[1961-07-13-Capitol Wrestling] Moose Cholak & Mighty Atlas vs Al Costello & Roy Heffernan

[Clayton Jones]

2/3 falls. The commentator really stresses the amount of action you'll see from these four men and he's not wrong. They were building to something great here but it devolves both in story and in execution as Cholak's team continues to break down. This culminates in a series of Moose charges that Cholak takes some absolutely psycho bumps on for a guy his size. The Kangaroos are great opponents for these two, charismatic, athletic, and a little dirty. This was really fun and Cholak in some ways gives a great performance and in some ways derails the match. Overall a good spectacle with plenty of action as advertised.

Please correct me if this is not Capitol Wrestling, I'm assuming as much based on other footage from this era.

[CurtainJerker]

Moose Cholak stole the show. I could see the roots of WWF in this spectacle of a match. Looks like the head of former governor Chris Christie grafted on the body of AWA's Leon White. The audience wanted to fight him before the bell. But he relished in making a fool out of himself by bumping so much, missing his Moose charge many times, and getting hit by his own partner.

Big, big difference with this type of wrestling compared to a random 1950s Chicago and Hollywood bout. It was much more fast paced and entertaining. Of course Moose's comical bumps and the Kangaroos' athletic spots subtracted from realism, but they made a fun match. Young Bucks prototype? LOL

The Original Kangaroos are a team that is in the WON HOF and when I was a kid they were namedropped in various magazines and books as being one of the best tag teams of all time. In this match they had very frequent tags, including the trope where partners switch arm wringers.

Mighty Atlas didn't do much, however the commentator said he has expensive $20 shirts.

I didn't like the non-finish (DQ?) or the two straight fall loss for Moose + Atlas.

Anyway, Moose Cholak made such an impression on me. For a 1961 super heavyweight he was more fast and exciting than most smaller wrestlers of his day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHDkr6V6968