Mid-Card in Kansas City in 1952
I can hear the groans. I know not everybody has a taste for old black-and-white footage of beefy but otherwise regular-looking guys in monochrome trunks, wrestling in front of overdressed and relatively restrained fans. Honestly, I can't explain the attraction: regular guys wrestling turns me on slightly more than photogenic and gym-toned guys wrestling. I suspect that that may be the case because the wrestlers' physiques do not distract me from the grunts and groans. Or maybe it is that the old-school guys took their time in a match, clasping each other and straining for minutes on end, back when grappling was still the standard for "wrestling." Or it's because fans at ringside thought what they were watching was real or because they were less likely to try to upstage the ring action, smart-mark-style. It's quite possible I pine for the days when pulling hair and other kinds of misbehavior were taboo - transgression doesn't deliver the titillation it once did.
Massey is the guy in the light trunks, an ex-boxer who fights fair and square, listens to the referee, and will punch a sucker in the nose if he gets out of line (last GIF below). He weakens Hamilton, in the dark trunks, through a regimen of leg locks, body scissors, and slams, eventually pinning the man's shoulders to the mat for the count of three. Hamilton, aka The Missouri Mauler, a no-good to the core, pulls Massey's hair (second and fourth GIFs above) and at one point appears to be biting his opponent's face (second GIF below - however, the ref is in a better position to judge whether that is the case, I suppose). I cannot explain the attraction, but the fact is that each and every one of these shots made my pecker feel a slight hike in temperature. And nature, I don't argue with.
I agree with much of the appeal of authentically "old school" wrestling, it could be excessively slow. I remember as a kid, I'd be watching matches on TV and some guys would be in one of those long clutches you'd admire I'd go to the bathroom, come back to see them practically frozen in the same hold. It worked, sometimes, depending on who, but mostly I'd just get bored.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem I have with this is the camera work. It was a difficulty in many sports. It's one of the reasons I never got football then. It's hard to see the guys as persons. For all you could tell, it was Joe Schmo and his friend Mojo in the ring wrestling and which was which?
I know it was the technology and the number of cameras and nobody's fault, but still, I doubt I'd enjoy watching this.
From what I can make out, Hamilton is better eye candy.
I'm with you, Joe. This is what I grew up watching in the fifties and sixties. In the seventies, I would sometimes turn the control on my color tv to black and white so that the wrestling would look more like this!
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