For old school fans of the territory days, you may have recognized a star from the 70s and 80s make his return to professional wrestling this past weekend when “The Universal Heartthrob” Austin Idol returned to professional wrestling for the first time since the 90s (not including the occasional reunion or legends one-offs here and there) during NWA World Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm‘s announcement at CZW Cage of Death XIX on Saturday. Idol introduced Nick Aldis, who invoked his “any time” rematch clause and went on to defeat Storm and become the new NWA World Champion. It was announced shortly after that Idol had returned to pro wrestling as Aldis’ manager.
Austin Idol began his career with NWA territory Championship Wrestling of Florida (CWF) in 1972 under the name Dennis McCord before jumping to the WWWF a year later and wrestling under his real name, “Iron” Mike McCord, and managed by Captain Lou Albano. He had a lengthy feud with Tony Garea as well as battles with Andre The Giant, Manny Soto, and El Olympico, and even had three WWWF World Heavyweight title matches against then-Champion Pedro Morales (all in losing efforts). He lasted just over a year before he headed back to CWF. In 1975, he was onboard a Cessna airplane flown by wrestler Buddy Colt that crashed into the waters near the Davis Islands off of Orlando. McCord and Colt suffered injuries to their feet (Colt never wrestled again), and Gary Hart suffered wrist and back injuries (forcing him into a strictly managerial role for the rest of his legendary career). A fourth passenger, Bobby Shane, drowned in the crash. McCord missed an entire year of wrestling and only wrestled minimally in 1977 as well. But in 1978, he mounted a comeback and completely overhauled his gimmick to monumental success.
Following a lengthy layoff recovering, Idol dropped 100 lbs. and instead of the stocky powerhouse he’d portrayed for the past six years as “Iron” Mike McCord, he returned bleach blonde and ripped as “The Universal Heartthrob” Austin Idol. His new character went to Georgia Champion Wrestling (GCW) and immediately made an impact, winning the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship and twice capturing the NWA Georgia Television Championship.
From there he would move on to Memphis and Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), where he would have epic feuds with Jerry “The King” Lawler, starting with beating Lawler for the CWA Southern Heavyweight title in December of 1978. Throughout his CWA run until 1987, Idol was a 4x CWA International Heavyweight Champion, CWA World Champion, 3x Southern Heavyweight Champion and multi-time tag team champion, most often with his former rival Jerry Lawler.
In the early 80s, Idol also wrestled for NWA Mid-Atlantic and grappled with many of the superstars of the era, including feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Ron Bass and Paul Jones, but never reached the same success he had in Memphis.
Following his departure from CWA in 1987, Idol headed to Japan and for two years competed with All-Japan, often teaming with Stan Hansen, whom he won tag team gold with during his AJPW tenure. In his second year with All-Japan, Idol switched partners and began to work with “Wildfire” Tommy Rich.
He returned to the US in 1989 and returned to the Memphis area, spending his final years working with USWA and his old nemesis Jerry Lawler. He left USWA around 1994 and officially retired in 1998.
With the new NWA ownership looking to push the honoured legacy of the NWA‘s Golden Years, it’s nice to see a territory great like Austin Idol making his return.
