Milestone

I've reached a milestone in my life today. It was on this day sixty long years ago that I came into this world. I've written before about how as a boy of about five or six years old, I would watch pro wrestling matches in our old black-and-white television (this was around 1967-1968). The explosive action on the screen, the thrilling battle between good (the babyface) and evil (the heel), the big, strong, beefy bodies of the wrestlers...I found it all so fascinating and that fascination has stayed with me ever since. I still watch a lot of "classic" matches from the 1950s-1960s (thank you, YouTube!) and enjoy the simplicity of the matches and the wrestlers' gear (just trunks and boots most of the time). Here's a look back at some of my favorite wrestlers from the 1960s as well as some magazine covers from the year I was born, 1962.

I took my nom de plume from my favorite
wrestler of the 1960s, Bruno Sammartino.

Cowboy Bill Watts. Once Sammartino's tag
team partner, the two had a vicious feud after Watts 
turned heel. Sadly, I haven't been able to find a 
video of one of their matches on YouTube. 

The Lisowski Brothers, Stan (left) and Reggie.
Reggie is better known as The Crusher.
He and Dick The Brusier were my favorite 
tag team of the 1960s.

Edouard Carpentier. For such a huge, 
muscular man, he was amazingly quick
and nimble.

Mark Lewin. He looked like a movie star and 
was tough in the ring. His later personas (Maniac
Mark Lewin, Purple Haze) were bizarre
and never appealed to me.

Me at 60. Where will my fascination
with pro wrestling take me next?

Bruno Sammartino 1935-2018

I couldn't let this day pass without paying tribute to the late, great Bruno Sammartino. How could I have missed the sad news about his passing last April 18th? Sammartino was my first wrestling hero; I can't recall how old I was when I first came across this wrestling legend. As a young child growing up in the 1960s, I would watch a weekly black-and-white broadcast of pro wrestling on television and it's very likely I noticed him in one of those matches (I was maybe 5 years old, too young to know the names). When they stopped airing pro wrestling in the early 70s (thanks to Martial Law being declared in my country), I was still able to get my fix from pro wrestling magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated and The Wrestler and that's how I reconnected with Bruno Sammartino. I don't know exactly what it is about him I'm drawn to. On a physical level, I'm in awe of his size. He's not overly muscular, but he's thick, brawny and beefy, the epitome of what a wrestler in the co-called Golden Age of Wrestling looks like. But I think it's his in-ring persona that impressed me most. He was just a straight-up tough-as-nails wrestler who fought the bad guys until he was bloodied and beaten yet he never gave up. I admired his toughness and resilience. I guess as a kid, this was the kind of hero I looked up to. Someone who was upstanding, strong, unafraid, willing to take on all challengers, even those who were notorious cheaters. That's the kind of man we should all look up to. Farewell, Bruno. And thanks for the memories.

Vintage Beefcakes of Wrestling : Bruno Sammartino

I'm starting a semi-weekly series of vintage/classic Beefcakes of Wrestling and who better to kick off this series than the very first pro wrestler I idolized as a kid in the 1960s. Yes, it's the legendary Bruno Sammartino.
I didn't get to watch many of his matches on TV, but Bruno was constantly featured in the magazines of the times, i.e., The Ring (Wrestling Edition), Inside Wrestling and others . His huge frame, massive chest and arms and thick, muscular legs amazed me...talk about prime beef! And he was a tough, powerful and tireless competitor who faced the dirtiest heels in oftentimes brutal and bloody matches. What a guy! Here's my little tribute to the man who turned me on to pro wrestling.