Loss Posted July 3, 2022 Report Share Posted July 3, 2022 History of Pro Wrestling #45 (03:52:08) Matches from February-April 1963 BOB ELANDON & ALBERT FALAUX vs RENE CABALLEC & GILBERT POUYDEBAT (02/22/1963; French Catch; 00:38:58) Segunda Caida review of the match. BUDDY ROGERS vs KILLER KOWALSKI (02/22/1963; IWA Chicago; 00:17:54) Rogers had lost the NWA title to Lou Thesz by this point, but still claimed to be the World Champion (without saying NWA). Here’s Bryan Alvarez in Figure Four Weekly with the best and most concise explanation of the story that I’ve seen: “A comical story regarding this reputation also involves the creation of the World Wrestling Federation. In 1962, the National Wrestling Alliance was the United States’ wrestling powerhouse, and promoters around the country had the opportunity to book dates on the World Champion, who at the time was Buddy Rogers. Northeast promoters Vince McMahon Sr. and Toots Mondt began dominating the bookings, causing other promoters to become concerned that they were going to pull Rogers completely out of the NWA. With bookings on Rogers already slim, NWA President Sam Muchnick decided they’d better get the belt off the guy while they still could. Unfortunately, every time he was scheduled to drop it, he suffered some sort of injury. Finally, on January 24th, 1963, he actually appeared in Toronto for a match with Thesz. In what has become an overused cliche in the wrestling business (even uttered at one point by Stephanie McMahon to Trish Stratus), Thesz calmly told Rogers before the opening bell: “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.” Rogers, wisely, opted for the easy way, and Thesz beat him for the belt in a one-fall match (they didn’t want to do three falls for fear Rogers would lose the first one and then bail). In those days, most NWA title matches were two-out-of-three fall affairs, so McMahon and company initially used that as an excuse to claim the title never changed hands. Actually, that one is funny as well, because in McMahon’s territory, all of his main event matches were one fall. Shortly thereafter, they opted to break away from the NWA completely and form the World Wide Wrestling Federation (the third “W” was dropped in 1979), and Rogers was awarded the new WWWF Title after winning a fictitious tournament in Rio de Janeiro. One month later, Rogers dropped the belt to Bruno Sammartino in a 47-second match, and the rest is history.” SAILOR ART THOMAS & DORY DIXON vs JOHNNY BAREND & MAGNIFICENT MAURICE (02/22/1963; IWA Chicago; 00:13:20) BUDDY ROGERS & JOHNNY BAREND & MAGNIFICENT MAURICE vs BOBO BRAZIL & DORY DIXON & SAILOR ART THOMAS (03/15/1963; IWA Chicago; 00:21:09) KILLER KOWALSKI vs MICHIAKI YOSHIMURA (03/23/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:06:03) The first match we have from the 1963 World League. RIKIDOZAN & GREAT TOGO & SHOHEI BABA vs PAT O’CONNOR & KILLER X & COWBOY BOB ELLIS (03/23/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:07:30) Cowboy Bob Ellis was a star a few years before this in the New York area, doing a big feud with Buddy Rogers. He also headlined in St. Louis as a challenger to NWA World Champion Pat O’Connor. Killer X (Frank Townsend) was never really a star in wrestling, but made headlines when he died in a boating accident a couple of years after this match where he managed to save someone else from drowning. KOUKICHI ENDO vs SANDOR SZABO (03/24/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:00:54) RIKIDOZAN vs HAYSTACKS CALHOUN (03/24/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:07:08) Rikidozan submits for the first (and I believe only) time in his career. SHOHEI BABA vs KILLER KOWALSKI (03/24/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:05:39) We only have a few minutes but the match went to a 45-minute draw and got over huge with the live crowd. This year’s league was considered a breakout performance for Baba, as he had more success than expected after returning from a U.S. excursion. GREAT TOGO vs SANDOR SZABO (03/27/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:02:41) MICHIAKI YOSHIMURA vs PAT O’CONNOR (03/27/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:03:24) RIKIDOZAN & TOYONOBORI & SHOHEI BABA vs KILLER KOWALSKI & KILLER X & GORILLA MONSOON (03/27/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:09:50) Gorilla Monsoon was still billed as Gino Marella at this time. RIKIDOZAN & SHOHEI BABA vs PAT O’CONNOR & KILLER KOWALSKI (03/28/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:07:23) TOYONOBORI vs GORILLA MONSOON (03/28/1963; JWA 5th Annual World League; 00:04:28) JAMES BROWN vs KIYOMIGAWA (03/29/1963; French Catch; 00:26:37) TONY CHARLES vs GIACOMO GUGLIEMETTI (03/29/1963; French Catch; 00:09:04) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. You might recognize the name Tony Charles from early 80s Memphis wrestling. He also had a run as Checkmate in World Class Championship Wrestling. BOBO BRAZIL vs MOOSE CHOLAK (04/05/1963; IWA Chicago; 00:23:24) SKULL MURPHY & BRUTE BERNARD vs RUDI JACOBS & HARRY WENZEL (04/05/1963; IWA Chicago; 00:22:32) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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