You want old? I used to watch wrestling with my great-grandfather, who was born in 1876. He was severely hard-of-hearing, so the only way he could enjoy TV was if it had some action, such as wrestling and the Three Stooges. Otherwise he spent his time smoking his pipe and reading the newspapers and the Bible. “Wrestling at the Chase” was on KPLR-TV every Saturday from the Khorassan Room at Chase Park-Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. Good memories.
By the way, I was reading up on von Raschke a while back (he’s still around) and found that he is a licensed biology teacher. He used to supplement his income working as a sub. Can you imagine coming to school and finding out that von Raschke is your sub?
George "The Animal" Steele was also a high school teacher, and coached football and wrestling. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that discipline was not a problem in his classes.
Yup, I remember my Dad telling me when my grandparents bought their very first TV set, grandpa would watch wrestling. Lou Albano was a rookie back then, also Gorgeous George, Verne Gagne. Bobo Brazil was considered the Jackie Robinson of pro wrestling. Also remember the announcer Gordon Solie, he drove around Tampa in a 1968 Shelby Mustang. We saw some crazy matches at the old Hesterly Armory when I visited my in-laws down there.