Billy Goelz and other 50s finds

[ohtani's jacket]

Hans Hermann vs Yukon Eric (NWA Chicago, 10/22/1954)

This was a fun comedy match. Hans Hermann was making his TV debut in the territory and they worked some amusing test of strength spots. Nobody will ever confuse Yukon Eric with being a great wrestler, but he's the type of guy who grows on you and becomes one of the cast of characters in 1950s wrestling. Fun match with a neat bear hug submission. I love how old school submissions like the sleeper hold or bear hug are taken so seriously in the 50s. The urgency with which they're applied is in stark contrast to the mid-match rest holds they'd turn into. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Tommy Martindale vs Mitsu Arakawa (NWA Chicago, 10/22/1954)

I don't remember seeing Tommy Martindale before. Arakawa is part of the lineage of American-born Japanese heels, but he uses a lot more holds than his predecessors and is almost like a proto version of Hiro Matsuda ("almost" -- don't get too excited.) His gimmick in the territories was that he was a Hiroshima survivor hellbent on vengeance against Americans. That was never gonna fly on Chicago TV in 1954 so this is mainly a straight up wrestling bout. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Bobby Bruns vs Benito Gardini (NWA Chicago, 04/28/1950)

Gardini was a fun comedy worker, though his matches do encourage Russ Davis to do some of his most annoying commentary. He keeps slipping between a Mexican and Italian accent for some reason.

Karl Johnson vs Chief Brave Wolf (1930s) (I think)

I'm pretty sure this is from the 50s as I've seen this venue before in other Californian matches. This was a two-out-of-three falls match but for some reason they taped each fall as an individual match. Makes you wonder how often they did that. Not the most exciting bout in the world and the finish is missing. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Hans Schmidt vs Zack Malkov (NWA Chicago, 1950s)

This was already out there.

Benito Gardini & Al Williams vs Cyclone Anaya & Walter Palmer (NWA Chicago, 05/26/1950)

I had forgotten how shocking Al Williams' tattoos were for this era. It's kind of like when you see guys with long hair and sideburns. Not a lot happens in this match, but I can totally see Gardini becoming Matt D's favorite 50s comedy worker. He reminds me of Porky at times. He does this great spot where he's desperately trying to stretch over the ropes to make a tag and ends up bouncing up and down on the ropes. And the comical interactions between Gardini and Williams are more entertaining than the match itself. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Bud Curtis vs Alex Kasaboski (NWA Los Angeles, 01/29/1951)

This was a fun scrap. Once the "Hoosier Hotshot" Bud Curtis got going it was exciting stuff. I love how Jack Little calls a snapmare like it's the most thrilling move ever invented. 

Andre Drapp vs The Bushman (NWA Los Angeles, 01/29/1951)

Andre Drapp looked fantastic in this match. Jack Little says that promoter Johnny Doyle has been touting Drapp was a future world champion. Makes me wonder how successful Drapp could have been if he'd remained in the States. He certainly looked like world champ material. The Bushman is an interesting cat. Little says that he comes from some Northern Amazon tribe where the men wear their hair in afros to represent the rays of the sun. Bushman used to do an Elephant Boy gimmick. There's a great picture of him atop an actual elephant:

The Bushman had a strong Inca Peruano vibe to me, though not as technically polished. Really good bout. Drapp was fabulous. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Vic Christy vs Great Togo (NWA Los Angeles, 08/27/1951)

This was a clip of the last five minutes. Togo remains my favorite of the Japanese heels. 

Duke Keomuka vs Blackie Guzman (Southwest Sports, 1952) 

This was already uploaded with a better film transfer. 

Cowboy Karlson & Billy Varga vs Duke Keomuka & Wild Red Berry NO SOUND (Southwest Sports, 1952)

Probably one for the completists as there's no sound. I haven't gotten a firm grasp on 50s Texas wrestling yet but there wasn't anything that stood out that was different from the other territories. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Super Swedish Angel vs Tom Renesto (NWA Los Angeles, 1951)

This was a bit of a find by Loss as Super Swedish Angel is none other than Tor Johnson, the Swedish wrestler who starred in the Ed Wood films Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space. You may remember that George "the Animal" Steele played the role of Johnson in the Tim Burton film. I believe this is the only footage we have of him wrestling. He's not very good. In fact, it's about as close to B-film wrestling as it gets. Some people may get a kick out of Johnson, however, especially if you're a fan of Ed Wood movies. Renesto went on to greater fame as one half of the original Assassins with Jody Hamilton. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Lord James Blears & Dave Levin vs Tony Morelli & Angelo Cistoldi (NWA Los Angeles, 02/05/1951)

Already in circulation, but you should watch all the Blears you can find.

Bill Melby vs Sonny Myers (NWA Chicago, 01/16/1953)

This match was uploaded 15 years ago, but I noticed that Loss' version is significantly longer. We now have around 10 minutes extra footage of a 30 minute draw. Very good match. 

 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Warren Bockwinkel vs Billy Varga (05/19/1953, NWA Los Angeles)

This has been in circulation for years, but you should definitely check out the old man if you're a fan of Nick.

Harry Monte & Farmer Spatts vs Billy Curtis & Cowboy Clatt (NWA Los Angeles, 05/23/1953)

This was a fun midgets match. It was presented with about as much respect as was possible at the time and most of the humorous stuff was playful. They played up the speed and quickness of the wrestlers and there were a number of fun exchanges. 

[ohtani's jacket]

John Tolos & Bud Curtis vs. Fred Blassie & Larry Hamilton (NWA Los Angeles, 07/20/1953)

Another long ass 50s tag match. They were fully committed to the idea of wearing a guy down to win the fall. Tolos was incredibly young here. He'd of course go on to have a legendary feud with Blassie. I liked the segments between falls where Jules Strongbow would chat with the commentator, Bill Welsh. Strongbow also had some enjoyable interviews with the wrestlers after the bout. I particularly enjoyed hearing a younger Blassie joke around with Strongbow, and the way the heels interacted with Jules. Jules a classy interviewer, it has to be said. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Sandor Szabo & Dr. Lee Grable vs Jack McDonald & Gino Garibaldi (NWA Los Angeles, 08/24/1953)

Fairly typical 50s tag match, though the workers were energetic and Strongbow put over the pace of the match, which tells us that it was probably quicker and more action-packed than the fans were used to. There were a lot of cool rolling holds. Garibaldi, in particular, was a ball of energy every time he was in the ring. This is the second Szabo & Grable match we have, and they make quite a good team. I don't have a firm opinion on Szabo in his prime, but I've always enjoyed his elder statesman stuff from the 50s. A controversial finish leads to some great post-match interviews and some fun jawing with the crowd. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Wild Red Berry vs. Carlos Guzman (Long Beach, CA, 05/22/1952)

This managed to be both an entertaining Red Berry match and a fun little technical bout. Guzman was a machine, and Berry was no slouch either. As an added bonus, the bout is called by the legendary Dick Lane, and when Dick Lane gets excited, he gets excited. An odd detail about this match: Red Berry's ring robe remained in his corner for the entire bout. I don't think I've ever seen that before. The second went over and fetched it after the bell. At one point Berry was standing on it between falls. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Jack Witzig vs. Sky Hi Lee (NWA Chicago, 03/05/1954)

This was a fairly typical big man vs. little man match, but the nice thing about it is that in the 50s they gave the workers plenty of time to work their match so there was a chess match element to it. The finish was kind of wild for the era as the top rope came undone and Lee tried to use it as a weapon. 

[ohtani's jacket]

WrestlingFilms has uploaded a new film transfer:

Chief Yaqui (Indio Cherokee, Chief Cherokee) vs Karl (Karol) Kowalski 1/30/50

There a lot of cheesy sound effects and some racist commentary from Bill Stern, but that aside, Yaqui is a unique looking wrestler who works a crazy looking style for 2024 let alone 1950. The finish is wild. WF says there's not much info about Yaqui online. I wanna says he's a time traveler. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Jack Pesek vs. Friedrich (Fritz) von Schacht, 6/27/1952

WrestlingFilms brings us another upload. This is a fun bout from the undercard of a Thesz vs. O'Connor match at Wrigley Field. It's a fairly typical Chicago match, you've got the good looking young wrestler in Pesek going up against the rough veteran in von Schacht. Enjoyable stuff. von Schacht does some some fun work in the ropes where he teases spilling over into the crowd. I assume there's some stupid reason why Thesz vs. O'Connor doesn't exist on tape. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Antonino Rocca & Pat O'Connor vs. Reggie Lisowski & Art Neilson (NWA Chicago, 10/22/1954)

I'm not sure if this has been uploaded before. If it has, I can't remember seeing it. It's a long match that supposedly goes to a 60 minute time limit, but we only see 40-odd minutes. It's a typical 50s tag with two bruisers working inside moves and the occasional flash of brilliance from the babyfaces. Fortunately, Lisowski and Neilson have a convincing aura of toughness and make for credible thugs. Pat O'Connor makes me proud to be a New Zealander. I wish he was a bigger deal in NZ. They should put him on our money, if you ask me. I'm not really sure what I think of Rocca. He's an exciting hot tag, but he does so much stupid leaping about. I get that it was different for the time, but he does a lot of rolling about when a more straightforward hold would look better (sounds like a criticism of modern wrestling.) I did like the spot where he was taunting the heel with kicks to the face (or rather wiping his feet, as Davis put it.) Overall, an entertaining bout but not one high on drama. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Sonny Myers vs Baron Arena (NWA Chicago, 1955)
Verne Gagne vs Bobby Nelson (NWA Chicago, 1955)

The first match had already been uploaded by the Chicago Film Archives with some people suggesting in the comments section that it was from earlier than 1955. The Gagne match doesn't appeared to have been uploaded by the CFA. Gagne is one of the greatest wrestlers to ever lace a pair of boots in my estimation but this isn't much of a wrestling contest. Nelson had recently turned heel and was working on a new ornery style of wrestling. All of the best bits involved Gagne retaliating to Nelson's bullshit. Gagne was pretty good at dishing out shit of his own, so the match flowed okay, but I would have liked to have seen Verne wrestle a bit more.