I received some interesting stuff from clipcorner last week. He had been to Savannah, Georgia to do some more research. There were three newspaper articles and one ad about the first IWA TV taping to take place there on January 6, 1975.
 
Among the most interesting things to me were some of the wrestlers advertised to appear but did not, at least I don't recall them being on the tv show.
 
First there was Tarzan Tyler who was billed in each article as the North American Heavyweight Champion and one of the articles contained a photo of him wearing a belt. This may be why Ox Baker was recognized on those first shows as the North American champ but wore no belt.
 
Next, Crusher Verdu was reported as the champion of Spain. Hans Schmidt was listed as the German champ and Dory Dixon the West Indies Champion. It was going to be International Championship Wrestling. The day before the taping, the number of wrestlers appearing was reported to have increased to 40 up from the previously advertised 30.
 
The ad announced that the show would be taped for World- Wide distribution. For any of you who have the tapes or DVD's of the shows where Doug Weather's is the ring announcer and Ox Baker is announced as the North American Heavyweight Champion, I believe those are from this first taping.
 
George Cannon was reported to be the one putting this show together.