Will anyone be ranking a fair amount of 50s & 60s guys?

[Loss]

Verne Gagne, Buddy Rogers, Lou Thesz, Pat O'Connor, Gene Kiniski, Fritz Von Erich, Antonio Rocca, Rikidozan, Destroyer and others -- it seems like there's enough footage there to get a decent handle on them. If you are ranking them, who do you expect to make your list? If you aren't, is it just because you haven't seen stuff or because it's tough for you to watch footage that old? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, but I'm curious.

 

Some of those guys have plenty of footage in the 70s as well, but they seem to have more before that.

 

One guy who specifically stands out like a sore thumb is Jim Londos. He was arguably a bigger star in his era than Hogan or Austin were in theirs and he looks great in all the footage that we do have of him. It would be sad if we're the ones carrying the torch at this point for this type of historical wrestling watching and he doesn't even get considered.

[JerryvonKramer]

I'll be ranking The Destroyer, but the older 50s guys work a style that I find too boring in general. And I have watched a good chunk.

 

Hans Schmidt is a guy I'd consider but it seems we don't have a huge amount on tape. He's stiff as hell.

 

Carpentier looks amazing first few times you see him, but it quickly becomes clear that he's that eras equivalent of a spot monkey.

 

Don Leo Jonathan is someone I might consider, he's looked good in all stuff I've seen.

[conker8]

I write off :

Gene Kiniski with only one match against Baba in his prime.

Buddy Rogers - 3 matchs from CFA and the O'Connor match from 1961 is not enough for me.

Antonino Rocca - underrated because he is seen as a lesser wrestler, we have mostly clips and not full match.

Fritz Von Erich is a fun wild man and I like him more than Abdullah or Sheik. Again, we have only Baba and Jumbo matches (and old Fritz in WCCW).

 

 

Lou Thesz is in my Top 50. He is the one who benefit for having a good amount of match. He can have good match with veterans like Tom Rice or Walter Palmer, he has the best Mighty Atlas match working around Atlas's spot and he have one of my favorite match with Verne Gagne.

 

Speaking of Verne, Titans of Wrestling did a good work on him after his death. I agree with them on liking more young and fiery Verne than Champ Verne.

 

Rikidozan is a name I forgot to rate - I like his series with Freddie Blassie a lot.

 

Two names I will add in the conversation : Gorgeous George and Hans Schmidt.

 

 

I underestimate the footage we have :

 

Verne Gagne has 25 matches from the 50's

Hans Schmidt has 19 matches from the 50's

Lou Thesz has 17 matches from the 50's

Pat O Connor has 15 matches from 1952-1963

Dick The Bruiser has 15 matches from 1955-1962

Buddy Rogers has 12 matches from 1950-1963

Gorgeous George has 10 matches from 1947-1961

Fritz Von Erich has 10 matches from 1955-1966

Freddie Blassie has 5+ matches from 1953-1962

Gene Kiniski has 3 matches from 1957-1967 + an altercation against Whipper Watson

 

All of these guys have footage from the 70's except GG of course.

 

[El McKell]

Verne Gagne: has a good chance of making the bottom quarter of my list
Buddy Rogers: Definitely on the list he's clearly great, but it's kinda hard for me to place a guy with this little footage

Lou Thesz: I think he's good, but I won't be ranking him

Pat O'Connor: probably better than Thesz, probably not as good as Gange

Gene Kiniski, Fritz Von Erich, Antonio Rocca: haven't seen anything from any of these guys

Rikidozan: nope

Destroyer​: A lot of fun, could make my list

 

Also until I saw the post at the top of this thread I didn't even know we had access to any Jim Londos footage at all

[Wade Garrett]

I think this comes down to age being there's a severe lack of footage. That's why this project isn't really a true GOAT project. It really can't be. I look at it like a project from 1980 forward.