertaining evening.

The WLW's 10 year anniversary show was the closest connection to old time traveling territorial wrestling at its finest. The only thing missing to complete this connection was there was no Waffle House in Eldon.