Did you watch Wrestling when it was "Real"?

Sports Sports: Chat / Discussions
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Between 1964 and 1978, World Championship Wrestling ruled in Australia.
With Jack Little as the forever commentator this was when “Real” Wrestling was at it’s peak.
With Champions such as Mario Milano. Spiros Arion. My favourite, Brute Bernard. Killer Karl Kox. Larry O’Dea. Waldo von Erich. King Curtis. Skull Murphy. Killer Kowalski. Haysticks Calhoun, Sheik Wadi Ayoub. Roy Heffernan. Mr Fuji. Tex McKenzie. Abdullah the Butcher. Ron Miller. Nikita Kalmikoff. Big Bad John.
World Championship Wrestling 1973 commentator Jack Little

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With names like that, was it ever real :grin:

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It was very real for this 10 year old. :slightly_smiling_face:

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We had “Big Daddy” and “Giant Haystacks”, make of that what you will :astonished:

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That sounds a bit iffy!

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Haystacks Calhoun was the most awesome specimen of a human being. :rofl:

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The “Rock” was my rock :icon_wink:

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It was very popular in the 60’s UK with children and old ladies.

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Wrestling was ever real? It didn’t seem very real when I was young.

Either way, it was too violent for me.

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I thought it was real. I must have been in my 20s before I read an article saying that it was all staged.
What a let down that was. :face_holding_back_tears:

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I flat shared with someone who liked to watch the WWE which became WWF.
Stone Cold Steve Austin,The Undertaker,The Rock,etc…I enjoyed it.They were all very athletic especially the smaller ones and they weren’t really trying to hurt one another which I liked.

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It was never real!

Actually, I met nearly all of them. I worked for TCN Nine in Sydney as a Senior Technician and it was one of my shows on the weekend (from memory). We also did OBs of it from the Sydney Stadium.

In the Willoughby studios the ring was actually in the corner with the studio audience only on two sides. It was all fake and rehearsed.

I was also involved with the Don Lane show providing the trots and dogs from Harold Park and the boxing from Blacktown as well as the nightly A Current Affair with Mike Willisee (sp?) - there I chatted to the then unknown bridge painter Paul Hogan.

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My parents watched it,but it got on my nerves.

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@Bretrick Proper wrestling on British? Do me a favour LOL.
I have never seen any on British TV since it was shown waaaaay back; well at least from the early 60’s onwards.
Mick McManus was usually the ‘bad guy’ and supposedly suffered horrendous punishment, only to get up and return the favour to the other chap. Both usually leaving the ring at the end with hardly a sweat worked up. I presume they gained Equity tickets for excellent acting performances👍
What Is Equity? All About the British Actors Union in the UK - Acting in London

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Either him or Jackie Pallo :slight_smile:

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My Father lived for wrestling, Saturday afternoons on ITV World Of Sport, and would jump and shout when someone got thrown to the floor or put in a hold or whatever.

To me, although I was just a kid, it seemed orchestrated and ‘put on’, although I don’t know if it was or not. I did, the other day, catch a bit of that American WWF wrestling and couldn’t stop laughing at it. Is that supposed to be a sport or just a pantomime?

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Steve Logan was supposedly the dirtiest.

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Didn’t he finish his days skint and working as a roustabout for a traveling fun fair somewhere up north?

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Les Kellet was good for a laugh. The referee always seemed to land on the canvas when Les started staggering sideways.

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Japanese wrestling is good.

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