The golden age of wrestling
 

Reading this article about George "the Animal" Steele brought back all those fond memories, Ricky Steamboat, Jesse Ventura, Dick the Bruiser, the Iron Sheik...etc.

"Wrestling is a make believe business, and the stars are never truly in control of their own success." ~ Jim Myers, a.k.a. George "the Animal" Steele

I didn't know until now, George Steele's day job is a high school teacher.

uh, not to be nitpicky, but I believe it's pronounced "Wras'lin'"

You Southern'er...

what about the viking and Texas Bob Gigal?

Tito Santana
Brutus the Barber Beefcake
Million Dollar Man
Jake The Snake Roberts

what are we supposed to be talking about here? are we just supposed to list favorite wrestlers?

JON CENA R TEH BETTER THAN ALL BECUZ HE HAS HUSTLE RESPECT LOYALTY

Yes.

wait...no. Shit, I have no idea. Just list out some names.

like the tag team duo of The Corsican Brothers.

uhm Paul Roma

Animal and Hawk the Legion of DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The Heart Foundation
CoCo B Ware

Cool piece of trivial info.

watching George "the Animal" Steel eating the turnbuckle is a vision burned into memory

I CAN C YOU JON CENA I CAN SEE YOU WAVE YOUR HAND IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE NOT FOOLING ANY ONE.

Golden Age was in the mid-late 80's.


The late 90's had a great run, too.

Bulldog Bob Brown
Junk Yard Dog
Handsome Harley Race
Georgous George
Verne Gagne
Nick Bockwinkel

I believe you mean Bob Geigel. Mr. Geigel is an old friend of my family's, great guy. Been to a couple of Chiefs games back in the 90's with him.

Mr. Fuji, the famous, ultimate heel that spanned 30 years in the ring.

yep; I used to watch Wrestlemania on Saturday nights after Saturday Night Live I think.

used to love it as a kid.
it's probably revisionist of me, but it seems like back then it wasn't nearly as reeruned/over the top as it is now.


...get off my lawn.

I think you are right. The 60's & 70's should be the classical age.

LMAO shit I forgot about that dude.

The von erichs old school awesomeness.

At that time, beside the Vietnam War, there was no other issue that could label right vs wrong as good as the pro wrestling did. Every time a heel won, the booing from the fans was just loud and loud. Then when the righteous triumphed, the applause was thundering. As a kid, I just ate everything up then.

good point. I ate it up as well.

We should all change our names to wrestlers and act like them when we post. That would be fun.

Rufus R Jones

Great idea as in it's never been done before.





I want to be the Iron Sheik.

The Great Kabuki

Wrestling Trivia:

Ricky The Dragon Steamboat's real name is Richard Henry Blood.

Dick Blood

Stan Hansen.

The Ultimate Warrior approves of this.

Ooooh Yeah! Snap into a Slim Jim

THE SPIRITS ARE COMING FOR YOU HO KOGAN!!!!!

can I GoChiefs be Miss Elizabeth?

LMAO

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I think Sofa King started the HO KOGAN thing.

no, the ultimate warrior started the ho kogan thing

You missed:

Paul Jones
Baron Von Raschke
Gene & Ole Anderson
Danny Little Bear
Dick Murdock
BlackJack Mulligan
BlackJack Lanza
Johnny Weaver

You know the article pointed out something you would hear all the time about Randy Savage...that he had a HUGE jealous streak and was insecure. At one point I thought I remember reading that there were alot of the wrestlers who wouldn't work a program with him because of that.

But...those that did knew for sure they would see themselves on TV alot just because they were wrestling The Macho Man.

Holy shit. Watch the Arseno Hall interview video thats displayed at the end.
OMG.

Can't argue with that.

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JFC! lol

Tosh does a perfect Ultimate Warrior
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Mankind vs. Undertaker


Hell In A Cell 1998


JFC

his tooth came out of his nose...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vb287BZzIF.../foleyross.jpg

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I thought this might have been about Kyle Dake taking Jordan Burroughs to OT in the nationals.

no, this is about real wrestling

When I was a kid WCCW was the best.

a dudes tooth came through his nose??

Yeah. I believe it was mashed up through the hole in his lip. The tooth got knocked out from the chair that fell from the top of the ring.

The Polish Power Ivan Putski.

Fake wrestling is not that entertaining.

This is also the match where all the youtube videos with Jim Ross screaming "Good God almighty, They killed him!" came from.

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it actually is

Compared to what?

lots of stuff

mostly I compare it to other TV shows

That's fair.

I probably struggle due to naturally comparing it to collegiate/international wrestling (which is an entirely flawed comparison).

That was a great match.

So was the first triple threat match TLC with Dudley Boyz, Edge/Christian, Matt/Jeff Hardy

Don't look at pro wrestling as a sport. The comparison doesn't work.

Look at it like a sports focused soap opera. It's a weekly TV show with no re runs.

Interesting.

Perhaps I'll try watching it sometime with that in mind. What stations/times is it usually on?

Actually I don't watch the new ones. I watch old WWF Raws and WCW Nitros from the mid to late 90s on the internet.

I know they come on Monday and Friday nights, but I'm not sure on the channel. They keep switching it around and changing.

USA Network at 7 pm central time on Mondays. If you have Hulu Plus you can watch it starting the next day at anytime you wish.

Ahhh the good old days of the Dudleys:

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Junkyard Dog; forgot about that one.

Thats exactly how i used to describe it to people who thought i was stupid for being all into it back in the day, its a soap opera for men.

I always rootted for Scrap Iron Gadaski back in the day. He pretty much always lost, but he put up a helluva fight. I think they actually let him win once in a great while, but never against the top stars.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/.../13759116.html

Some of the best fistfights I remember seeing in grade school was over whether or not all-star wrestling is real. Wahoo McDaniels, Ivan Koloff, Kabuki, a bunch I can't remember. Dirty Dusty Roads was a hoot. He was being interviewed and was asked if he was going to be at the upcoming event they were promoting, and he says "maybe rain or maybe snow, maybe yes and maybe no."

I think half those characters were 2/3 schnockered when they were doing those interviews. I was just a kid, but looking back they sure were trying not to laugh their asses off. I did think it was kind of weird to see a couple old fat guys in their underware rolling around on each other.

Dinny

I used to watch it with my grandfather in the early 70's I was 7 to 10 years old
this was back when it was a regional thing, we watched out of omaha

one of my fondest memories of the man

My sister had a giant crush on Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. Got their autographs a loooong time ago.

British Bulldog

Honorable mention - Bastion Booger

Those are great. My oldest daughter walked into class late one day in High School and did the Razor Ramon entrance. No one got it. She was disappointed. I thought it was hilarious.

Man I used to love wrestling back in the early 90s. Loved watching on video the mid to late 80s.

Steamboat, Bret Hart, Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Tito Santana, Demolition, The Rockers, etc

Bulldog Bob Brown Vs. Harley Race

All Star Wrestling
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Went to training camp with the Chiefs. Was cut.

It is before you find out it is fake. LOVED it when I was a kid.

Omaha was a hotbed of wrestling in the 70s. Mad Dog Vachon was my favorite in the late 70s. He still lives in Omaha.

My grandfather would be hollering and thrashing around after he went to bed and fell asleep on Saturday nights after the wrestling matches back in the 60's. Minnesota wrestlers were badass

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Dude. It was the HART Foundation with Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. Gorilla Monsoon always used to say that Neidhart was a former NFL player "who quit playing football because it just wasn't tough enough".

I loved watching wrestling back in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. But I've been completely bored with it for the last 15-20 years and I never watch it any more. After Vince McMahon admitted in a courtroom that wrestling is "sports entertainment" and that the outcomes are pre-determined, I got the impression that the wrestlers no longer even attempted to pretend that it was legitimate, and the storylines got too outrageous and unbelievable for me to watch it any more.

My WWF / NWA / WCW favorites:
Ric Flair
Kerry von Erich
Hulk Hogan
The Hart Foundation
Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff
George "The Animal" Steele
Lex Luger
Randy Savage
The Lovely Elizabeth (not a wrester, but she was hot)
The British Bulldogs
The Honky Tonk Man (loved his "Disco Inferno" theme song)
Andre the Giant
The Junkyard Dog
Mr. Perfect
Jesse "The Body" Ventura (best announcer ever in any sport)

My local favorites:
Handsome Harley Race
Nature Boy Kirby
Rufus R. Jones
The Stomper
Bob Geigel
Danny Littlebear
The Viking
Dory Funk Jr.
Terry Funk

About 6 years ago I was in a bar in NKC and some old fossil walked by. One of the guys in the group insisted that it was Bob Geigel. I said "No, that guy is too old". One of the girls yelled "Hey Bob!", and he came over to our table. It was Bob Geigel. He looked like he was about 150 years old. Considering that I watched him when I was a kid and I'm 55 now, he probably was only 85 or so.