Part 2: The 1950s and the television boom
While the first three volumes of this series covering the mostly pre-1950s period consisted mostly of 1-3 minute clips with occasional exceptions, you’ll find that most matches are complete in the 1950s. In fact, if you’re looking solely at American wrestling, there are probably more complete matches available to us in the 1950s than in the 1970s.
There are many reasons for this. A major one is the exceptional Russ and Sylvia Davis Collection released by the Chicago Film Archives on YouTube. CFA has uncovered hundreds of never or rarely before seen matches from the time period in pristine quality. CFA still releases new matches occasionally, but most of the matches were made available in 2015. It should also be noted that quite a few NWA Chicago matches were already in circulation in trading circles prior to the 2015 release, so not every NWA Chicago match originated from the Davis Collection. Chicago was a frequent stop for NWA World Champion Lou Thesz and also gives us our earliest extended look at major stars like Verne Gagne, Dick the Bruiser, The Crusher, Buddy Rogers, Gorgeous George, Killer Kowalski, The Sheik and many other legends. While Chicago makes up the bulk of the American footage, we also have extensive complete matches from Los Angeles, along with some footage from Buffalo and Dallas. As the decade comes to a close, we also start seeing some footage from Capitol Wrestling, the precursor to the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which would eventually become WWE. Counting their history would be the only way Vince McMahon’s WWF could even enter the ballpark of accurately stating that they were “for over 50 years, the revolutionary force in sports entertainment” at the beginning of all of their TV shows in 1995.
Another reason for the increase in footage is the landscape of wrestling itself changing so much. The 1950s were when pro wrestling was introduced to Japan, with footage dating back to 1953. Rikidozan became a postwar cultural phenomenon. Most of the JWA matches that we have from the 1950s are somewhat clipped, but a few gems are not, most notably matches against wrestlers like Thesz and Don Leo Jonathan.
Finally, some French wrestling from the INA archives entered circulation in recent years and it has been a revelation. We’ll talk far more about that later, but needless to say, dozens if not hundreds of top-tier classics have been uncovered as the good folks of Segunda Caida make their way through the archive. The French footage really kicks into high gear in 1957, when it becomes the majority of available wrestling footage ech year.
The 1950s are a prolific decade for wrestling around the world.
33 topics in this forum
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History of Pro Wrestling #29 (04:05:34) Matches from October-December 1958 PAUL DEBUSNE vs SERGIO REGGIORI (10/10/1958; French Catch; 00:08:59) VERNE GAGNE vs LEE HENNIG (10/24/1958; NWA Upstate; Buffalo Memorial Auditorium; 00:08:30) I originally thought Lee Hennig was the same person as Larry “The Ax” Hennig, but he is in fact a different wrestler. Here is an interesting article about Lee Hennig. (h/t Dave Musgrave at Pretending To Fight for the correction and article) GILBERT LEDUC vs ROCCO LAMBAN (10/30/1958; French Catch; 00:30:58) This match is Segunda Caida’s 1958 Match of the Year. (Review) …
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History of Pro Wrestling #30 (04:49:56) Matches from January-February 1959 PAUL VILLARS vs JUAN BOTANA (01/01/1959; French Catch; 00:17:13) Segunda Caida review of this match. TONY OLIVER vs SERGE GENTILLY (01/01/1959; French Catch; 00:31:36) Segunda Caida review of this match. JOSE TARRES vs DR. ADOLF KAISER (01/02/1959; French Catch; 00:32:32) Great bio of Kaiser from Phil Lions at Wrestling Classics, and a link to the Segunda Caida review of this match. L’ANGE BLANC vs PAUL VILLARS (01/09/1959; French Catch; 00:36:33) Great bio of L’Ange Blanc, again from Phil Lions at Classics. Blan…
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History of Pro Wrestling #31 (04:32:56) Matches from February-May 1959 JOHNNY STEIN vs JEAN BOUT (02/27/1959; French Catch; 00:46:20) Segunda Caida review of the match. AL HAYES & RAY HUNTER vs KARL VON KRAMER & DR. ADOLF KAISER (03/06/1959; French Catch; 00:21:29) L’HOMME MASQUE vs ROGER DELAPORTE (03/06/1959; French Catch; 00:25:43) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. FRITZ VON ERICH vs BOBBY BROWN (03/27/1959; NWA Upstate; Buffalo Memorial Auditorium; 00:07:26) CHARLES HUMEZ vs PAUL DEBUSNE (04/02/1959; French Catch; 00:16:30) JOSE TARRES vs KARL VON CHENOK (…
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History of Pro Wrestling #32 (04:11:41) Matches from May-July 1959 ROGER DELAPORTE vs ROGER GUETTIER (05/30/1959; French Catch; 00:36:57) ISHA ISRAEL vs JEAN RABUT (06/04/1959; French Catch; 00:34:43) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. RIKIDOZAN vs MR. ATOMIC (06/15/1959; JWA 1st Annual World League; 00:03:03) Mr. Atomic wrestled in various American territories in the 1960s and early 70s under a variety of names. RIKIDOZAN vs JESSE ORTEGA (06/15/1959; JWA 1st Annual World League; 00:05:21) Rikidozan wins the first World League, possibly wrestling’s first-ever tournament presented as a global …
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History of Pro Wrestling #33 (04:51:09) Matches from July-October 1959 TINY YORK vs JOHNNY GILBERT (07/17/1959; NWA Chicago; 00:11:23) Some interesting grappling in this one. VERNE GAGNE & WILBUR SNYDER vs DICK THE BRUISER & KARL KARLSSON (07/17/1959; NWA Chicago; 00:27:29) CHERI BIBI & PIERRE BERNAERT vs AMI SOLA & JO LABAT (08/06/1959; French Catch; 00:40:39) JOHNNY STEIN vs MICHEL ALLARY (08/21/1959; French Catch; 00:39:03) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. YUKON ERIC vs BARON GATTONI (09/01/1959; NWA Upstate; 00:14:49) JEAN CORNE vs ROBERT LE BOULC…
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History of Pro Wrestling #34 (04:00:25) Matches from October-December 1959 JOSE ARROYO vs GEORGES GUERET (10/15/1959; French Catch; 00:07:15) LINO DI SANTO vs LE BIG CHIEF (10/15/1959; French Catch; 00:27:03) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. GREAT ZABIO vs TONY MARINO (10/16/1959; NWA Upstate; 00:10:10) JOSEF KOVACS vs GABY CALDERON (10/23/1959; French Catch; 00:04:49) QUASIMODO vs GILBERT LEDUC (10/23/1959; French Catch; 00:28:43) Segunda Caida reviews of the above two matches. DAN MILLER vs DON EAGLE (11/13/1959; NWA Upstate; 00:17:44)…
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History of Pro Wrestling #35A (03:48:44) Matches from 1950s FRITZ VON ERICH vs ED MILLER (12/11/1959; NWA Upstate; Buffalo Memorial Auditorium; 00:16:56) RICKI STARR vs FRITZ VON WALLICK (1959; Capitol Wrestling; 00:06:30) Starr was an exciting wrestler to watch, especially by the standards of his time. L’ANGE BLANC vs PAUL VILLARS (1959; French Catch; 00:24:03) AL MASSEY vs LARRY HAMILTON (1950s; 00:12:17) A BJJ instructor from Bradenton, FL did some amazing breakdowns of the holds in this match on his YouTube channel. ANTONINO ROCCA vs BROTHER FRANK JARES (1950s; Capitol Wrestling; 00:25:23) …
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History of Pro Wrestling #35B (03:27:51) Matches from 1950s-January 1960 Apologies for the lack of comments on this volume. Some of these wrestlers appear to be pretty obscure and many don’t even come up in a Google search. If you have any information, please pass it along. LINDY LAWRENCE vs LYNN O’CONNOR (1950s; NWA Hollywood; 00:27:46) LORD LESLIE CARLTON vs JUAN SEPEDA (1950s; NWA Hollywood; 00:25:28) RITA MARTINEZ vs MARIA GERNARDI (1950s; NWA Hollywood; 00:11:01) DON ARNOLD vs ALI PASHA (1950s; NWA Los Angeles; 00:22:16) BILLY RED LYONS vs HANS SCHMIDT (1950s; NWA Upstate; 00:14:40) …
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