[1934-04-16-Texas] Whitney Hewitt vs Paul Harper

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[GOTNW]

JIP be damned, this is an all time wrestling bout in my book. Hopefully that has you hooked, because the quality of this contest might be least interesting thing about it.

Okay, so it's 1934. We have Whitney Hewitt and Paul Harper, two guys whom I've never heard of before and who (as far as I know, and believe me I've checked) have no other matches on tape. This match has a special guest referee, and is the match of which tape has survived of where that is the case. As I've said, I know nothing about these two, and I almost prefer it is kept that way. Because I cannot imagine there being anything other than a blood feud between these two. You just feel the hate. We've at the point in wrestling history where strikes start becoming in vogue. It's Texas. It smells like an early great prowres brawl, almost an invention of the stuff you'd see in the 70s and 80s. That's the kind of match where I really don't want to see referee shenanigans.

But who do they bring in as special guest referee? Jack Dempsey.

Come on now. Come on. It's Jack Dempsey, the legendary boxing world champion. He has to get in there. And, without spoiling too much, his presence really adds to the sense of chaos and hateful struggle these two showcase. It's a fascinating match, because it simultaneously reminds of Terry Funk and PRIDE. You get the authentically American stooging many love in the 70s and 80s, but you also get brutal forearm shots, rabbit punches and even head stomps. That's the beautiful thing about matches from this era - modern wrestling is basically being created, things aren't done just for the sake of being done in a manner that they are "because that's how they've always been done", you really can't tell what's gonna come next*. There's some fine wrestling in there too, but it served a structural purpose - it's intertwined with the chaos, it makes the highs seem even higher and is used to set up the brawling spots. And when it's time for if these guys just go at it, working super snug and tight, constantly going after each other, ending up in the corner and the ropes, you really get the sense that an outside force was needed to contain them and guide the action. Amazing.

 

 *

Spoiler

Seriously, would you really ever expect a sequence, in any wrestling match ever, where a guy goes for the Boston Crab, transitions into a Giant Swing but then stops as his opponent is just below the ring ropes and then starts stomping his head in while he's trapped there? Because that's what literally happened here.