Who Is the Toughest Wrestler In History?
ALL Of Them!
#PWHS #Article #ToughGuy #Toughest #BadAss
September 23, 1974 - Hazleton Standard-Speaker
The date is the summer of 1974-probably a Friday night in June. I am almost ten years old and excited because I will be going to my first wrestling match where I can sit ringside…front row ringside! My Father was willing to part with the $16.00 required for two, front row tickets for two reasons. The first was that I had made all A's and one B (gym) on my report card. The second was that I was so nearsighted that even with my glasses on, I could hardly follow the action if we were sitting in the mid, or cheap seats. Partially as a reward and partially to quiet my incessant queries of "What happened?, What happened??!"-my father decided from that night on that we would sit ringside.
The matches go on as scheduled. I see Chief Jay Strongbow battle Cowboy Bobby Duncum in the main event, and my favorite tag team-Dean Ho and Tony Garea-battle the nefarious Valiant Brothers in the semi-main event. The Wolfman, Johnny Rodz, Davey O'Hannon, and New England perennial-Jack Savage round out the under card against guys who I don't know, and have now forgotten their names.
My REAL education that night came not from the matches-which were exciting and fun-but from what I learned during intermission. During intermission some kids close to my age climbed in the ring and started running the ropes. I wisely held back as the kids were ejected from the building seconds later. However, while the security force of three old cops who were busy escorting the kids out the door. I took the advantage of their absence to examine the ring myself.
I didn't enter the ring, but I did climb on the apron. This is what I discovered: wrestling rings are NOT trampolines! In fact, they more felt like concrete blocks. I slipped climbing on the apron at first (like I said-B in gym), and dropped to one knee between the apron and the ring itself. OWW!!!! It was like kneeling on a rock! Getting to my feet, I grabbed the ropes (expecting something akin to large rubber bands) and felt tape and something rigid and strong underneath. I later discovered that the WWWF was one of the remaining wrestling companies to use large-size nylon and hemp rope (wrapped in tape) rather than use the standard metal cable wrapped in a rubber casing. The fibers of the rope had poked through the tape wrap, and simply grabbing on to the rope gave me a small burn on my palm from friction. Finally (not knowing when to quit), I slapped the turnbuckle pad expecting a pillow of some sort. Oh, there was foam padding in there, but the foam padding did a poor job of covering the metal bolt of the turnbuckle itself. My pinky finger started to swell after the contact and now having gone three-for-three in the injury department; I gave the match to the ring and returned to my seat.
When my Father returned with his arms full of greasy concession food, he wanted to know why I was holding my hand. I lied and told him that I had got it stuck between chairs when standing up. My father gave me his usual incredulous look and told me that hard objects and I simply did not mix.
So, when people ask me who I believe the toughest wrestler of all time really was, I usually answer by saying "All of them". I believe that. Just getting into a ring after you have been through any type of training is arduous. Even today, where ropes have more spring, and rings have more bounce-it isn't pleasant taking a bump or hitting the ropes. Anyone who can do that, night-after-night earns my respect.
When I was in my early twenties, I learned how to do a basic back bump. I didn't do many, because quite frankly-they sting a bit. But I learned the basic technique for flattening out your torso, using your arms, palms, legs and feet to help absorb the impact, and most importantly-tucking your head!! Ironically this knowledge came in handy to me in a most unexpected way…
Before I became a public school teacher, I was a radio disc jockey/announcer. One of the places where I was employed was located in a sub-basement of an industrial building in a not-so-great section of the city of Lowell, MA. The entire studio, hallways, bathrooms-everything was made out of slab after slab of poured concrete and cement. The building was also old and so the basement was freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer and wet when it rained.
I had put on a six-minute live cut of James Brown at the Apollo. For those who have never worked in radio, a long song is usually a sign that the disc jockey needs time to go to the bathroom. My call from nature took slightly longer than I had anticipated and from the speaker/monitor in the hallway, I knew that I had about 40 seconds to get back into the studio and segue to the next song.
Running on a downward-facing slope, I hit a small puddle of water that had been dripping from the leaky ceiling. WOOSH! My feet went up and away as I started to crash. Instinctively I did a back bump-and did it perfectly! I didn't feel a thing and still made it back in time to make the segue and cue up the next set of commercials!! As I was feeling proud of myself, I marveled at how that bump onto concrete was completely painless! Maybe wrestling wasn't quite as hard as I had previously thought.
Until I woke up the next morning.
The pain was indescribable. The only pain that I have felt that was worse was when I had a major case of kidney stones! Every, single inch of me hurt. I never got a bruise from that fall, but I felt it for over a week. I quickly returned to my original belief: Wrestlers are the toughest people on the planet. It has been theorized that a wrestler taking a handful of bumps in a match is the equivalent of being in a handful of car accidents at 30 MPH. I believe it!
So, my respect and my amazement at the wrestlers who night in and night out take bumps that would leave the rest of us in traction and crying for our Mommies. Which wrestler is THE toughest?
The ones that make a career of the business.
The matches go on as scheduled. I see Chief Jay Strongbow battle Cowboy Bobby Duncum in the main event, and my favorite tag team-Dean Ho and Tony Garea-battle the nefarious Valiant Brothers in the semi-main event. The Wolfman, Johnny Rodz, Davey O'Hannon, and New England perennial-Jack Savage round out the under card against guys who I don't know, and have now forgotten their names.
My REAL education that night came not from the matches-which were exciting and fun-but from what I learned during intermission. During intermission some kids close to my age climbed in the ring and started running the ropes. I wisely held back as the kids were ejected from the building seconds later. However, while the security force of three old cops who were busy escorting the kids out the door. I took the advantage of their absence to examine the ring myself.
I didn't enter the ring, but I did climb on the apron. This is what I discovered: wrestling rings are NOT trampolines! In fact, they more felt like concrete blocks. I slipped climbing on the apron at first (like I said-B in gym), and dropped to one knee between the apron and the ring itself. OWW!!!! It was like kneeling on a rock! Getting to my feet, I grabbed the ropes (expecting something akin to large rubber bands) and felt tape and something rigid and strong underneath. I later discovered that the WWWF was one of the remaining wrestling companies to use large-size nylon and hemp rope (wrapped in tape) rather than use the standard metal cable wrapped in a rubber casing. The fibers of the rope had poked through the tape wrap, and simply grabbing on to the rope gave me a small burn on my palm from friction. Finally (not knowing when to quit), I slapped the turnbuckle pad expecting a pillow of some sort. Oh, there was foam padding in there, but the foam padding did a poor job of covering the metal bolt of the turnbuckle itself. My pinky finger started to swell after the contact and now having gone three-for-three in the injury department; I gave the match to the ring and returned to my seat.
When my Father returned with his arms full of greasy concession food, he wanted to know why I was holding my hand. I lied and told him that I had got it stuck between chairs when standing up. My father gave me his usual incredulous look and told me that hard objects and I simply did not mix.
So, when people ask me who I believe the toughest wrestler of all time really was, I usually answer by saying "All of them". I believe that. Just getting into a ring after you have been through any type of training is arduous. Even today, where ropes have more spring, and rings have more bounce-it isn't pleasant taking a bump or hitting the ropes. Anyone who can do that, night-after-night earns my respect.
When I was in my early twenties, I learned how to do a basic back bump. I didn't do many, because quite frankly-they sting a bit. But I learned the basic technique for flattening out your torso, using your arms, palms, legs and feet to help absorb the impact, and most importantly-tucking your head!! Ironically this knowledge came in handy to me in a most unexpected way…
Before I became a public school teacher, I was a radio disc jockey/announcer. One of the places where I was employed was located in a sub-basement of an industrial building in a not-so-great section of the city of Lowell, MA. The entire studio, hallways, bathrooms-everything was made out of slab after slab of poured concrete and cement. The building was also old and so the basement was freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer and wet when it rained.
I had put on a six-minute live cut of James Brown at the Apollo. For those who have never worked in radio, a long song is usually a sign that the disc jockey needs time to go to the bathroom. My call from nature took slightly longer than I had anticipated and from the speaker/monitor in the hallway, I knew that I had about 40 seconds to get back into the studio and segue to the next song.
Running on a downward-facing slope, I hit a small puddle of water that had been dripping from the leaky ceiling. WOOSH! My feet went up and away as I started to crash. Instinctively I did a back bump-and did it perfectly! I didn't feel a thing and still made it back in time to make the segue and cue up the next set of commercials!! As I was feeling proud of myself, I marveled at how that bump onto concrete was completely painless! Maybe wrestling wasn't quite as hard as I had previously thought.
Until I woke up the next morning.
The pain was indescribable. The only pain that I have felt that was worse was when I had a major case of kidney stones! Every, single inch of me hurt. I never got a bruise from that fall, but I felt it for over a week. I quickly returned to my original belief: Wrestlers are the toughest people on the planet. It has been theorized that a wrestler taking a handful of bumps in a match is the equivalent of being in a handful of car accidents at 30 MPH. I believe it!
So, my respect and my amazement at the wrestlers who night in and night out take bumps that would leave the rest of us in traction and crying for our Mommies. Which wrestler is THE toughest?
The ones that make a career of the business.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Who Is the Toughest?
Author: Harry Grover.
Published: December 1, 2014.
Article: #78.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Who Is the Toughest?
Author: Harry Grover.
Published: December 1, 2014.
Article: #78.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Other articles by Harry can be Read Here.