Pat O'Connor

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Timbo Slice]

Only have seen a couple matches of his, but O'Connor was a tremendous worker for his time. Rogers/O'Connor from June 1961 is as good as it got for the time period and is one of my favorite matches of all time.

[BillThompson]

In the same boat as Rogers; tremendously skilled and definitely has a shot at making it provided I can find enough footage.

[goodhelmet]

Maybe the one non luchador i will go out of my way to see more footage of before the project ends.

[Grimmas]

What are the matches to watch for O'Connor. Will was hyping him on the Super Show the other night, so I need to watch more.

[El McKell]

There's probably other people who have watched more of him who could recommend more/better stuff but I'd recommend on youtube would be: vs Legs Langevin, vs Dick Murdoch and w/Ken Mantell vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akihisa Takachio

[goodhelmet]

I love his two Dick Murdoch matches. I watched the Legs match the other day and it was super fun. Loved all the Chicago stuff so far. One of the best punches ever.

[Guest si oem]

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[Parties]

In addition to the matches above, I'd add the readily available one against Lorenzo Parente from St. Louis in '62. The interview segment at the end is awesome too. O'Connor - particular in his younger days - seems like an older candidate who more modern-minded voters could get into. Lots of highspots in his finishes, and while he's still pretty mat-based, it's really fast paced stuff that looks as tenacious as the powerbomb-on-the-apron junk of today. If you look like you might actually win a match with your headlock or a headscissors, you're doing it right.

[GOTNW]

O'Connor will make my list. The Rogers match is an all time classic, he looked great in every match he was in upped on the Chicago Film Archives and was good at playing a heel in the Rikidozan match (in which he also does maybe the greatest sell ever for Rikidozan's Kesagiri Chop). As far as his All Japan old man stuff there's a recently upped match vs. Mighty Inoue which serves as a wonderful showcase for his matwork, the Mantell/Jumbo tag where he was easily the best performer in the match and significantly enrichened it with his interferences and the Murdoch match which has already been discussed plenty.

[El McKell]

I think Pat O'Connor is good but not great in the Chicago Film Archives stuff, he's outshone by Thesz and Gagne for sure and probably Buddy Rogers too (despite the small number of Nature Boy matches). I wish we had more of his matches from the 1975 AJPW Open League because the two that we have (vs Murdoch and vs Inoue) are very good for very different reasons.

[HeadCheese]

He's so good!! Nearly everything I have seen him in as  has been and interesting.  I'm really connected with me, he's so fun. Right now he might be my favorite wrestler of the pre-color tv eras. Has a charisma that connects with alot of fun technical stuff. Not sure where he'll rank but, he's proabably making my list.

Here's two matches that really helped me get him.