Barry Bernsten

In March of 2011, former Arizona promoter Barry Bernsten died from what most are saying to have been a heart attack. He was laid to rest in Scottsdale this March 6. Aside from his past efforts at running wrestling, he also operated The House Of Karate in Phoenix.

During the early 1980s, Bernsten ran weekly shows at a small building on 40th Street and Van Buren. Among the regulars were Cowboy Bob Yuma, Mr. Wrestling, The Lumberjacks, Masked Frankenstein (The Monster for Labell in Los Angeles), Pedro El Grande, John Ringer and Jody Arnold.

The promotion also booked wrestlers in transit from Texas to California and in reverse, which saw Rick Davidson, Steve Gatorwolf and some others appearing on the cards. Usually, they feuded with
the aforenoted Jody Arnold.

Independent wrestlers Mike Contreras, Two Ton Henkle, The Black Mamba and The Mercenary got their start with this office.

Superstar Billy Graham did some shows here as a tune up for his feud with Bob Backlund in the WWF.

Others who appeared for this promotion at varied times included Eddie Dean, Eddie Sullivan, Nano Ortega, Benny Mendeblis, Ron Newstrome, Sadie & Sherri, The Little Princess, Sneaky Red Smith,
Miss Arizona Red, The Viking, Farmer Jones, The Invaders, Christopher Henderson (Christopher Love/Bert Prentice), The Detroit Mauler, Mean Joe Madrigal, Curly Joe, Hollywood Brown, Miss Crystal Ball (a woman with a shaved head), Danny Snyder, Eli Hernandez, The Cherokee Brothers, Mr. Murder (Bernsten's son, who oddly enough died before him due to kidney cancer when only in his 40s), The Champion, Jake The Ripper, Danny Sanchez, Navajo Frank, The Mask, Skeleton Man, Dino Barbudo, The Arkansas Beast, Ludwig The Hun and The Bounty Man, just to name a few.

One laughable moment did come when the promotion was taking ads out in the weekly Phoenix New Times and the paper mistakenly listed Lumberjack #1 as Flapjack #1. The error was not repeated.