I remember watching him back in the day, along with the Iron Sheik and Haystacks Calhoun, Freddie Blassie, and a bunch of others I can’t remember any more.
I grew out of it after I realized that they weren’t really trying to kill each other.
“I grew out of it after I realized that they weren’t really trying to kill each other.”
I was around as a young kid when it was still real. In my home town there was a man who lived there while he was wrestling in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles and his name was Nils Phillip Olafsson. He was the original Swedish Angel and back in the 30’s into the 50’s what he did was real. My father told me that he was in the ring with a guy who gouged his eyes on purpose. So the Angel picked him up and threw him into the ringside seats. Broke a lot of bones, but he lived.
Olafsson was six foot six and weighed well over 300 pounds of all muscle and was one of the tallest competitors during the heyday of wrestling after World War II. I met him after his career was mostly over in the 1950’s. He passed in Utah in 1974. Big guy.
wy69