Pro Wrestling History Thread

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Yeah Verne was an NWA ally but didn't have a seat on the board whereas Vince was an exception by keeping his seat even as he ran his own promotion.

Its interesting to note that in the late 70's during his first AWA title run certain board members wanted to bring Nick Bockwinkel in to the NWA and make him champion. Fritz Von Erich, Paul Boesch, and Jim Barnett all wanted him to do it so they booked him to defend the belt in their territories.

Yes, from what I understand Bock took him out of consideration because of the terrible schedule that the NWA champ had to do.
A couple of things to add: Boesch actually had his own world championship very briefly. Fed up with the NWA and being insulted when Harley Race no showed a Houston show, Boesch held a tournament to crown a new world champion. Wahoo won the title but it was very soon discontinued. Boesch then used Bock and the AWA as his world champion.
Also, Stu Hart switched to Bock when Dusty won the NWA title. He believed that Dusty's style would not go over at all in his territory where it was stiff and pretty realistic compared with other places.
 
Yes, from what I understand Bock took him out of consideration because of the terrible schedule that the NWA champ had to do.
A couple of things to add: Boesch actually had his own world championship very briefly. Fed up with the NWA and being insulted when Harley Race no showed a Houston show, Boesch held a tournament to crown a new world champion. Wahoo won the title but it was very soon discontinued. Boesch then used Bock and the AWA as his world champion.
Also, Stu Hart switched to Bock when Dusty won the NWA title. He believed that Dusty's style would not go over at all in his territory where it was stiff and pretty realistic compared with other places.

Yeah Stu first got Nick in during Stampede week one year when money was kinda tight and they couldn't afford to book the NWA champion at the time. Ironically enough had they booked the NWA champion it would have been Hart vs. Ric Flair in 1982.
 
And speaking of Bockwinkel... Warren Bockwinkel, that is! Nick's daddy is in a match in Hollywood Legion Stadium against Wilbur Snyder:

 
Even more old-time goodness! pre-bleach blond Freddie Blassie and Warren Bockwinkel vs Mr. Moto and Joe Pazendak:


Joe Pazendak was a legit shooter. Lou Thesz told of a match with Pazendak and Johnny Valentine, which was a shoot for some reason. Valentine stayed in his corner and wouldn't engage Pazendak. At his first opening Valentine decked Pazendak and KOed him, which basically destroyed Pazendak's reputation. The legit wrestler was supposed to beat the tough guy.
 
I've been watching some mid 90's WWF and I have say, I'm surprised Bam Bam Bigelow was never given a push into the main event (aside from LT at WM11). He's a big man, good look, great wrestler, and had some mic skills. He would have made a much better feud for Scott Hall during those days than Double J was.
 
Even more old-time goodness! pre-bleach blond Freddie Blassie and Warren Bockwinkel vs Mr. Moto and Joe Pazendak:


Joe Pazendak was a legit shooter. Lou Thesz told of a match with Pazendak and Johnny Valentine, which was a shoot for some reason. Valentine stayed in his corner and wouldn't engage Pazendak. At his first opening Valentine decked Pazendak and KOed him, which basically destroyed Pazendak's reputation. The legit wrestler was supposed to beat the tough guy.

Pazendak trained Larry Hennig prior to Larry working out with Verne.
 
Even more old-time goodness! pre-bleach blond Freddie Blassie and Warren Bockwinkel vs Mr. Moto and Joe Pazendak:


Joe Pazendak was a legit shooter. Lou Thesz told of a match with Pazendak and Johnny Valentine, which was a shoot for some reason. Valentine stayed in his corner and wouldn't engage Pazendak. At his first opening Valentine decked Pazendak and KOed him, which basically destroyed Pazendak's reputation. The legit wrestler was supposed to beat the tough guy.
yep--- It was Cowboy Rocky (Johnny) Valentine that beat Pazandak to a bloody pulp. The story that I heard was that Pazandak was complaining about pay and was very vocal and public about his displeasure. The office sent Valentine in the ring with him to teach him a lesson. Valentine did his job. I am guessing that Jules Strongbow was the promoter.
 
I've been watching some mid 90's WWF and I have say, I'm surprised Bam Bam Bigelow was never given a push into the main event (aside from LT at WM11). He's a big man, good look, great wrestler, and had some mic skills. He would have made a much better feud for Scott Hall during those days than Double J was.
The problem is they starting pushing him as a face after he did the j o b to LT.
 
Well the xenophobic audiences of the south may have killed some gates just out of protest. Granted it was 20 years after Pearl Harbor but you still had heels like Fritz and Waldo Von Erich going strong as late as the 70's. I also think that his run as a junior heavyweight might have devalued the title to some because he hadn't become a national star the way Verne did through exposure on Kohler's show and having a run with the U.S. title as well.

I don't know about the NWA HW title necessarily being devalued over Matsuda's run as a junior heavyweight (i suppose it's arguable though), but that's fair assessment.
 
Even more old-time goodness! pre-bleach blond Freddie Blassie and Warren Bockwinkel vs Mr. Moto and Joe Pazendak:


Joe Pazendak was a legit shooter. Lou Thesz told of a match with Pazendak and Johnny Valentine, which was a shoot for some reason. Valentine stayed in his corner and wouldn't engage Pazendak. At his first opening Valentine decked Pazendak and KOed him, which basically destroyed Pazendak's reputation. The legit wrestler was supposed to beat the tough guy.

Johnny Valentine had a heck of a punch according to Moose Cholak and at that, was really good with his hands so said Lou Thesz. At any rate, i think Johnny was a bit more than just a tough guy and must've known something about grappling. I'm not saying he was skilled in grappling, much less an expert or anything like that by any means, as i certainly don't believe that was the case and i imagine he would've showed it at some point if he was. Still, he was trained by the Zbyszko brothers and i don't know how you could've been trained by Stan & Wlad and not have learned anything about real grappling. You know what i mean? Same thing with Harley Race.
 
Danny's av is the MMA champion about 75 years before MMA existed. Nice.
 
An awesome match featuring 2 of my favorites, plus Dusthy announcing plus the finish. For a long time I thought the sling shot suplex was the coolest finisher. Both of these guys were good in the ring.







 
Danny's AV is Ad Santel, IIRC. He was a light heavyweight, and he gave Thesz some of his most intense training in catch hooking in his home base of San Fran.

Santel also did some barnstorming under his real name, Adolph Ernst.
 
Santel took his act to Japan where he went to the famed Judo training facility, the Kodokan, and he challenged the Judoka. The legend is that he won all of the matches, but that isn't true. He did do exceptionally well, but he was not undefeated.

My take is that he had wrestled some travelling Judoka in the USA, and saw box-office potential in them. So he went to Japan to recruit good Judokas to be wrestlers in the US.
 
Why would a thread like this end up in the wasteland?

I remember back in 2002 - 2005 time frame this board was VERY pro-wrestling friendly. A Pro Wrestling forum even existed on here. (The WWF Divas thread ruled the land)

And then what happened?? Change in management?
 
Danny's AV is Ad Santel, IIRC. He was a light heavyweight, and he gave Thesz some of his most intense training in catch hooking in his home base of San Fran.

Santel also did some barnstorming under his real name, Adolph Ernst.

Yep, it's Ad Santel.

Santel took his act to Japan where he went to the famed Judo training facility, the Kodokan, and he challenged the Judoka. The legend is that he won all of the matches, but that isn't true. He did do exceptionally well, but he was not undefeated.

My take is that he had wrestled some travelling Judoka in the USA, and saw box-office potential in them. So he went to Japan to recruit good Judokas to be wrestlers in the US.

As i understand it, the only judoka that Santel lost to was 5th dan black belt Tokugoro Ito. Ito had left Japan in 1907 and came to America and set up a dojo in Seattle. He found pro wrestling paid better than teaching, so he traveled around wrestling and eventually made his way to San Francisco where he & Santel had a match on Feb. 5, 1916, where Santel emerged as the victor after he thumped Ito's head off the mat for a TKO win. Then 4 months later they had a rematch, where Ito came out the victor via a choke hold. After that, in 1917 Santel traveled to the Seattle dojo and beat Taro Miyake (whose ranking i don't know, and apparently they had drawn in a match the year before) via slam and 4th dan Daisuke Sakai via short-arm scissors.

Then it was in 1921 that Santel made his way to Japan and publicly challenged the Kodokan. Apparently Kano Jigoro ordered the judoka of the Kodokan not to participate in the challenge matches, but some did anyway. Santel either defeated or drew with the various judoka he took on. I guess eventually he lost interest in the challenge matches and he gave up the title of World Judo Champion and headed back to the US. One of the judoka Santel had taken on & drawn with, 5th dan (also seen him listed as 4th dan) Hikoo Shoji, came back to the US with him and trained in catch wrestling for awhile, before eventually making his way back to Japan to share what he learned. He came to be considered by many as the father of freestyle wrestling in Japan and apparently he wrestled for Japan at the 1932 Olympics. He tried to promote pro wrestling in Japan in the 1930's, but it was unsuccessful (Taro Miyake had tried to promote pro wrestling in Japan before him as well, which was also unsuccessful).

Anyways, later on in 1925 Ad Santel had one more match against a judoka, Tsutao Higami, which ended in a draw. And as far as i know, that was that as it pertains to Ad Santel vs judoka.
 
I read that as well, Danny. The legend is Santel never lost to a Japanese Judoka, in the USA or in Japan, which isn't true. He definitely won more than he lost or tied.

And you brought up the most important point, which I failed to point out: Ad Santel is the reason that there was freestyle wrestling in Japan. It would have eventually made it to Japan's shores, but because Santel was an enterprising individual, he took it to Japan. He trained Hikoo Shoji, and Japan eventually had very good freestyle wrestling because of it.
 
Hate to update this but good Lord somehow this is one of the unanswered mysteries of pro wrestling.

What the hell ever happened to Rick Rude's valet Angel? She was a total piece of ass and after Rude left Memphis she disappeared. He had another smokin valet too who was even hotter in Japan named Lady Blossom who no one seems to know what happened to or where she ended up.
 
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