I’ve been out of the loop on professional wrestling for what seems like forever now. I don’t know the major players; I don’t know the companies, and from the few drop-ins I’ve done over the years, you can basically have it. But I have the fondest memories, as a very small boy, of the syndicated Big Time Wrestling show, out of the National Wrestling Alliance‘s Detroit territory, which could always be counted on to keep an hour of boredom at bay on a rainy Saturday afternoon (“And Pampero Firpo coco-butts The Sheik! He’s killed him! He’s killed him! No, no wait! He’s getting up!”). And the early days of Vince McMahon’s WWF, when I was a teenager, were some of the best “TV theatre” around, with the hypnotic, hysterically funny “Rowdy” Roddy Piper a true artist at his craft.
Continue reading ‘The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling’ (2007): The unscripted side of pro wrestlingTag Archives: Wrestling
‘Portland Wrestling Series Vol. 1’: A look at the Pacific NW territory in the 80s
Hey old timers, remember pro wrestling’s territory days? Back when wrestling was fun? Here’s a nice reminder.
Continue reading ‘Portland Wrestling Series Vol. 1’: A look at the Pacific NW territory in the 80s‘Death of the Territories’ (2018): How expansion & betrayal changed pro wrestling forever
As a WWF-obsessed kid in the 1980s, I was the target audience during pro wrestling’s peak period. But what I didn’t know then was this national explosion of popularity was killing off the last vestiges of rasslin’ as it existed for decades before, and fans of so-called “real” wrestling were mourning its loss.
Continue reading ‘Death of the Territories’ (2018): How expansion & betrayal changed pro wrestling forever