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The Samoans
Andre the Giant
Chief Jay Strongbow
Ivan Koloff
George (the Animal) Steele
Lou Albano
Superstar Billy Graham
Dusty Rhodes
One memory in particular, long ago, we went to a match and was waiting outside to say hi to the wrestlers, shook hands with the Samoans, next thing you know I felt someone's presence directly behind me and heard a grrrrlllllll...low and behold it was Hulk Hogan.
yup I remember all of them, my favorite was "Polish Power" Ivan Putski
I remember almost all of those. I recall Haystacks and Tony Garia were the big champs of the day, typically battling guys like Mr Fuji and Prof Tanaka. Chief Jay Strongbow was my fav though (the Sleeperhold, one of the first great "signature" moves). Although Andre was a close 2d. Loved how he'd wrestle 5 guys at once who he totally dwarfed and in the end would just sort of sit on them for the pin lol. Also recall:
Leapin Lanny Popov
Bob Baukland (sp)
Blackjack Lanza
Gorilla Monsoon
Jake "the Snake"
The Grand Wizard of Wrestling (mgr)
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.....
Guys like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, although entertaining at first, were the beginning of the end. Actually Vince McMahon was, he's largely resp. for ruining it IMO, the nut job. The good ol good guy vs bad guy thing started to go out the window and they started talking more than wrestling. Sure the smack talk was always part of it but not like this. And basically none of the newer guys were likable when you got down to it....they were all boring loud-mouthed losers, and not nearly as colorful either. Oh well.
Gosh...great memories reading all these names.....
I used to joke I knew the Cold War was really over in 1989 when the stock russian villin (Ivan Kollov sp?) went from being a heel to a hero. I think he even briefly teamed up with Sgt. Slaughter.
That was a pop culture shift that told me the times had truly changed.
The Von Erich family was practically Dallas royalty - heroes to every kid (and their parents). The boys (were there 5 of them?) each died young and in tragic ways......there may be one left. They ruled the wrestling world for many years.
Oh yes we remember steve kern , eddie graham , the road warriors , dusty rhodes and the brisco brothers (sadly one of them passed recently ) my sister worked for his wife doing yard work with her , kevin sullivan , jimmy garvin , ronnie garvin . Ivan kolov , the iron sheik , bobie hennan , of course hulk hogan , ric flair , you name it , I used to work at the fort homer hesterly armory where they held wrestling in tampa florida . I worked there in consesscions so i saw alot of them .
I remember living in Florida back in the mid 70's and every Saturday morning watching show after show, Buddy Colt was big back then
Ricky Steamboat, Bo Bo Brazil and The American dream Dusty Rhodes
McMahon kinda sterilized the whole thing by amalgamating all the small federations into one big generic predictable show,i watch Raw and Smackdown every week but for some reason the story lines are more interesting than the wrestling.
Now i'm liking the new TNA product,its different
Rock and Roll Express
Tommy "Wildfire" Rich
Tony Atlas
The Fargo Brothers
From Chattanooga area; Tojo Yamamoto
I had the hugest crush on Tommy Rich back around 1981 or 1982.
I grew up watching wrestling from the mid 70's and on. Being in Miami I used to go see the matches at the Miami Beach Convention Center and in my Grandparent's house Gordon Solie was a God with his announcing. Loved Florida Championship Wrestling and the NWA.
I met almost every wrestler there was when I was a kid and have a nice scar on my leg from Barry Windham when he was the Yellow Dog and he was swinging a chain around out in the lobby giving autographs and taking pics with people. I got a little to close I guess but he was so sweet to me that I was feeling no pain.
I also got my dad and I thrown out once when I was 10 for tossing a soda at JJ Dillon. I thought wrestling was real and totally hated him. I do feel bad about it now lol.
What is really scary is that I still have tons of wrestling magazines from 1980 to around 2000. The money I spent on those stupid magazines could have probably paid for college lol.
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