Summer of '58

 

Sergio [Serge] Reggiori vs Guy Mercier, 23 August 1958

Reggiori is '50s-Hercules muscular, with gangster good looks. He gets the best of his popular opponent, Guy Mercier, also handsome, in a match that lasts under six minutes. I particularly like the near knockout punch Sergio delivers to Guy, who pounces back with some hard hits of his own, as the crowd watches reverently like they're at church. The two strongmen shake hands at the end, like the gentlemen they are.

One of the things I would use a time machine for would be to travel back to the days of smoke-filled auditoriums and fans dressed up in their Sunday best for a wrestling show. Back then, whether wrestling was phony or real was still a matter of debate. Top of my sightseeing list would be Reggiori and Mercier in their prime, if for no other reason than to see wrestling raw, without the fireworks and mike drops. These guys don't fly off the corner ropes. They are, in fact, hardly ever more than a yardstick apart from each other. They are wrestlers, not acrobats, not soap-opera characters, not silly. And, yes, they may not be Randy Orton solid; still they are hot and committed to body contact and the show's circus sawdust origins.