The Men That Moved The Mountain
Featuring An Exclusive Interview With Ivan Koloff
#PWHS #Article #MenThatMovedTheMountain #IvanKoloff #Exclusive
Bruno Sammartino. Pedro Morales. Bob Backlund. Hulk Hogan. These are the men who defined the early years of the World (Wide) Wrestling Federation. From 1963 to 1988, for the first twenty five years of the organization‘s history, they individually held the World Championship for a combined total of nearly twenty four years. In comparison, the combined time that it spent in hands other than the men listed above adds up to a mere 376 days over a twenty five year period.*
It’s clear that the business model during the formative years of the WW(W)F was to put the Championship (and arguably the company itself) around the waist and, thus, on the shoulders of a strong superhero-esque baby face for years at a time as he took on all forms of monstrous challengers, which ranged from fellow fan favorites, brawlers, technicians, high flyers, and those who look like they were more at home in a Universal horror picture than a wrestling ring. Utilizing extended baby face reigns was not an uncommon trend at the time, with their main competitor (and sometimes business-partner) the National Wrestling Alliance often using the same formula.**
The WWWF in particular took advantage of their territory’s ethnic diversity among the north east fan base - their main basis of operations being great melting pots such as New York City and Philadelphia - by having early Champions to draw their fiercely proud brethren of like nationality. “The people believed in Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales as ethnic characters,” Ivan Koloff writes in his autobiography, ‘Is That Wrestling Fake? The Bear Facts’, “normal people who were just trying to make their way in this country.” Bruno drew in the Italian (and, in general, European) population, Pedro Morales the South Americans, and Bob Backlund being the WWWF’s answer to Irish. Eventually Hulk Hogan was a more clear-cut representation of Americana as the country moved away from the immigrant generation and their deep loyalty to their homelands.
During this era in professional wrestling, with clear-cut heels and faces, it was an uncommon practice to put two main-event faces at odds with one another.*** Be it due to egos or simply what contemporary business practices considered as taboo at the time, when it was time for the changing of the guard to go on to the next superhero of the territory, it was not a direct passing of the torch, but instead done transitionally via a third party. For the most part these men became footnotes in history - a clerical annotation from one mountain to the next. The reasoning behind why they in particular were chosen was forgotten, in some cases played off as scrubs lucky enough to be in the right place and at the right time.
It’s clear that the business model during the formative years of the WW(W)F was to put the Championship (and arguably the company itself) around the waist and, thus, on the shoulders of a strong superhero-esque baby face for years at a time as he took on all forms of monstrous challengers, which ranged from fellow fan favorites, brawlers, technicians, high flyers, and those who look like they were more at home in a Universal horror picture than a wrestling ring. Utilizing extended baby face reigns was not an uncommon trend at the time, with their main competitor (and sometimes business-partner) the National Wrestling Alliance often using the same formula.**
The WWWF in particular took advantage of their territory’s ethnic diversity among the north east fan base - their main basis of operations being great melting pots such as New York City and Philadelphia - by having early Champions to draw their fiercely proud brethren of like nationality. “The people believed in Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales as ethnic characters,” Ivan Koloff writes in his autobiography, ‘Is That Wrestling Fake? The Bear Facts’, “normal people who were just trying to make their way in this country.” Bruno drew in the Italian (and, in general, European) population, Pedro Morales the South Americans, and Bob Backlund being the WWWF’s answer to Irish. Eventually Hulk Hogan was a more clear-cut representation of Americana as the country moved away from the immigrant generation and their deep loyalty to their homelands.
During this era in professional wrestling, with clear-cut heels and faces, it was an uncommon practice to put two main-event faces at odds with one another.*** Be it due to egos or simply what contemporary business practices considered as taboo at the time, when it was time for the changing of the guard to go on to the next superhero of the territory, it was not a direct passing of the torch, but instead done transitionally via a third party. For the most part these men became footnotes in history - a clerical annotation from one mountain to the next. The reasoning behind why they in particular were chosen was forgotten, in some cases played off as scrubs lucky enough to be in the right place and at the right time.
However, that was not at all the case for these men. It doesn’t come close to painting an accurate representation of who these men were, what they contributed to the territory, and why they were chosen to be the most viable out of all other possible candidates.
With his bleached blonde hair, impressive build, and the arrogant way he carried himself, Buddy Rogers was a verified box office smash in the early sixties nationwide and would serve as the first WWWF Champion after it broke off from the NWA in 1963. However, Rogers worked a very demanding style for what was considered the norm at the time. Oftentimes he is credited as the inventor of the “high spot” (a fast-paced sequence of moves), making him one of the pioneers of the fast-paced style that is considered the standard today. With that said, at the age of 42 his health was rapidly failing due to a series of (alleged) heart issues. After holding the WWWF Championship for 22 days****, Rogers lost to the WWWF’s first true superman, the burly “Strongman from Abruzzo, Italy” Bruno Sammartino.
A hero to the working-class as well as to all generations of European immigrants, Bruno would go on to have a historic seven years, eight months, and one day long reign, month-in and month-out toppling every combatant that challenged him. All across the WWWF’s north east stronghold, Bruno fended off against the eclectic cast of legendary characters, including fellow fan favorite and tag team partner Bobo Brazil, the dastardly Freddie Blassie, the titanic Gorilla Monsoon, the evil German Waldo Von Erich, and “Cowboy” Bill Watts, as well as some names that are largely forgotten, such as the hairy, barefooted Sicilian Beast and the masked Golden Terror. Sammartino faced a rigorous schedule, which included up to 28 or more dates and appearances per month, sometimes several per day. Typically his schedule only allowed for him to come home for one Sunday every two weeks, a schedule he kept for years until he demanded to have every Sunday off to spend with his family in the late 60s.
Bruno prides himself greatly on each one of his matches being unique (as opposed to other top names, such as Antonino Rocca, who he criticizes as having worked a repetitive style night-in and night-out), which he partly attributes his longevity on top to. Each match lasted anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes, some up to and over an hour. Not only were these matches and appearances all across the north east United States, but also with the occasional stop in Canada, the southern US, Puerto Rico, as well as tours in Mexico, South America, Australia, Spain, and Japan. Over the course of Bruno’s career he sold out 187 of the 211 times he headlined in the WWWF‘s home base of Madison Square Garden. His first reign as Champion was without question the golden era of the WWWF.
Despite being portrayed as ultimately invincible, working matches at a constant and consistent pace over the years left Bruno both mentally and physically burned out. At the time the WWWF mainly utilized boxing rings, which notoriously have less give and are much harder on the body than the standard professional wrestling ring. He was amassing a collection of nagging injuries and dearly missed spending time with his family, two-to-four days per month was nowhere near enough time with them. It was time to pass the torch onto the next contender, the next north east superman, the hero of the Latin people, the fiery Pedro Morales. However, due to the aforementioned business practices at the time, a third party was required to facilitate the passing of the guard. And the man hand-selected for this task by Bruno himself was “The Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff.
With his bleached blonde hair, impressive build, and the arrogant way he carried himself, Buddy Rogers was a verified box office smash in the early sixties nationwide and would serve as the first WWWF Champion after it broke off from the NWA in 1963. However, Rogers worked a very demanding style for what was considered the norm at the time. Oftentimes he is credited as the inventor of the “high spot” (a fast-paced sequence of moves), making him one of the pioneers of the fast-paced style that is considered the standard today. With that said, at the age of 42 his health was rapidly failing due to a series of (alleged) heart issues. After holding the WWWF Championship for 22 days****, Rogers lost to the WWWF’s first true superman, the burly “Strongman from Abruzzo, Italy” Bruno Sammartino.
A hero to the working-class as well as to all generations of European immigrants, Bruno would go on to have a historic seven years, eight months, and one day long reign, month-in and month-out toppling every combatant that challenged him. All across the WWWF’s north east stronghold, Bruno fended off against the eclectic cast of legendary characters, including fellow fan favorite and tag team partner Bobo Brazil, the dastardly Freddie Blassie, the titanic Gorilla Monsoon, the evil German Waldo Von Erich, and “Cowboy” Bill Watts, as well as some names that are largely forgotten, such as the hairy, barefooted Sicilian Beast and the masked Golden Terror. Sammartino faced a rigorous schedule, which included up to 28 or more dates and appearances per month, sometimes several per day. Typically his schedule only allowed for him to come home for one Sunday every two weeks, a schedule he kept for years until he demanded to have every Sunday off to spend with his family in the late 60s.
Bruno prides himself greatly on each one of his matches being unique (as opposed to other top names, such as Antonino Rocca, who he criticizes as having worked a repetitive style night-in and night-out), which he partly attributes his longevity on top to. Each match lasted anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes, some up to and over an hour. Not only were these matches and appearances all across the north east United States, but also with the occasional stop in Canada, the southern US, Puerto Rico, as well as tours in Mexico, South America, Australia, Spain, and Japan. Over the course of Bruno’s career he sold out 187 of the 211 times he headlined in the WWWF‘s home base of Madison Square Garden. His first reign as Champion was without question the golden era of the WWWF.
Despite being portrayed as ultimately invincible, working matches at a constant and consistent pace over the years left Bruno both mentally and physically burned out. At the time the WWWF mainly utilized boxing rings, which notoriously have less give and are much harder on the body than the standard professional wrestling ring. He was amassing a collection of nagging injuries and dearly missed spending time with his family, two-to-four days per month was nowhere near enough time with them. It was time to pass the torch onto the next contender, the next north east superman, the hero of the Latin people, the fiery Pedro Morales. However, due to the aforementioned business practices at the time, a third party was required to facilitate the passing of the guard. And the man hand-selected for this task by Bruno himself was “The Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff.
Raised in rural Ontario alongside his nine siblings on a series of farms, Ivan Koloff (born Oreal Perras) learned at a young age the value of work ethic and perseverance. Having to perform backbreaking labor on the family farm from the time he was a small child, young Ivan grew up muscular and fit. Early into his adulthood the future Ruskie led a rowdy life, and after getting into a few scrapes with the law (including serving a year of jail time for cattle rustling) he discovered journeyman professional wrestler Jack Wentworth’s wrestling school in Hamilton.
In his autobiography, Ivan describes how after several years of wrestling as the Irish rogue, Red McNulty, at his trainer’s student events, Wentworth sent the nearly three hundred pound performer on a five day loop of the WWWF territory, located in the north eastern United States. I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Koloff, who recalls, “A lot of people probably don't realize, in 1963 I ended up coming into the New York area for one week. I ended up wrestling in Scranton, Pennsylvania against Dr. Bill Miller. Oh man, what an experience that was. He was a big man, too - I remember one day I took him and threw him across the ring. I was pretty strong at the time, getting up close to three hundred pounds. I was so surprised that I ran over to him, ‘are you alright Mr. Miller?’ (I was) astonished I threw him so far. Being new to the business, I learned a lot on this trip.” During this trip, at the weekly Studio Wrestling television taping in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defended his belt, defeating an (at the time) unknown rookie, the future Ivan Koloff.
“As it turned out,” Ivan tells me, “I ended up wrestling, as you know, the great legend, Bruno Sammartino. And he was my hero. Because he was a few years older and I watched him from the time he won the World Wide Wrestling Federation belt up until this time. And this is going way back, so this was '63, he ended up winning the belt from Buddy Rogers. I watched the wrestling intently, as much as I could on television back in those days. The Kalmikoff Brothers, Yukon Eric, of course Bulldog Brower, Whipper Billy Watson. (Then) Bruno Sammartino came on the scene, this 290 pound Italian from Abruzzo, Italy. I really took a liking to him. He seemed like such a nice man. And he really caught my eye as a youngster and on into this time in '63.
In “Timeline: History of WWE 1963-1969 with Bruno Sammartino” Bruno shows a reciprocal respect for Ivan, and said of his first encounter with the future World Champion, “He came to Pittsburgh and I wrestled him on TV. One of my rare TV matches. Not that he was a name or anything, but he looked very, very impressive. And I think I might have seen him once before and I liked his style and thought that, ‘you know, we could go on TV and have a great TV match.’… But I remember then, after seeing what he was like and everything, I told Vince (McMahon, Sr.), ‘there’s a guy that we need to bring in there.’
“I was impressed with him from day one, you might say. And Ivan Koloff was great because here’s a guy who could do great high spots, you know, all that kind of stuff… For two pretty big guys we could move in that ring, we gelled really well. And I thought, ‘man, this guy’s terrific.’ And that’s how I talked Vince into bringing him in.”
Ivan tells me, “It was always an intense type of match with Bruno, because he could mix it up. He could wrestle, you know - hip tosses, arm drags, criss-crosses - everything. Or he could like to brawl, too. We could get in there and start swinging - chairs, or anything. So Bruno was very apt at whatever situation came up. I wrestled Bruno one day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I'll never forget it. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, because maybe the (Pennsylvania State Athletic) Commission will be hot at me. But at the time, they were giving us a hard time. You know, different rules, and they were sort of on our back a little about it. So I was bound and determined that I was going to let them know that, 'hey, I don't like this.' So Bruno (and I were) doing a criss-cross, and I see I was close enough to the rope. And he went to back drop me, I tried to catch the commissioner's table. I go over the top, grab the rope as I'm going over, I tried to reach it. It was quite a ways away, but I caught it. (I) landed on the table, but I didn't realize it was one of those big, heavy, oak tables and it didn't break in half. I was visualizing it was going to break in half and the commissioner was going to go sprawling. It was going to get my point across and they'd never suspect I'd do something like that intentionally. Believe me, I wouldn't do it again, knowing how hard that table was. It didn't do my back (any good) at all.”
From there, Ivan continued his career as a journeyman in Vancouver, then did a tour of Japan for the Japanese Pro Wrestling Alliance. While on tour he met fellow Canadian Jacques Rougeau, who, impressed by his size and talent, referred him to his brother Johnny, the promoter of the Montreal territory. After a quick stop in Stampede, it was Johnny Rougeau that conceived the Ivan Koloff name and character, which was inspired by Perras’ fierce look, which resembled the former Premier of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, as well as 1930s grappler Dan Koloff. Ivan says of the initial meeting, “He took a liking to me and said that I'd make a good Russian, because I looked just like a Russian, like Lenin. I didn't realize it was really going to take me places.” For this he shaved his head, retaining a sinister goatee and his enormous 295 pound frame, portraying the character of a mad Russian. Being in the midst of the Cold War, this was a surefire way to draw heat from the more than susceptible crowds.
Koloff was given the opportunity to work at the top of the card while working for the famous Rougeau family in Montreal, an experience that proved invaluable for what the future had in store for him. This gave him the opportunity to regularly work with and against such names as Andre the Giant, Edouard Carpentier, Ernie Ladd, Hans Schmidt, and, of course, the Rougeau Brothers. Word of the mad Russian in Montreal spread, and on open dates, Johnny Rougeau and his co-promoter Jack Britton would loan Koloff out to other territories, booking him dates in Detroit, where he was able to work with the legendary Bobo Brazil, Toronto, and St. Louis, where he worked with future NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race.
In his autobiography, Ivan describes how after several years of wrestling as the Irish rogue, Red McNulty, at his trainer’s student events, Wentworth sent the nearly three hundred pound performer on a five day loop of the WWWF territory, located in the north eastern United States. I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Koloff, who recalls, “A lot of people probably don't realize, in 1963 I ended up coming into the New York area for one week. I ended up wrestling in Scranton, Pennsylvania against Dr. Bill Miller. Oh man, what an experience that was. He was a big man, too - I remember one day I took him and threw him across the ring. I was pretty strong at the time, getting up close to three hundred pounds. I was so surprised that I ran over to him, ‘are you alright Mr. Miller?’ (I was) astonished I threw him so far. Being new to the business, I learned a lot on this trip.” During this trip, at the weekly Studio Wrestling television taping in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defended his belt, defeating an (at the time) unknown rookie, the future Ivan Koloff.
“As it turned out,” Ivan tells me, “I ended up wrestling, as you know, the great legend, Bruno Sammartino. And he was my hero. Because he was a few years older and I watched him from the time he won the World Wide Wrestling Federation belt up until this time. And this is going way back, so this was '63, he ended up winning the belt from Buddy Rogers. I watched the wrestling intently, as much as I could on television back in those days. The Kalmikoff Brothers, Yukon Eric, of course Bulldog Brower, Whipper Billy Watson. (Then) Bruno Sammartino came on the scene, this 290 pound Italian from Abruzzo, Italy. I really took a liking to him. He seemed like such a nice man. And he really caught my eye as a youngster and on into this time in '63.
In “Timeline: History of WWE 1963-1969 with Bruno Sammartino” Bruno shows a reciprocal respect for Ivan, and said of his first encounter with the future World Champion, “He came to Pittsburgh and I wrestled him on TV. One of my rare TV matches. Not that he was a name or anything, but he looked very, very impressive. And I think I might have seen him once before and I liked his style and thought that, ‘you know, we could go on TV and have a great TV match.’… But I remember then, after seeing what he was like and everything, I told Vince (McMahon, Sr.), ‘there’s a guy that we need to bring in there.’
“I was impressed with him from day one, you might say. And Ivan Koloff was great because here’s a guy who could do great high spots, you know, all that kind of stuff… For two pretty big guys we could move in that ring, we gelled really well. And I thought, ‘man, this guy’s terrific.’ And that’s how I talked Vince into bringing him in.”
Ivan tells me, “It was always an intense type of match with Bruno, because he could mix it up. He could wrestle, you know - hip tosses, arm drags, criss-crosses - everything. Or he could like to brawl, too. We could get in there and start swinging - chairs, or anything. So Bruno was very apt at whatever situation came up. I wrestled Bruno one day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I'll never forget it. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, because maybe the (Pennsylvania State Athletic) Commission will be hot at me. But at the time, they were giving us a hard time. You know, different rules, and they were sort of on our back a little about it. So I was bound and determined that I was going to let them know that, 'hey, I don't like this.' So Bruno (and I were) doing a criss-cross, and I see I was close enough to the rope. And he went to back drop me, I tried to catch the commissioner's table. I go over the top, grab the rope as I'm going over, I tried to reach it. It was quite a ways away, but I caught it. (I) landed on the table, but I didn't realize it was one of those big, heavy, oak tables and it didn't break in half. I was visualizing it was going to break in half and the commissioner was going to go sprawling. It was going to get my point across and they'd never suspect I'd do something like that intentionally. Believe me, I wouldn't do it again, knowing how hard that table was. It didn't do my back (any good) at all.”
From there, Ivan continued his career as a journeyman in Vancouver, then did a tour of Japan for the Japanese Pro Wrestling Alliance. While on tour he met fellow Canadian Jacques Rougeau, who, impressed by his size and talent, referred him to his brother Johnny, the promoter of the Montreal territory. After a quick stop in Stampede, it was Johnny Rougeau that conceived the Ivan Koloff name and character, which was inspired by Perras’ fierce look, which resembled the former Premier of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, as well as 1930s grappler Dan Koloff. Ivan says of the initial meeting, “He took a liking to me and said that I'd make a good Russian, because I looked just like a Russian, like Lenin. I didn't realize it was really going to take me places.” For this he shaved his head, retaining a sinister goatee and his enormous 295 pound frame, portraying the character of a mad Russian. Being in the midst of the Cold War, this was a surefire way to draw heat from the more than susceptible crowds.
Koloff was given the opportunity to work at the top of the card while working for the famous Rougeau family in Montreal, an experience that proved invaluable for what the future had in store for him. This gave him the opportunity to regularly work with and against such names as Andre the Giant, Edouard Carpentier, Ernie Ladd, Hans Schmidt, and, of course, the Rougeau Brothers. Word of the mad Russian in Montreal spread, and on open dates, Johnny Rougeau and his co-promoter Jack Britton would loan Koloff out to other territories, booking him dates in Detroit, where he was able to work with the legendary Bobo Brazil, Toronto, and St. Louis, where he worked with future NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race.
As Ivan ran rampant in Canada, he met WWWF regular Lou Albano, who was doing a tour of Montreal in 1969 alongside his partner, Tony Altomare, competing as the mafia-inspired tag team, “the Sicilians”. Albano offered to put in a word for Koloff with his close friend, Bruno Sammartino, whom had already been impressed with Koloff’s work from several years prior. This recommendation would lead to the run that would prove to be the magnum opus of Koloff’s professional wrestling career.
“When I went to Montreal in '67 I ended up wrestling as Ivan Koloff, this crazy guy. By this time about three hundred pounds, I'd run up to the ring from the dressing room, run round and round outside the ring, jump into the ring, attack my opponent, beat him up, put him in the inverted backbreaker. I'd beat him, and then I'd jump out of the ring, run round and round the ring, back to the dressing room. I'd do that every night, no matter where I was at. And it really caught the peoples' eye. I won the Canadian belt. I was there for about two years until I met Captain Lou Albano and Tony Altomore. The Sicilians came in to wrestle in a tag team tournament in Montreal. Captain Lou took a liking to me and thought I'd do well in New York against Bruno Sammartino. I ended up going there and, man, that was the start of the whole thing. “
In his autobiography, Ivan writes, “At the time, I never considered myself to be someone who was anywhere near the level of working with Bruno. Bruno was a verifiable legend and he had a huge following back then. I didn’t think I was good enough for people in that category to put me over.”
“Bruno and I were made to wrestle each other.” Ivan writes, as he was brought back to Bruno Sammartino’s Pittsburgh territory, Spectator Sports, in order to prepare him for his upcoming run in the WWWF. After several months there, he was brought into the WWWF again. First under the tutelage of manager Tony Angelo, who Ivan describes to me as being “like an Italian Mafia guy. He wore a black hat, cigar, and a suitcase.” And later, the man who gave him the in for his return to the WWWF, the eccentric Captain Lou Albano. Captain Lou was truly one of a kind. A spastic, fast-talking loud mouth with wild hair and a beard to match, out of shape with an unkempt shirt, he was unique by every standard. “Captain Lou was a shouter,” Ivan recalls, “he'd just keep yelling, working those people up. We often had to fight our way back. It was nice to have a guy who knew how to punch and swing, and the Captain was not shy at all to do it if he had to. It was quite an experience.
“(It was) great, just to be able to wrestle my hero, Bruno, for many, many months round and round the territory, and I learned a lot from that. After wrestling him, I don't know, eight months, nine months, round and round the territory about three or four times, I ended up leaving. I had contracted a trip to Australia and Japan ” After spending roughly a year in the WWWF working a program with Bruno Sammartino, in the spring of 1970 Ivan Koloff did a ten-week tour of Australia. Ivan knew the importance of constantly moving, not staying in any one territory for too long or else risk going stale and being regulated to working the preliminary matches instead of the main events he was accustomed to by this point.
From Australia, Koloff spent a brief time in New Zealand, followed by spending a couple of months in Fiji and Hawaii. During this time, while working out in colleague Sam Steamboat’s gym, he was approached by fellow future WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales.
Ivan writes, “After I showered and cleaned up, we left and had a beer in a quiet corner of a local bar. ‘Vince called me in Los Angeles. He asked me to fly here to talk to you. Bruno needs to take some time off. He wants to rest and spend some time with his family.’
“’Okay,’ I said, not quite sure where Pedro was going with the conversation.
“Then he dropped the bombshell. ‘He wants to drop the belt to you.’
“I would have said something at that point, but I was absolutely speechless.
“’Would you be interested in taking the WWWF belt from Bruno in the Garden, and then dropping it to me three weeks later?’
“It took me a few seconds, but I finally managed to spit out, ‘Are you kidding?’”
From there, Koloff spoke to Vince McMahon, Sr., who told him that upon returning to New York he would receive a “big push” for four months, then win the Championship from Bruno. Three weeks later, he was to lose it to Pedro Morales.
January 18th, 1971. Madison Square Garden. In the months leading up to this event, as Bruno had been thwarting all sorts of villains, “The Russian Bear” was busy establishing himself as one, defeating Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, Chief Jay Strongbow, Tony Marino, and many more in the weeks previous. And on that fateful Monday, before 21,666 fans, at the fourteen minute and fifty-five second mark, Ivan Koloff defeated Bruno Sammartino to end his 2,801 day reign as the WWWF World Champion.
The match itself started out hot: the two men circled, Bruno ran around the ring as the crowd cheered him wildly. The two lock-up and then push off, showcasing raw power, then repeat the same before locking up again as Koloff roughly takes the head. Bruno escapes the headlock, shoving Koloff off and is then on the receiving end of a shoulder tackle from the Russian.
Koloff hits the ropes as Sammartino then goes for a drop down, before taking Koloff off of his feet with a big back body drop. The two men continue at a frantic pace and put on an absolute clinic of fast-paced technical wrestling and brute force.
This match is uncharacteristic of its time for several reasons. At just under fifteen minutes, the competition is shorter than what was considered the norm for the majority of Championship bouts at the time. However, what the match lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Fast-paced, highflying action such as this was virtually unheard of in that day and age*****, let alone from two men both tipping the scales at nearly three hundred pounds each. The two put on a high-octane contest that is no doubt a precursor to the standard of action that is largely seen today, while still maintaining traditional wrestling values such as the two performers’ signature rugged believability. The bout comes to a close as Bruno charges into the corner to attack Koloff, who puts his boots up. Bruno, stunned, falls to the mat as Ivan picks him up and plants him with a scoop slam, before going to the top rope and hitting a knee drop for the deciding fall.******
“When I went to Montreal in '67 I ended up wrestling as Ivan Koloff, this crazy guy. By this time about three hundred pounds, I'd run up to the ring from the dressing room, run round and round outside the ring, jump into the ring, attack my opponent, beat him up, put him in the inverted backbreaker. I'd beat him, and then I'd jump out of the ring, run round and round the ring, back to the dressing room. I'd do that every night, no matter where I was at. And it really caught the peoples' eye. I won the Canadian belt. I was there for about two years until I met Captain Lou Albano and Tony Altomore. The Sicilians came in to wrestle in a tag team tournament in Montreal. Captain Lou took a liking to me and thought I'd do well in New York against Bruno Sammartino. I ended up going there and, man, that was the start of the whole thing. “
In his autobiography, Ivan writes, “At the time, I never considered myself to be someone who was anywhere near the level of working with Bruno. Bruno was a verifiable legend and he had a huge following back then. I didn’t think I was good enough for people in that category to put me over.”
“Bruno and I were made to wrestle each other.” Ivan writes, as he was brought back to Bruno Sammartino’s Pittsburgh territory, Spectator Sports, in order to prepare him for his upcoming run in the WWWF. After several months there, he was brought into the WWWF again. First under the tutelage of manager Tony Angelo, who Ivan describes to me as being “like an Italian Mafia guy. He wore a black hat, cigar, and a suitcase.” And later, the man who gave him the in for his return to the WWWF, the eccentric Captain Lou Albano. Captain Lou was truly one of a kind. A spastic, fast-talking loud mouth with wild hair and a beard to match, out of shape with an unkempt shirt, he was unique by every standard. “Captain Lou was a shouter,” Ivan recalls, “he'd just keep yelling, working those people up. We often had to fight our way back. It was nice to have a guy who knew how to punch and swing, and the Captain was not shy at all to do it if he had to. It was quite an experience.
“(It was) great, just to be able to wrestle my hero, Bruno, for many, many months round and round the territory, and I learned a lot from that. After wrestling him, I don't know, eight months, nine months, round and round the territory about three or four times, I ended up leaving. I had contracted a trip to Australia and Japan ” After spending roughly a year in the WWWF working a program with Bruno Sammartino, in the spring of 1970 Ivan Koloff did a ten-week tour of Australia. Ivan knew the importance of constantly moving, not staying in any one territory for too long or else risk going stale and being regulated to working the preliminary matches instead of the main events he was accustomed to by this point.
From Australia, Koloff spent a brief time in New Zealand, followed by spending a couple of months in Fiji and Hawaii. During this time, while working out in colleague Sam Steamboat’s gym, he was approached by fellow future WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales.
Ivan writes, “After I showered and cleaned up, we left and had a beer in a quiet corner of a local bar. ‘Vince called me in Los Angeles. He asked me to fly here to talk to you. Bruno needs to take some time off. He wants to rest and spend some time with his family.’
“’Okay,’ I said, not quite sure where Pedro was going with the conversation.
“Then he dropped the bombshell. ‘He wants to drop the belt to you.’
“I would have said something at that point, but I was absolutely speechless.
“’Would you be interested in taking the WWWF belt from Bruno in the Garden, and then dropping it to me three weeks later?’
“It took me a few seconds, but I finally managed to spit out, ‘Are you kidding?’”
From there, Koloff spoke to Vince McMahon, Sr., who told him that upon returning to New York he would receive a “big push” for four months, then win the Championship from Bruno. Three weeks later, he was to lose it to Pedro Morales.
January 18th, 1971. Madison Square Garden. In the months leading up to this event, as Bruno had been thwarting all sorts of villains, “The Russian Bear” was busy establishing himself as one, defeating Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, Chief Jay Strongbow, Tony Marino, and many more in the weeks previous. And on that fateful Monday, before 21,666 fans, at the fourteen minute and fifty-five second mark, Ivan Koloff defeated Bruno Sammartino to end his 2,801 day reign as the WWWF World Champion.
The match itself started out hot: the two men circled, Bruno ran around the ring as the crowd cheered him wildly. The two lock-up and then push off, showcasing raw power, then repeat the same before locking up again as Koloff roughly takes the head. Bruno escapes the headlock, shoving Koloff off and is then on the receiving end of a shoulder tackle from the Russian.
Koloff hits the ropes as Sammartino then goes for a drop down, before taking Koloff off of his feet with a big back body drop. The two men continue at a frantic pace and put on an absolute clinic of fast-paced technical wrestling and brute force.
This match is uncharacteristic of its time for several reasons. At just under fifteen minutes, the competition is shorter than what was considered the norm for the majority of Championship bouts at the time. However, what the match lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Fast-paced, highflying action such as this was virtually unheard of in that day and age*****, let alone from two men both tipping the scales at nearly three hundred pounds each. The two put on a high-octane contest that is no doubt a precursor to the standard of action that is largely seen today, while still maintaining traditional wrestling values such as the two performers’ signature rugged believability. The bout comes to a close as Bruno charges into the corner to attack Koloff, who puts his boots up. Bruno, stunned, falls to the mat as Ivan picks him up and plants him with a scoop slam, before going to the top rope and hitting a knee drop for the deciding fall.******
Not only did Bruno lose after nearly eight years on top. He lost clean. To an evil Russian invader. The crowd, so accustomed to seeing Bruno vanquish all forms of vile foes, was stunned. Save for scattered sobs, the WWWF event in Madison Square Garden ended in silence that night. And so began the most important three weeks of Ivan Koloff’s career.
In “Remembering the night Bruno Sammartino lost the WWE Title,” on WWE.com, Bill Apter recollects:
“Finally it was time… Led by Albano, Koloff came to the ring. They both yelled and screamed at the legions of Sammartino fans as the deafening chants of ‘Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!’ echoed throughout The Garden…When it appeared that Bruno was set for another win, Koloff caught Sammartino with a knee, knocking the wind out of the champion. Bruno quickly fell to the mat, totally dazed… Koloff came off the top with a devastating knee drop to do what no other challenger had been able to do all those years before. In a matter of seconds, referee (Dick) Kroll made the three count and raised Koloff’s arm, declaring him the new (WWWF) Champion.
“…I looked around the arena. You could hear a pin drop. It was dead silence as the new champion left the ring with Albano behind him… I remember seeing Bruno’s fan club president, Georgian Orsi, sitting in the front row, crying. Many other fans wept as well. I felt like we were all at a funeral as Bruno left the ring. No one knew what to say.”
As Ivan recollects in his memoir, “When the bell rang signifying that I was the winner of the match, there was complete silence. When I asked the referee to raise my hand and give me the belt, he said, ‘No, Ivan. You need to go to the dressing room... NOW!’ The fans knew that I had won the title, but they were so stunned by what had happened that they just stood there. The referee knew that we were within seconds of having a full-scale riot on our hands, so they wanted me to get out of the ring before anything like that happened.”
Ivan tells me of the atmosphere in Madison Square Garden in the immediate aftermath of the match, “It was something that was hard to explain, because the people were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And then you hear some people crying. He finally raised my hand, but the referee wouldn't give me the belt because at the time he thought that there might be a riot. 'So no, I'm not going to be giving you the belt. Take it back to the dressing room.' So that's what I did. I peeked out the curtain, people (were) crying, people patting Bruno, 'you'll always be our Champion. You'll get the belt back.' For a little while there I felt real bad, because I had won the belt from my hero. But not for too long, maybe a few seconds.” Ivan laughs. “Captain Lou said there were incidents after that, he saw people really show their anger. As a matter of fact, when we went to leave the arena, down in the basement we'd catch our cab. The people, when they opened the doors to let the cab out, they nearly destroyed us. They wanted revenge. We told the cab driver, 'you better step on it and get us out of here, or we're going to kill you ourselves.' That was a really exciting time for me.
“Bruno was always great to wrestle, that's why he was the Champion. It was always a sellout crowd, it was always the excitement there. He was loved by the people and it meant so much. It was the Big Apple - the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I wouldn't change it for the world. He really made my career.”
In the days following Koloff’s dethroning of Bruno, Ivan tells of a little-known incident that happened at a WWWF television taping in Philadelphia two days after winning the Championship. Koloff alleges that at once point during a match against Mario Milano, he was caught in an abdominal stretch. While in the hold, the referee prematurely called for the bell, raising Milano’s hand and handing him the WWWF Championship. Koloff protested the call, saying that it was not the planned finish. The referee went on the microphone to inform the crowd that he was mistaken, and that the match would continue on. Afterwards, Koloff became furious when he realized they filmed it to intentionally make it appear that he had submitted, which would have made Mario Milano the new WWWF World Champion. He stormed to the dressing room to the road agent, the one who was in charge of the finishes at that event, Gorilla Monsoon.
"There's no sense in getting hot about it. It's what they want." Ivan recalls Gorilla Monsoon telling him in the back, who then explained to him that it was done as an insurance policy in case he were to give management a hard time in regards to being Champion. Such as trying to hold the WWWF up for more money, or if he refused to drop the belt to Pedro as planned. Or, as Ivan puts it, “If I backed them into a corner, they could just say, ‘Okay, Ivan. Goodbye!’”
These days Ivan is much more understanding of why it was done. “I'm sure if the office was in any way doubtful or suspicious of the guy not cooperating or something like that, I suppose they would do that. And I'm not complaining about that. It was smart business on their part. That's one thing about the McMahons, they ran their organization smoothly.”
During Ivan’s brief tenure on top, surviving records (courtesy of TheHistoryOfWWE, MidAtlanticGateway, and the KayfabeMemories message board) tell us he had the following schedule*******:
-January 20: defeated Tony Marino - Hammonton, NJ
-January 21: defeated Lee Wong - Washington, DC
-January 22: defeated Manuel Soto - Cherry Hill, NJ
-January 23: defeated Mike Conrad - Philadelphia, PA
-January 27: with the Black Demon defeated Gorilla Monsoon & Manuel Soto via count-out - Hammonton, NJ
-January 28: defeated Gene DuBois - National Arena, Washington DC
-January 29: with the Mongols fought Gorilla Monsoon, Pedro Morales, & Chief Jay Strongbow to a no contest in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match - Zembo Mosque, Harrisburg, PA (draw: 1,123)
-January 30: defeated Gorilla Monsoon via count-out - Philadelphia, PA
-February 1: defeated Chief Jay Strongbow via count-out - Allentown, PA
-February 2: defeated Chief Jay Strongbow via count-out at 16:35 - Scranton, PA (draw: 2,000)
-February 4: defeated Mike Conrad - Washington, DC
-February 6: defeated Gene DuBois - Boston Gardens, Boston, MA
-February 7: wrestled Chief Jay Strongbow to a double disqualification - Witschi's Sports Arena, North Attleboro, MA
To the best of my knowledge, save for fan footage clips of his Championship victory over Bruno Sammartino, at the time of this writing there are no videos of these matches that have been made publicly available. There is confusion over which of these bouts were Championship defenses, or even if he was announced as Champion prior to the match (not bothering to mention it in markets where the title change did not air on television yet).
In “Remembering the night Bruno Sammartino lost the WWE Title,” on WWE.com, Bill Apter recollects:
“Finally it was time… Led by Albano, Koloff came to the ring. They both yelled and screamed at the legions of Sammartino fans as the deafening chants of ‘Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!’ echoed throughout The Garden…When it appeared that Bruno was set for another win, Koloff caught Sammartino with a knee, knocking the wind out of the champion. Bruno quickly fell to the mat, totally dazed… Koloff came off the top with a devastating knee drop to do what no other challenger had been able to do all those years before. In a matter of seconds, referee (Dick) Kroll made the three count and raised Koloff’s arm, declaring him the new (WWWF) Champion.
“…I looked around the arena. You could hear a pin drop. It was dead silence as the new champion left the ring with Albano behind him… I remember seeing Bruno’s fan club president, Georgian Orsi, sitting in the front row, crying. Many other fans wept as well. I felt like we were all at a funeral as Bruno left the ring. No one knew what to say.”
As Ivan recollects in his memoir, “When the bell rang signifying that I was the winner of the match, there was complete silence. When I asked the referee to raise my hand and give me the belt, he said, ‘No, Ivan. You need to go to the dressing room... NOW!’ The fans knew that I had won the title, but they were so stunned by what had happened that they just stood there. The referee knew that we were within seconds of having a full-scale riot on our hands, so they wanted me to get out of the ring before anything like that happened.”
Ivan tells me of the atmosphere in Madison Square Garden in the immediate aftermath of the match, “It was something that was hard to explain, because the people were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And then you hear some people crying. He finally raised my hand, but the referee wouldn't give me the belt because at the time he thought that there might be a riot. 'So no, I'm not going to be giving you the belt. Take it back to the dressing room.' So that's what I did. I peeked out the curtain, people (were) crying, people patting Bruno, 'you'll always be our Champion. You'll get the belt back.' For a little while there I felt real bad, because I had won the belt from my hero. But not for too long, maybe a few seconds.” Ivan laughs. “Captain Lou said there were incidents after that, he saw people really show their anger. As a matter of fact, when we went to leave the arena, down in the basement we'd catch our cab. The people, when they opened the doors to let the cab out, they nearly destroyed us. They wanted revenge. We told the cab driver, 'you better step on it and get us out of here, or we're going to kill you ourselves.' That was a really exciting time for me.
“Bruno was always great to wrestle, that's why he was the Champion. It was always a sellout crowd, it was always the excitement there. He was loved by the people and it meant so much. It was the Big Apple - the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I wouldn't change it for the world. He really made my career.”
In the days following Koloff’s dethroning of Bruno, Ivan tells of a little-known incident that happened at a WWWF television taping in Philadelphia two days after winning the Championship. Koloff alleges that at once point during a match against Mario Milano, he was caught in an abdominal stretch. While in the hold, the referee prematurely called for the bell, raising Milano’s hand and handing him the WWWF Championship. Koloff protested the call, saying that it was not the planned finish. The referee went on the microphone to inform the crowd that he was mistaken, and that the match would continue on. Afterwards, Koloff became furious when he realized they filmed it to intentionally make it appear that he had submitted, which would have made Mario Milano the new WWWF World Champion. He stormed to the dressing room to the road agent, the one who was in charge of the finishes at that event, Gorilla Monsoon.
"There's no sense in getting hot about it. It's what they want." Ivan recalls Gorilla Monsoon telling him in the back, who then explained to him that it was done as an insurance policy in case he were to give management a hard time in regards to being Champion. Such as trying to hold the WWWF up for more money, or if he refused to drop the belt to Pedro as planned. Or, as Ivan puts it, “If I backed them into a corner, they could just say, ‘Okay, Ivan. Goodbye!’”
These days Ivan is much more understanding of why it was done. “I'm sure if the office was in any way doubtful or suspicious of the guy not cooperating or something like that, I suppose they would do that. And I'm not complaining about that. It was smart business on their part. That's one thing about the McMahons, they ran their organization smoothly.”
During Ivan’s brief tenure on top, surviving records (courtesy of TheHistoryOfWWE, MidAtlanticGateway, and the KayfabeMemories message board) tell us he had the following schedule*******:
-January 20: defeated Tony Marino - Hammonton, NJ
-January 21: defeated Lee Wong - Washington, DC
-January 22: defeated Manuel Soto - Cherry Hill, NJ
-January 23: defeated Mike Conrad - Philadelphia, PA
-January 27: with the Black Demon defeated Gorilla Monsoon & Manuel Soto via count-out - Hammonton, NJ
-January 28: defeated Gene DuBois - National Arena, Washington DC
-January 29: with the Mongols fought Gorilla Monsoon, Pedro Morales, & Chief Jay Strongbow to a no contest in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match - Zembo Mosque, Harrisburg, PA (draw: 1,123)
-January 30: defeated Gorilla Monsoon via count-out - Philadelphia, PA
-February 1: defeated Chief Jay Strongbow via count-out - Allentown, PA
-February 2: defeated Chief Jay Strongbow via count-out at 16:35 - Scranton, PA (draw: 2,000)
-February 4: defeated Mike Conrad - Washington, DC
-February 6: defeated Gene DuBois - Boston Gardens, Boston, MA
-February 7: wrestled Chief Jay Strongbow to a double disqualification - Witschi's Sports Arena, North Attleboro, MA
To the best of my knowledge, save for fan footage clips of his Championship victory over Bruno Sammartino, at the time of this writing there are no videos of these matches that have been made publicly available. There is confusion over which of these bouts were Championship defenses, or even if he was announced as Champion prior to the match (not bothering to mention it in markets where the title change did not air on television yet).
Aside from the alleged title defense against Mario Milano where a false finish was taped (which no other surviving records support, though that is not to say it did not happen), Ivan’s match on January 30th against Gorilla Monsoon is alleged to be his first documented title defense, with his series of matches with Chief Jay Strongbow also being for the Championship. There is debate whether his match against Gene DuBois was a Championship defense. If it was, it would be the only clean victory Koloff won during a title defense, the rest of his matches being tag team matches, non-title matches against enhancement talent, or title defenses that were won via count-out or disqualification (fans in attendance later said that they were still to be considered “solid“ victories).
Meanwhile, as Ivan was World Champion, the reigning WWWF United States Champion Pedro Morales was steadily rising in the ranks, defeating the Wolfman, Joe Turco, and teaming up in several main events with Gorilla Monsoon to take on WWWF International Tag Team Champions, The Mongols. Koloff and Morales squared off on February 8th, 1971 in Madison Square Garden, the same place where Koloff won the Championship from the “Italian Superman” exactly three weeks earlier. Now, set to face the “Latin Sensation” Pedro Morales, it was time again to move the mountain. Not only to a fiery, fresh, yet, established competitor, but one who could draw in the growing Latino population within the territory’s north east borders.
As the introductions were made, one thing was abundantly clear: this crowd hated Ivan Koloff. It was to the point that they drowned out the announcer, and needed to be quelled before he could continue. Throughout the match, every piece of offensive that Pedro had against the “The Russian Bear” led to a chorus of cheers, the crowd hanging on every movement. It was a more traditionally-paced bout than Ivan had against Bruno, featuring old school heat tactics on Ivan’s part and technical wrestling and mat-work from Pedro.
That night Pedro Morales pinned Ivan Koloff to win the WWWF World Championship, becoming the third World Heavyweight Champion in WWWF history. The fall occurred when Morales kicked off of the top turnbuckle, knocking both him and Koloff, who had him in a waist lock, down to the ground - putting both competitors‘ shoulders on the mat. Just before the referee hit the three count, Morales lifted his shoulder up, making him the new World Champion among the thunderous jubilation of the crowd. It was a celebratory atmosphere, easily one of the loudest crowd reactions ever heard. Bruno came to the ring and handed Pedro the Championship belt, solidifying the passing of the torch. “That's what they groomed Pedro Morales for,” Ivan tells me, “to be the Champion. He was a great wrestler and a great Champion. (Losing the Championship) was fine with me. I still had the belt. Even if I had it for one minute. I still won it from Bruno. That really made my career.”
Ever the rolling stone, Ivan left the WWWF a few weeks later and, in May of that year, went on a tour of Japan. "It was more my choice, because I just felt that if I stayed too long in one place, not only did I like to travel, it was the idea that I didn't want to get stale." From there he found a home for several years in the AWA, before going to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling for several years, with occasional stops in familiar territories such as St. Louis and Japan, before he found his way back to the WWWF in 1975, where his feud with Bruno Sammartino was reborn. “I went to other places to wrestle Bruno. We went to St. Louis, even as far over as Chicago, Indianapolis, and other territories. I always did what I had to, to be in shape against Bruno.” The rest of Koloff’s active career was spent between stops of varying length in a multitude of territories, including a spot as the top heel of the short-lived IWA, frequent returns as a top title contender to the WW(W)F, the NWA affiliates in Florida and Georgia, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in the Carolinas, various tours in Japan, and returns to his homeland of Canada. Koloff would finish his career with one last big run in the NWA just prior to it becoming WCW, where he acted as a mentor to Nikita Koloff, feuding with Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA.
After that, he spent some time on the independent scene, including stops at ECW, Herb Abrams’ UWF, and Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Ivan had his most recent match in November of 2013 at the age of 71, though he insists that his mat days are now behind him. “Too many injuries now, they can’t find anybody weak enough (to wrestle me),” he jokes. Ivan, a born again Christian who gave up drugs and alcohol in 1995, now spends his time as a minister, officiating weddings and speaking to youth.
Ivan Koloff was a versatile talent with a fierce look, and portrayed a topical character that was sure to get an audience response. “A lot of times I had to fight my way to the ring and back from the ring. I needed a bodyguard, for sure.” In his youth he sometimes had a temper, but in general was a very kind man and easy to handle. In my time speaking to him, he came across more as the endearing “Uncle Ivan” than the mad Russian of years gone by. He had all of the markings of a reliable, trustworthy hand if they needed someone to help transition the Championship from one hero to the next. “I realized (Bruno) had to be hurt, because those rings in New York were boxing rings, and they're a lot more solid than wrestling rings. You can imagine, wrestling often, and on those type of rings, and traveling. Your body gets worn down and hurt, you don't get a chance to heal up. As far as Bruno's concerned, I can sympathize and definitely see why he'd want to take time off. It's a hard life. You're on the road months at a time. Sometimes years at a time. You're just traveling, wrestling, traveling, working out, the same thing.” Pedro was the next in line, and as to keep with the business model at the time, there needed be a middle-man. If Bruno lost directly to Pedro, not only could they risk diminishing Bruno's star-power, but hurt Pedro's as well – leaving fans to resent the man who was supposed to be their new hero. But if another competitor stole it from Bruno, and Pedro came in to win it back for the good guys, he'd be welcomed by the fans with open arms.
So was it a case of being at the right place at the right time? "On my part, I look at it that way. As far as the office was concerned, they wanted somebody that looked the part, (to) make it mean something. Because Bruno is a legend, he had it for seven and a half years, I guess they didn't want to have some schmuck go in there and win the belt off of a legend like that. Man, what a thrill it was that night. It took everyone by surprise. I guess it was the right place or the right time when stuff like that happens. Or we're just lucky enough to be chosen... Bruno ended up doing me a favor. And it was doing himself a favor, taking time off. Still, For a little farm boy to come up and end up winning the title against his hero, the Champion, Bruno Sammartino, to me that really makes it. You can't take that away.”
“It was my first love," Ivan reminisces, "to be a wrestler at eight years old. Coming from a family of ten kids, seven boys and three girls, I have taken on and roughed that growing-up cycle of showing my brothers that I would be tough enough to be a wrestler, getting into it and being a Champion and everything. It was not only surprising, but really great. A dream come true. I definitely recommend it for anybody who can dream that big.”
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
The Men That Moved The Mountain.
Author: Kris Levin (of IMPACT Wrestling).
Published: August 26, 2014.
Article: #59.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
The Men That Moved The Mountain.
Author: Kris Levin (of IMPACT Wrestling).
Published: August 26, 2014.
Article: #59.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
*This does not take into account Championship changes or vacancies that were later retro-conned, such as Antonio Inoki’s brief reign in Japan and Backlund’s unrecognized Championship vacancy following a match with Greg Valentine in 1981.
**It wasn’t until the 1980s that the NWA switched things up and preferred the villains to take the reins as Champion, while the heroes chased after them for the belt.
***A notable exception would be the “Showdown at Shea”, which featured a largely scientific match-up between the former World Champion Bruno Sammartino and the current World Champion Pedro Morales, which ended in a 78 minute curfew draw.
****Buddy Rogers had been referred to as the “World Champion” since January of 1963 when the Capitol Wrestling Corporation broke away from the NWA and turned into the WWWF, due to management from the two companies disputing Lou Thesz‘s victory over Rogers for the NWA World Championship. However, official records state that the title was not declared the WWWF Champion until April 25th, 1963. Rogers was far from a footnote in history, and in no way should be considered a transitional Champion, having carried the WWWF (previously known as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation) for years as NWA Champion.
*****Which isn’t to say that the highflying style of professional wrestling was non-existent, only that it was not nearly as prevalent at the time as it is today.
******It has since been alleged (by both Ivan Koloff and Bill Apter) that Bruno went into the match with broken ribs at the hands of George “The Animal” Steele a few weeks prior. The finish of the match, a top rope knee drop to the ribs, adds credence that this story was likely an angle conceived to keep Bruno strong, despite cleanly losing.
*******Records were not as thoroughly and completely kept as they generally are today, so it is unknown if these are complete. There is some confusion whether some of these dates are the original arena dates or television airings of said matches. Due to this there is a chance some of the matches listed are repeats.
“Jim Crockett Promotions: The Good Old Days” and “Harley Race: The Greatest Wrestler On God's Green Earth” can be found here:
www.Highspots.com
And the rest of Michael Elliot's critically-acclaimed documentaries can be found here:
http://ellbowproductions.weebly.com/
You can also find out more about Ivan Koloff and Scott Teal’s book, “Is That Wrestling Fake? The Bear Facts” here:
http://www.crowbarpress.com/cbp-books/04-ik.html
**It wasn’t until the 1980s that the NWA switched things up and preferred the villains to take the reins as Champion, while the heroes chased after them for the belt.
***A notable exception would be the “Showdown at Shea”, which featured a largely scientific match-up between the former World Champion Bruno Sammartino and the current World Champion Pedro Morales, which ended in a 78 minute curfew draw.
****Buddy Rogers had been referred to as the “World Champion” since January of 1963 when the Capitol Wrestling Corporation broke away from the NWA and turned into the WWWF, due to management from the two companies disputing Lou Thesz‘s victory over Rogers for the NWA World Championship. However, official records state that the title was not declared the WWWF Champion until April 25th, 1963. Rogers was far from a footnote in history, and in no way should be considered a transitional Champion, having carried the WWWF (previously known as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation) for years as NWA Champion.
*****Which isn’t to say that the highflying style of professional wrestling was non-existent, only that it was not nearly as prevalent at the time as it is today.
******It has since been alleged (by both Ivan Koloff and Bill Apter) that Bruno went into the match with broken ribs at the hands of George “The Animal” Steele a few weeks prior. The finish of the match, a top rope knee drop to the ribs, adds credence that this story was likely an angle conceived to keep Bruno strong, despite cleanly losing.
*******Records were not as thoroughly and completely kept as they generally are today, so it is unknown if these are complete. There is some confusion whether some of these dates are the original arena dates or television airings of said matches. Due to this there is a chance some of the matches listed are repeats.
“Jim Crockett Promotions: The Good Old Days” and “Harley Race: The Greatest Wrestler On God's Green Earth” can be found here:
www.Highspots.com
And the rest of Michael Elliot's critically-acclaimed documentaries can be found here:
http://ellbowproductions.weebly.com/
You can also find out more about Ivan Koloff and Scott Teal’s book, “Is That Wrestling Fake? The Bear Facts” here:
http://www.crowbarpress.com/cbp-books/04-ik.html
Other articles by Kris can be Read Here.