Rocca returned wrestling crowds back to Madison Square Garden
For a long period of time, MSG was quite empty for wrestling matches due multiple exposures of the profession in 30s and 40s, and no matter who showed up, no one could sell it out, no big stars, no big names, not even one of the greats Lou Thesz could do it.
Until a certain Argentinian-Italian man showed up, bringing in a crowd of both Hispanic and Italian fans, and filling up the Garden multiple times.
Rocca was ahead of his time, he did things in the ring that were quite unheard of at that time, some of which you can see in this video.
That is why he pretty quickly became one of the biggest draws in wrestling and not only as a singles star, but also while teaming with the Puerto Rican sensation, Miguel Perez. Their team is still considered the biggest drawing tag team in the history of the business.
This is my tribute to one of the legends.
Enjoy!
I don't own any of the footage, if you want to watch these matches in full for yourself you can find them here on KZfaq