I’m an avid history and tv archivist and I live for this sort of stuff, anyone else the same? I believe this is from the Capital Wrestling era of the 50s and most likely Madison Square Garden, at least from my bit of research.
It’s actually a surprisingly great and fast paced match and pretty decent quality, too. I love finding pre 70s matches on Youtube, so this was a pretty great find.
There’s also a version here that’s not as clear but it’s got some really good pre match promos, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYXwFO73ms
Anyone else love finding these types of matches?
I’m an avid history and tv archivist
One of us, one of us, gooble gobble gooble gobble!
Those are a some damn good looking monkey flips!
That was great! It’s cool to see the evolution of moves– like how the monkey flips, dropkicks, and Irish whips used here are done just a bit differently than they are today. Love it.
Do you happen to have a clip of that ballet wrestler? I don’t know his name but I think he was from the same era.
Are you thinking of Ricky Starr?
There’s a really good match between him and Karl Von Hess on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUAtQXnRtUE (p1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-FhNcp8B4 (p2)
(Btw, yt-dlp is a really good Youtube downloader for archival purposes :))
That’s him! I only had time to watch the first video (for now) and holy crap, talk about a gimmick that would be super over in this era.
You can see the inspiration to Ricky in early Goldust or Johnny B. Badd, too!
Or even a slightly more camp Jack Gallagher. You’re right though, definitely would have success today.
There’s a good write-up here but sadly I can’t find too much written about him: https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/ricky-starr