Thomas A. Renesto

Like Dundee would start, uh, getting his chance to b- to have the book.

Um, and then you would, and then, and as the '80s went along, then you get people like Tom Renesto getting his chance with the book.

Uh, Robert Fuller books, you know? You get Dutch books.

I mean, you get, you get these different people.

... especially Lawler.

But still, you know, they would still, I mean, Dundee would go back and forth and, you know, he leaves Memphis South and comes back to Memphis in '85 as the booker.

He replaces Tom Renesto as the booker, and Renesto was a failure, a big failure in '85 as a booker.

And Dundee comes in, immediately the territory, you know, is, gets back hot again for a while until Lawler does the Lose or Leaves, and all that happens after that.

What was funny, though, is Doug was on the Briscoe and Bradshaw podcast.

And somehow, Tom Renesto's name comes up.

And I can tell Doug's getting ready to bury him.

And before he can say anything, Jerry Briscoe goes, Oh, he was such a good, one of the best bookers.

The Magnificent Zulu was -- This was way past his prime, which was not very good in the ring.

Uh, and other than -- We, uh -- Do we have any idea who the Super Assassin number one was? Because again, Jody Hamilton to Tom Renesto, the Assassins were the- Big team in, in Georgia wrestling, so they're trying to leech off of that.

But, uh, uh, it, it- I don't know if Shotgun Austin or Man Mountain Goliath ever made it.

Johnny Ringo may have, uh, may have been a big star if he had kept with it.

But he was the most persistent.

The suit, which has been in litigation since 1976, contends the NWA and GCW had blackballed Wilson as a wrestler because of his starting a rival wrestling organization.

In addition to the NWA and GCW as defendants, individuals named are Paul Jones, president of GCW, Tom Renesto, a booker for GCW, James Barnett, majority stockholder and chairman of the board of GCW, Fred Ward, GCW vice president, and Eddie Graham, president of the NWA.

In September 1974, Wilson and another wrestler, Thunderbolt Patterson, who was one of the strongest draws among black wrestlers, were instrumental in forming the International Wrestling League.

I swear to God, he rode...

Tom Renesto was the booker.

And he says, can you give that guy a ride tonight? And I didn't really want to take him because he weighed 500 pounds.

So he got in my car, and he didn't get in the front seat.

Sure.

And, and, you know, also Tom Renesto and the workers.

Right.

Because one day- Y- y- you know how the boys are.

Tom Pritchard's still green to the business, but he was thrown right in, thrusted right into the limelight, I guess you could call it, maybe, in Los Angeles, uh, as o- one of the, uh, upper tier le- level workers there.

You know, he's told the story about breaking into the business, being sent to Portland, but he had a stop off in LA on the way to Portland, and the LaBelles maybe, you know, with Tom Renesto, whomever was booking at the time, there were a l- a lot of people involved in it.

But maybe somebody, you know, kinda conned him into staying by, by telling him, "Well, they don't need you in Portland anymore, Tom.

You gotta stay here," because they wanted to keep him.