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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NYProWrestling.com or its related websites. 01/29/1968 WWWF - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden [III] (14,130; $42,875.10; the final card at MSG III)  Last Grunts and Groans Echo in Old Garden Bruno Sammartino, a broad-shouldered, squat, homely hero, slammed Professor Taro Tanaka to the mat and helped close the curtain for the final wrestling show at the old Madison Square Garden last night. The he end came 42 years after two heroes of another age, Jim McMillen and Jim Londos. put on the first show at the Eighth Avenue Arena. Shining lights from the thrilling days of yesteryear were to have been on hand, but only a few forgotten heavyweights attended with a crowd of 14,130 that paid $42,875.10. Nostalgia? Not really. The new Garden is two local stops south, and the fans' attachment over the years has been to the wrestler, not the stage. The long, intricate routines of last night's wreslles were a world apart from the style of the eigteen-eighties and eighteen-nineties, when large crowds were attracted by the Greco-Roman wrestling (holds permitted above the waist only) staged at the original Garden between 26th and 27th Streets and Madison and Park Avenues. The Actors Take Over By the time Londos and McMillen met, however, wrestling had become purely an entertainment. But the fans wanted more excitement and got it when Londos invented the airplane spin and Ed (Strangler) Lewis brought a rosy glow to opponents' cheeks with his famed headlock. With these departures, wrestling moved away from the tactical and into the realm of the physical, the psychological and the theatrical.
The promoter during this Golden Age was Jack Curley, who has been enshrined in the Hall of Fame in the new Garden atop Penn Station. Curley's interests were protean-he managed, at various times, trained fleas; Enrico Caruso and Bill Tilden. Later, from the sanctuary at Yale where he was the head football coach, Hickman was to write a scathing, funny piece for The Saturday Evening Post in which he called professional wrestling "fixed." Interest began to wane in the late nineteen-thirties, not because the fans believed Hickman, but because even the radicalism of Londos and Lewis was becoming familiar. Then along came Jumping Joe Savoldi of Notre Dame - with the flying tackle introduced by Sonnenberg and adopted by many former football players. The leap brought a new dimension to the game. It was a forerunner of the, dropkick, and later, the flying dropkick, and jaded fans again started to turn out. A hassle over promotion kept wrestling out of the Garden during World War II and beyond and it finally returned In 1949, resurrected This was the era of Antonino (Argentine) Rocca, the barefooted, clean wrestler who had been reported to have killed a Japanese soldier during the war with his destructive hold, the Argentine back-breaker. Since the return, the Garden staged an average of 10 shows a year (called "exhibitions" by the State Athletic Commission) and averaged The wreslling is different now, and so are the fans. The change started with Rocca, who said he was born in Italy, but was reared in Argentina. This dual nationalism attracted both Italian and Latin-American fans, and the appeal to ethnic groups has continued. Television took care of that, since fans would stay away unfess they had a vested rooting interest. Thus, Puerto Ricans such as Miguel Perez became headliners at the Garden, and then came Bobo Brazil, a Negro, followed by other black men. Sammartino is the latest in a long line of heroes. He has a "world championship belt" bestowed by the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which has its office in Newark. He earns, according to Arnold (Golden Boy) Skaaland, his manager, "more than Mickey Mantle." Sammartino tits comfortably into the mold Bruno will be back soon. He will help introduce wrestling in the new Garden on Feb. 19. |
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Crowds regularly appreached 20,000 at the Eighth Avenue Garden in the nineteen-thirties for weekly matches. The fans saw ex-collegiate and pro football heroes such as Herrilan Hickman, Bronko Nagurski and Gus Sonnenberg.
