Strong-Arm Tactics

Edouard Carpentier vs Bobby Duranton, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, March 1962

I do understand why many fans don't care for old-school black-and-white TV wrestling. I do not entirely understand why I am drawn to it. The brick shoulders and soft-serve belly used to be turn-offs for me, too. But now, after years of washboards and eight-packs, I can appreciate the vulnerability of a fleshy midsection. It gives the fighter something he needs to protect, apart from his crotch. It's also more grabbable than a reinforced gut, which is unassailable as the grille of a Ford pickup.

I like the black-and-whiteness of old TV wrestling, too. I love color, but black and white seems more serious somehow. It underscores the theme of good versus evil, like film noir, though in this match it's the cowardly and opportunistic Bobby Duranton, age thirty-five, who wears the lighter (and skimpier) trunks. I'm big on gravitas in wrestling, not a strong fan of the yuck-yuck lightness and folly of a lot of underground wrestling. I love the moments - especially the decisive moment at the end - when Edouard Carpentier, also thirty-five, has had enough of his opponent's tricks and proceeds to tear him a new asshole.

Duranton was quite handsome and had a film as well as a ring career. Here are some 1940s glossies that will make you wish you hadn't skipped weight-training today.