ethantyler

Full card: https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=155790 The matches featured, in order are: World League semi-final: Rikidozan vs Mr Atomic (Clyde Steeves) 2/3 fall tag: Toyonobori & Kokichi Endo vs Lord Blears & Danny Plechas World league final: Rikidozan vs Jesus Ortega (Mighty Ursus/Bull Ortega) Without spoiling anything, the big takeaway from all this is that the Rikidozan era of Japanese wrestling involved very little selling from the Japanese side. The foreign talent was there to make them look good with very little being given back in return. Different time, different expectations.

https://youtu.be/wOGte6HRCRI Extensive highlights, about half of this 1 hour draw, shown during the weekly TV show alongside retrospective commentary from Gordon Solie, Jack Brisco, and John Heath. If treating pro wrestling like a real sport is your thing, then the commentary here will be heaven to your ears. John Heath in particular is a wealth of knowledge as the color guy.

Hidden deep within a newsreel dated May 1st 1941, we discover the only existing footage for either of these women. They were both main event challengers to Mildred Burke's title, which in & of itself makes this a historically important find, but then you add in the intrigue that surrounds Elvira Snodgrass (stemming from her drawing power vs Burke) and you end up with a must watch for all pro wrestling historians. Elvira, accompanied by her husband and fellow pro wrestler Elmer Snodgrass, is the bigger woman dressed in "southern" clothing. Her name should be familiar to some members on the board. She was a legit main event draw, mostly as a challenger to Burke's title, who intrigued a lot of historians when she was reported to have drawn 19,000 with Burke in Louisiana. That number turned out to be false, it was a total sum for multiple shows, but make no mistake she did big numbers. Highlights include doing 7,123 vs Burke in Louisiana on Feb 11th 1941 and a sold out 5,200 vs Helen Hild (Ted DiBiase's mother) in Denver on Dec 9th 1946. Gladys "Killem" Gillem, the blonde, is a less familiar but arguably more interesting name. She's known for her role in the "Lipstick & Dynamite" movie documenting the history of womens wrestling. She was trained by Billy Wolfe, husband of Mildred Burke, and thanks to the sexual relationship between the two she regularly main evented shows as a challenger to Burke's title. If this love triangle seems weird to you then rest assured that it was a regular thing for good old Billy Wolfe. Moving on swiftly, Gladys was as tough as they come - working as a lion tamer and wrestling alligators post-wrestling career - and ended up with a cauliflower head due to the years of taking bad bumps. Those bad bumps can be seen in their full glory in the clip (the rope incident is kind of cringe, the dive into the crowd kind of cool). For more info on her I'd recommend Dave's short but intriguing bio in the 24/08/2009 edition of the Observer.

2 short clips of this match from different angles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ygARM5ViE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7qm3xGevNQ Full card: https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=115127 The short clips do a surprisingly good job of illustrating the psychology of the match. Gus Sonnenberg, the new star champion with his football background, has the devastating flying tackle (aka the spear, the first real striking attack that got super over in pro wrestling and changed the game for ever more). Joe Stecher, the star of yesterday, is a "real" wrestler who wants to take the action down to the mat and work the body. Aiming to finish with his devastating body scissors. Stecher is one of the greatest of all time but it made sense for him to put Sonnenberg over here. Stecher was the top guy in the business from 1915-20 and again from 1925-28. He retired after losing the world title to Ed Lewis in 1928 but was forced to return after the financial pain inflicted on his farm by the 1929 great depression. He returned to a business focused on creating new stars. Sonnenberg being one of them. He had beaten Lewis for the world title in 1929 and was the top drawing star in the business for that year. A victory over a former great in Stecher, a guy who was the world champ just 2 years ago, would keep his strong run going.