A Walk Through History...

[Jordan]

Since I've been quarintined for almost two months in NYC with the lack of good live wrestling to watch I've spend a lot of hours delving into the past. Far past my own years into the deep and rich history of Pro Rasslin. I am creating this thread as a place to share Classic wrestling videos, matches, events or youtube accounts worth watching.

I'll start off with a true classic.

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2/23/50 Chicago International Ampitheatre

(promoter: Fred Kohler) … (referees: Jack Dempsey, Tony Hadjich)
(7,638 fans) … (gate: $30,265.01)
(Benefit: Chicago Heart Association) (received
10 percent of the net - $2,328)
Note: The show expected to draw a gate of $40,000

(info from Legacyofwrestling.com)

Here we have the two f'n carved in stone legends. The quality is beautiful and professionally remastered. If you have time I highly encourage you to enjoy this match from start to finish. Give it a chance, invest in the holds. This is a style that is so much more active in many ways than what we have today. And I encourage you to actually find a rest hold amongst this match where the psycology is to break your opponent down for a pin with a headlock or to grind out a sub with a hammerlock. If this match got stars I'd say it would be at least 4.

[Jordan]

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This is Bobby Davis. Are you a fan of Jim Cornette or Bobby Heenan, well they certainly watched Bobby Davis. Manager to Jersey's greatest star Buddy Rogers. Watch here as he cuts a rare promo and sets the stage for years to come on heel promotion.

[Jordan]

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Are you thirsty for wrestling knowledge? Do you love documentaries? Well check out this account. Here we have a huge wrestling fan who has made mini docs on all (and working) wrestling territories. Here is the story of Capitol Wrestling aka WWE. He has 26 docs so far on his account that he's made for us, enjoy them! I'd reccomend you start with this one as it breaks down all of the NWA territories from the beginning.

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[Jordan]

Now for something a little more current. I am becomming OBSESSED with WWA Indianapolis. It's the outlaw territory ran by Wilbur Snyder and Dick The Bruiser. The quality of wrestling and production is fantastic. They seemed to get all of the stars to go up against or with Crusher and Bruiser. Really fantastic promotion that lasted a very long time. They haven't made an original wrestling doc about this version of WWA yet.

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WWA ALL-STAR CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

This episode originally aired Saturday May 4, 1974 and was hosted by Sam Menacker and Tom Mathis. Chicago International Ampitheater.

THIS EPISODE FEATURES

Bobby Van vs Luis Martinez

Cowboy Parker vs Prince Pullins

BEST TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS WITH SPECIAL REFEREE SAM MENACKER: Baron Von Raschke & Ernie Ladd (with Bobby Heenan) vs Dick the Bruiser & Bruno Sammartino


............

The account hosting this video also has a decent library of WWA TV from the 70s to the 80s with Scott Steiner headlining.

[Jordan]

Okay so the next one is a whopper. This is IWA based in Ohio, which was made from the ashed of the IWF which was an attempt at a national promotion to rival AWA, NWA and WWWF, and it failed. But it's really good! This video I'm posting is time marked to a specific match, we will get into that in a second. The whole video is worth watching it's really fantastic. The first match is a Pampero Firpo as a baby face, watch the promo after the squash!

Speaking of squash... hehe... remember on Darkside when Shultz was talking about Herb Welch and the level of training they receieved. Well here we got a real old school squash. If you watch I assume you will see the same story I see. A Shultz style rassler who is testing out what looks to be a rookie who hasn't been clued in that this is supposed to be a work. This is one of the most real squashes I've seen. Enjoy as Larry (Anderson?) trains this guy on the fly in the ring. This gets brutal.

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[Mr. Nerfect]

I appreciate what you're doing here.

[Bad News Gertner]

Now for something a little more current. I am becomming OBSESSED with WWA Indianapolis. It's the outlaw territory ran by Wilbur Snyder and Dick The Bruiser. The quality of wrestling and production is fantastic. They seemed to get all of the stars to go up against or with Crusher and Bruiser. Really fantastic promotion that lasted a very long time. They haven't made an original wrestling doc about this version of WWA yet.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ReloJqJwaU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

WWA ALL-STAR CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

This episode originally aired Saturday May 4, 1974 and was hosted by Sam Menacker and Tom Mathis. Chicago International Ampitheater.

THIS EPISODE FEATURES

Bobby Van vs Luis Martinez

Cowboy Parker vs Prince Pullins

BEST TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS WITH SPECIAL REFEREE SAM MENACKER: Baron Von Raschke & Ernie Ladd (with Bobby Heenan) vs Dick the Bruiser & Bruno Sammartino


............

The account hosting this video also has a decent library of WWA TV from the 70s to the 80s with Scott Steiner headlining.


Cornette and Baron did a Back to the Territories :WWA a while back. Check it out.

[Jordan]

Cornette and Baron did a Back to the Territories :WWA a while back. Check it out.


Great, thanks!

[Jordan]

I was listing to Greg Gange with Jim Cornette and Greg mentioned AWA on the Phil Donahue show and since I loved his stuff later on I decided to search and it was an easy find. Enjoy it if you haven't seen it, it's pretty awesome.

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[Bad News Gertner]

Great episode. The matches are pretty good. High Flyers vs East West Connection was always good, so Adonis vs Gagne is a guaranteed solid match.

Judy Martin is my favourite female wrestler of all time

[slik]

How have I never noticed this thread...JX has good rasslin taste so I'm going to have to watch some of these

[Emperor Smeat]

Monsoon Classic recently posted a large playlist of Terry Funk classic matches in honor or his birthday earlier this week. Also a great Youtube channel in general when it comes to classic stuff not on the WWE Network.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">To celebrate Terry Funk's birthday, treat yourself to this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerryTuesday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TerryTuesday</a> playlist . . . only on a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerryTuesday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TerryTuesday</a><a href="https://t.co/FhKFa3bLCH">https://t.co/FhKFa3bLCH</a> <a href="https://t.co/X4BEq1V7D6">pic.twitter.com/X4BEq1V7D6</a></p>&mdash; Monsoon Classic (@Monsoon_Classic) <a href="https://twitter.com/Monsoon_Classic/status/1277990817597214720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Bad News Gertner]

Monsoon Classic is the one channel I follow that never gets taken down thankfully.

Terry Funk is the greatest wrestler of all time. I'll definitely be spending my night going through those.

[Bad News Gertner]

I've been slacking on my wrestling watching lately because of the Death of the Territories book. Just finished it.

My youtube to mp4 converter seems to not be working anymore.

Anyone else use those? There's a couple house shows uploaded recently that I want to add to my collection. The 2 hour limit of most converters is a pain when it comes to converting 3 hour MSG shows.

[Emperor Smeat]

What are you using to save those videos?

Firefox's Flash and Video Download plug-in should save those videos from Youtube in mp4 by default. Not sure if Google Chrome has the same plug-in since I don't use that browser regularly.

[Bad News Gertner]

Honestly I've been having to use a different one each time I download lately which is like once every couple months.

I convert the file into an mp4, download it and then save it to my external hard drive. I'll check those out. It's becoming a massive pain.

[Bad News Gertner]

I was using Clip Converter for a while, but it doesn't work the same anymore.

I'm also not at all tech savvy, so there's a good possibility that the solution is easy and I'm just an idiot.

[Bad News Gertner]

Kris Zellner just messaged me back and said to give VidPaw a chance as well so I'm gonna try both. Lol I get panicked when I see stuff pop up on YouTube when my converter is down.

I'm IP banned from XWTClassics, so youtube or people sending me stuff are my only two options.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm sorry to hear that you're piracy is so infamous it's limited your options, Gertner -- you fucking legend. I'm not plugged into YouTube enough to know if stuff goes up or not -- I just have a little browse. Been watching classic wrestling before bed lately, just to wind down in the evening as a bit of comfort content.

Been going on a Barry Windham kick recently, because as great as he is, I've never really watched too much from him. The dude is fucking magic. If I watch too much more of him, he might become my favorite of all-time. But I need to watch more Terry Funk.

[Bad News Gertner]

He and Rotunda were so over as the U.S Express in late 84-85. Over more than any tag team that had come through the company.


The Funker is the GOAT.

[Bad News Gertner]

What a sight it is to hear the Georgia Championship Wrestling music with the graphics only to have Gorilla Monsoon welcome you to this weeks program. I wish they did more of these. They were supposed to. The Death of the Territories book really gets into it

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[Bad News Gertner]

A very rare episode of International Wresting from Montreal was recently uploaded.

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[Jordan]

Gert, awesome shares thank you! I'm already watching that Lutte ep, very high quality, the wrestling and production. Just what I expected from this promotion after seeing the clips on Darkside. Also this episode has the commercials in it making it 10x better.

[Bad News Gertner]

Gonna watch this episode of Georgia Championship Wrestling today. I've seen the Piper face turn before as I'm a giant Muraco fan. It's so good.

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[Bad News Gertner]

Wow, Jordan you're going to love this. Someone tracked down manager Bobby Davis this past February and did a 1 hour interview with him.


https://www.patreon.com/posts/bobby-davis-with-38554498?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=postshare&fbclid=IwAR0jLZAAsay53OgZgKxXlR5Rvh_XfYvdUSDEWYPdQKpf9kH19YfpB24v-dI

[Jordan]

WOW this is incredible. He's so old lol. This is sick, thanks Gert.

[Bad News Gertner]

Haha I honestly thought he died years ago until Tom Burke posted this on his facebook

[Jordan]

This is amazing. He's only 82 years old and he left the business in 1968. That's insane, he started at 16 years old. He's very lucid and has a great memory. I don't think I've ever herd a podcast with someone that goes this far back in wrestling.

[Bad News Gertner]

I believe 6:05 Superpodcast had Don Leo Jonathan on before his died in like 2017

[Bad News Gertner]

Some Southeastern Championship Wrestling was recently uploaded. Very cool episode.

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[Bad News Gertner]

What a tremendous match

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[Mr. Nerfect]

Tully Blanchard might be my favorite wrestler ever. I'm being hyperbolic there, but I always get the feeling that he could be when I'm watching him.

[Destor]

gpod thread

[Bad News Gertner]

Dave Dynasty posted a bunch of mid/late 70's Titanes el Ring (Argentine Luhca Promotion). Really cool stuff

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[Bad News Gertner]

In late 90's/early 2000's there was a promotion in Calgary Alberta Canada called "Mat Rats". It was supposed to appeal to a young female audience and featured very young Teddy Hart, Jack Evans, Harry Smith and Tyson Kidd. They had platforms behind the turnbuckles so they could do crazy spots. Eric Bischoff was rumored to have had a bit of involvement with the promotion and the camera actually shows him before the start of the match. I believe he later denied he did . Not much footage of this promotion exists.

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[Destor]

a promotion of exclusively blow job acts sounds good on paper but in action it wouldnt work.

[Destor]

plus theyre all insanely green

[Bad News Gertner]

Yeah they were all like 16-18 years old at the time

[Bad News Gertner]

Dick Murdoch in a commercial for a Welding School. Found it amusing lol

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[Bad News Gertner]

Ron Fuller and part of the Continental Wrestling crew split off from the promotion in 1988 and formed USA Championship Wrestling . They were only around for a few month before the two companies merged back together. Really fun T.V and the majority of it in on youtube.

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[Bad News Gertner]

Texas had its share of small promotions in the late 80 as WCCW began to unravel. One promotion in particular was called Wild West Wrestling. They used to tape T.V out of a bar called Billy Bob's. It was formed by Ken Mantell in 1987 but later merged with WCCW in 88. Not a ton of footage out there. I'll go over Texas All Star later and Big D.

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[Bad News Gertner]

80's Memphis Wrestling is my favourite federation outside of early/mid 80s WWF (even though objectively Memphis is better)

A match/feud that doesn't get enough love is the Poffos vs Rock &Roll Express.

This match is fucking amazing and you've got to see the end.

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[Jordan]

Great additions Gert! What I wouldn't give to be at the Mid South Coliseum on a night like that.

[Bad News Gertner]

Best Bob Backlund match I've ever seen. Adonis is probably the most under-rated wrestler of all time. His MSG title match vs Backlund in 82 is also terrific. I actually spoke to Backlund on facebook about this match. He was very proud of it. Really cool guy.

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[Bad News Gertner]

Haven't done this in a bit.

Here's a fun promotion run by Jerry Blackwell in the Georgia area called Southern Championship Wrestling. It featured guys like Brusier Brody, Tommy Rich, and a young Paul Heyman. It ran from 88 to 90 before Blackwell sold to the recently departed Joe Pedicino and became Georgia All Star Wrestling. Really fun piece of footage here. Check er out.

I love these small southern promotions that popped up in the mid to late 80s. I'll go over IWCCW which was up north later.

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[Bad News Gertner]

Really cool news story about Verne Gagne training Chris Taylor from 1974

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[Bad News Gertner]

In 1977 Atlantic Grand Prix was formed by Emilie Dupree. This territory was based out of the Maritime Provinces in Eastern Canada. Not a huge territory but a popular stop for wrestlers like Leo Burke, The Stomper, Bulldog Bob Brown. Not a ton of footage out there, but an interesting watch. It's also where JJ Dillon got his first booking job.


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[Bad News Gertner]

Sorry if I'm taking over your thread Jordan X

[Bad News Gertner]

Really cool 2 part news story from 1977 on Bruno Sammartino

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[Jordan]

Sorry if I'm taking over your thread Jordan X

Your additions are perfect and I was hopeful you'd share here. I've been in a season of transition, watching more archived MMA than wrestling at the moment. I get the same nostalgia seeing the creation and development of that sport too.

[Bad News Gertner]

This is fucking amazing. It's an angle from Georgia Championship Wrestling 1980 where the Russians (Koloff and Smirnoff) defeat Kevin Sullivan and Tony Atlas by using ether on a rag. The post match is the best where Gordon Solie interviews fans about what happened. Amazing.

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[slik]

Anyone seen any old rasslin lately?

[Bad News Gertner]

Almost everyday