The Ring Wrestling October 1964

As promised, albeit later than planned, here's the second vintage wrestling mag I picked up t'other day and a selection of scans. 

 Compare and contrast with "Sports Entertainment" today. 

  And before you ask, no there aren't any topless women wrestlers in it. The article is a rather weak attempt at humour that MAD magazine might do if they were short on ideas. Anyway, let's have another shot of the muscular Mortiers.

   What's the deal with the helmets anyway? 

That might have been an interesting matchup. Sammartino was ridiculously strong - he could lift a 600 pound man onto his shoulder - so if he got close enough to grapple, Muhammad Ali might have been in trouble. 

Key word there is "If."

Frank Scarpa leapfrogs Pat O'Connor.

Obviously the "Ratings" were made up on the spot but this does give you

 some idea who was "Hot" at the time. 

One thing I find fascinating about these mags is the guys & gals who were being tipped for big things but then faded away. John Paul Henning must have been a big deal when the list was complied but in all these years of reading about wrestling I have never once seen a picture of him. 

  

The Beast tries to crush Antonino Rocca in the corner. 

The ref for this bout was boxing legend "Jersey Joe" Walcott. 

In the end he gave up trying to keep order and DQ'd both men. 

 You have to feel sorry for poor Prince Nero. He has another man's junk six inches away from his face. Lovely. 

Thing is, this guy was probably a bona fide hardcase.

  Probably the most interesting article in the mag. "Ali Baba" was briefly World champion in the 1930s and despite his name he was an Armenian-American called Arseen Ezkian. Interesting chap.

 As well as wrestling and a stint in the US Navy, Ezkian had a career in movies, scaring the crap out of the late Shirley Temple among others. He also spoke French, Turkish, Armenian and English.  

 That's all folks.