I have been writing for this site now for several months. I originally started writing for two reasons. The first was motivated by my issues with Jerry “The King” Lawler. The other was because I decided that I was going to give my opinion of things in the business. The wrestling business of today was not the business that I grew to love starting in nineteen seventy nine. I have found the business of these days to be come boring and mundane and at times I struggle for something fresh to write about. I will now only write one guaranteed article a week. My article will be on Friday nights and will maintain the same format. If there is something that occurs in the business that I have a passion to write about I will throw a special article on the site. The rest of this article will give you an idea what it was that got me attracted to the wrestling business to begin with. If you have been reading my article up to now I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts and opinions. If you by chance are a first time reader I welcome you to the site and or my articles.
As a young boy growing up in Yonkers, NY, I had no interest in professional wrestling at all. I didn’t know who anyone was and didn’t care. What I did know was that all the other kids knew Chief Jay Strongbow, Billy White Wolff, "Polish Power" Ivan Putski and "Wrestling’s Living Legend" Bruno Sammartino. I was so bored hearing about it I couldn’t stand it. In those days the WWWF was on television at midnight on WOR-TV channel 9 the home of my New York Mets. It was broadcast at 12:00am Sunday morning which is Saturday midnight. I normally was long asleep and had no desire to even try and figure out what this wrestling stuff was all about. Well one day the Mets happened to be playing on the West Coast so their game was going to air at about 10:00pm with no chance of it finishing by 12:00am Sunday morning. That west coast road trip caused the by this time WWF to air at 5:00pm. In those days we only had five TV channels and with nothing else to watch I started watching the WWF. I can barely remember what happened on the show but I do remember watching Ivan Putski hit someone with his Polish Hammer for the first time and I think that from that moment I was hooked. I continued to watch each week always rooting for my hero Polish Power Ivan Putski. In those days Bruno Sammartino was mainly a commentator, you heard references to his greatness but you never really got a chance to see it on television.
I found my attraction growing to professional wrestling over the weeks and months. In that time, the best I can remember, they started to run some angles on television. I remember things like Capt. Lou Albano pulling the leg out on Ivan Putski so Dick “The Bulldog” Brower could pin him. In those days people, that was a hot angle Capt. Lou Albano had so much hate people came to the building to see him get murdered. He was a former wrestler mostly known for being part of a tag team called The Sicilians with Tony Altimore (long time WWF employee) and in those days he was a large man who dressed like a bum. I can recall a big angle with Nikolai Volkoff and Bruno Sammartino where Fred Blassie caught Bruno in the face with a cane. I will say though that the angle I remember the most was between the North American Champion, a very young and scientific wrestler, named Ted DiBiase. I felt very lucky that after all these years I was able to sit down at the IHOP in Orlando Fl and talk about that angle with Ted DiBiase. He remembered it as vividly as I did.
It was a match that I found out years later was filmed in the Agricultural Hall in Allentown PA. In those days there wasn’t a way to find out where the matches were filmed so I never knew where TV was done. It was a match for the North American Title with the challenger being led to the ring by a man I would later consider a friend Ernie Roth (The Grand Wizard of Wrestling) he was Pat Patterson. It didn’t seem like Patterson could get the best of DiBiase at anything. I watched Patterson get out wrestled the entire match. The match as being refereed by a young Mario Savoldi who seemed to be a great referee and later along with father Angelo became a promoter in the northeast. At a certain point in the match the referee went down and Patterson reached into his trunks for the brass knuckles. This was probably the pivotal moment that turned me in a wrestling fan forever. It wasn’t long and DiBiase was “out cold” and the referee was coming “back to life” and Pat Patterson was now the North American Champion. I believe the year was nineteen seventy nine and I was hooked. I was infuriated that the arrogant Patterson who couldn’t get the best of DiBiase at all was now the champion. In those days I was a total believer in the legitimacy of wrestling. It was that match that moment that made me a believer. In the years to follow, when I actually broke into the business, I got to have many conversations with Pat Patterson and finally now I got to discuss the match with Ted DiBiase.
It wasn’t long after that DiBiase would have his last match in the WWF against a youngster name The Incredible Hulk Hogan in Madison Square Garden. The North American Title also went away when Pat Patterson captured the Intercontinental Title in a tournament that was announced as taking place in Rio de Janeiro. They may as well have said it took place in parts unknown. In those days you could get away with that type of stuff. Who knows why the one title went away and they made a new belt for Pat Patterson. All I know is he was a great heel and I wanted DiBiase to get even so bad I couldn’t stand it. Those were the days for sure.
The Agricultural Hall in Allentown was the place several angles started. It was the place where Hulk Hogan started feuding with Tony Atlas. The crowd watched when Hogan went up for the big leg drop on Mr. USA. Tony Atlas. They really went nuts when he missed it. Does that give you any idea how long ago it was? I recently watched that angle again. I had completely lost track of a crowd doing that when Hogan missed the leg drop.
I hope this gave you some feedback into why I came to love Pro Wrestling.
The picture in this article was my very first match at the Ridgewood Grove arena in Queens NY. The arena doesn’t exist anymore but many of the top names in the wrestling business worked there. This building was a fairly regular stop for the WWWF and WWF for many years. In this match I worked with two guys who did not speak English. It was quite a night for me small show only fifty fans. I didn’t remember to ring the bell to start of finish the match. I can tell you I don’t ever remember forgetting that again. I sure learned from my mistake. If I have already run this picture I apologize but I felt like it should be with this article.
This has been a piece of my mind
