With the recent passing of Hulk Hogan, I have been reminded, primarily of events of my youth.

Growing up in Vancouver in the 1960's, on Saturday mornings. my brothers and I would all sit down to watch All Star Wrestling...on a B&W TV no less.

The most notable, was watching Gene Kiniski (who billed himself as "Canada's Greatest Athlete"). Other notable names that flashed across that screen from the era: Abdullah the Butcher, Andre the Giant, Erich Froelich, John Quinn, Killer Kowalski,  Rick Martel and Stan Stasiak being the ones I remember off the top of my head.

It was nothing "flashy" like today's over-promoted extravaganzas...just a couple of TV cameras set up in a warehouse somewhere locally with maybe 50-100 spectators to make it look entertaining...and professional...and it was! (Or maybe the fake blood was less distinguishable on that B&W TV.) The local radio personalities that hosted these showings and the constant "All Star Wrestling" banner flashing on the screen made it seem surreal...but we were impressionable kids in the 1960's...long, long before the age of today's internet.

If my parents had a night out on a Saturday, my brothers and I would re-arrange the living room furniture to create our very own "wrestling ring" and re-create the sequences we saw on TV. Living in a split level house, my older brother would jump from the middle of the upper stairs simulating jumping from the top ropes to do a final "diving clothesline" on his opponent.

We never really hurt each other...just boys being boys...and we also re-positioned the furniture exactly before our parents came back home. Don't think they ever knew. If there were bruises/skinned knees/elbows, we hid them for the week...until the next "match".

In Elementary School, we talked with the other boys in our class about those matches we saw on Saturday and who was the best Wrestler.

As we graduated Elementary going into Junior High School...it just stopped. Wrestling just didn't seem to matter any more. We were all growing older...other priorities (girls!)...getting our first part-time jobs during school, saving for our first car, etc.

Playing league Soccer on Saturday and Sundays also meant less TV time.

The "low budget", local All Star Wrestling program finally ended in the late 1980's.

When the WWWF (pre-cursor to the WWF and later WWE) started to take off under Vince McMahon (with Hulk Hogan) in the mid-1980's, it just wasn't the same anymore for me. Probably because I had (arguably) "grown up". The wrestling I grew up with in the 1960's was about the actual matches...the "new" WWWF was more about the drama/promotion outside of the ring, IMHO. But, it was a successful formula.

Undeniably, the later wrestlers (at least the most popular ones) made a lot more money than their predecessors...and the market was much bigger! Still...I just couldn't get into it. It just seemed so "fake".

Back when you could still shop at a physical Toys-R-Us location, I could buy these modern WWF/WWE action figures for my nephews...although the thrill of wrestling obviously skipped a generation in my family!

Several years ago, I viewed the movie "The Wrestler" starring Mickey Rourke. The movie, for those who haven't seen it (not that I'd recommend it...other than seeing Marisa Tomei!), focuses on an aging wrestler (Rourke) and the fleeting limelight of those winding down their career in the fictional world of wrestling.

In the last 60 years, a lot of professional wrestlers have come and gone...thanks for the entertainment...and the memories..RIP to all.

4 hours ago, rmeier said:

 

With the recent passing of Hulk Hogan, I have been reminded, primarily of events of my youth.

 

Excellent post!  We grew up at the same time, and I concur with everything you wrote.

Back then, wrestling was organized regionally. So there were a lot of “reigning champions” at the same time.  The territories:

https://historyofwrestling.com/territories/
 
I’m in San Francisco so the arena matches were at the Cow Palace on Saturday nights.  The televised matches were shown on Friday nights on KTVU, an independent channel in Oakland and exactly as you described, just a few rows of fans filmed at their studio.  What great memories!  Unfortunately, the studio matches were recorded on tape and they would usually record the next week’s show over the old tape, so very little footage survives.  I was able to find this example of Pepper Gomez, the Man with the Cast Iron Stomach (he would invite people to jump off of ladders onto his stomach to show off how strong his abdominal muscles were.) His day time job outside of wrestling at the time was as a maitre d’ of a Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant.

We were really into it in elementary school; at recess we would act out the matches. My favorite thing was doing my Walt Harris impression, who was the TV matches “play-by-play” announcer (he also broadcasted the Bay Bombers roller derby matches). http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/RIP/WaltHarris.html

During high school, we’d go to the matches at the Cow Palace.  Good times.

Pepper Gomez, Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson, Kenji Shibuya (The Sleeper Claw), Mr. Saito, The Sheik, Bearcat Wright (The Figure Four Leg Lock), Peter Maiva, The Destroyer, Haystack Calhoun, Moondog Mayne among others. 

My favorite villain (“AA-ttthhe-leet”) was Ray Stevens:

 

Thanks for the reply!

You are correct...it was very much regional back then...with the occasional "Reigning Champion" from another territory showing up on the TV screen...or an International, like Andre the Giant!

I'd forgotten about most of those early wrestlers having day jobs...several of them, from what I remember, were previous professional football players as well...usually leaving that sport due to injury.

Great memories!

That video clip you shared was a hoot!  🙂  

Fun trivia:  The Friday night TV studio show featured a board that showed the matches.  After each match, a scantily-clad young woman, “Miss Wrestling”, would place a star next to the winner of the match. One of the Miss Wrestlings was Adrienne Barbeau, who was born in Sacramento and grew up here in the Bay Area before she eventually became a star.