I'm an avid history and tv archivist and I live for this sort of stuff, anyone else the same? I believe this is from the Capital Wrestling era of the 50s and most likely Madison Square Garden, at least from my bit of research.
It's actually a surprisingly great and fast paced match and pretty decent quality, too. I love finding pre 70s matches on Youtube, so this was a pretty great find.
There's also a version here that's not as clear but it's got some really good pre match promos, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYXwFO73ms
Anyone else love finding these types of matches?
6 Comments
GeekFTW@kbin.social · 4 pts · 3y
One of us, one of us, gooble gobble gooble gobble!
Neon_Carnivore@kbin.social · 3 pts · 3y
Those are a some damn good looking monkey flips!
TellumSiege@kbin.social · 2 pts · 3y
That was great! It's cool to see the evolution of moves– like how the monkey flips, dropkicks, and Irish whips used here are done just a bit differently than they are today. Love it.
Do you happen to have a clip of that ballet wrestler? I don't know his name but I think he was from the same era.
cupcakezealot@kbin.social · 2 pts · 3y
Are you thinking of Ricky Starr?
There's a really good match between him and Karl Von Hess on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUAtQXnRtUE (p1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-FhNcp8B4 (p2)
(Btw, yt-dlp is a really good Youtube downloader for archival purposes :))
TellumSiege@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y
That's him! I only had time to watch the first video (for now) and holy crap, talk about a gimmick that would be super over in this era.
cupcakezealot@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y
You can see the inspiration to Ricky in early Goldust or Johnny B. Badd, too!
Or even a slightly more camp Jack Gallagher. You're right though, definitely would have success today.
There's a good write-up here but sadly I can't find too much written about him: https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/ricky-starr