Show….yeah, that’s what most of what we see in today’s wrestling.

Always wanted to meet a satisfied Bens customer, those Continentals and Cadillac’s looked great to me for the price asked lol

They taped the house shows for TV.

Bruisers shows always drew crowds. He had all experienced talent on his roster. Plus Big Bill Miller was a huge draw in this territory.

Yes these matches were a bit reformatted for Chicago they had a live studio show and played these match tapes minus the credits and intros. There were some newsreel filmed matches from the International Ampitheater on the same show. And of course the Ben's Auto Sales commercials

Oh the cutoffs on the main events were deliberate Bruiser ran the promotion and didn't want to give away too much of the main events on TV

Frustrating, yes. Ridiculous…..nah. The whole idea was to get fannies in seats for profit so they could afford to live, travel, keep the territory alive. You got to see more Andre than any other territory.

Every Sunday morning in the mid 70’s I was glued to the TV. Got to go to the Hammond Civic Center to see a cage match, great memories.

That was the point. Back in the squash match era, they wanted you to pay for the House Show Tickets to see the good stuff. The TV Shows were like infomercials to intise you to once again buy tickets.

Glad you like them!

Big Bill Miller was such a big star in this area for a long time he was so over for almost 25 years at this time. Heck of a nice guy but someone you don't cross. Same goes for Moose Cholak.

the real "most dangerous wrestler in the world."

BAR NONE.

Don't blame him Bruiser was a scary guy

Renee should get Brusier’s anger. DTB was forced to leave the Detroit territory by the NWA in a promotional war with the Shiek.

All fake and they were all good friends.

bwilliamswyn25 Oh yeah no doubt a rerun being shown in '77 but I did see this on TV way before that. I might even have an audio tape from then.

The mention of that 1974 date combined with the wide shots of the arena leads to a question: would that have been the very first wrestling show at Market Square Arena, which was also the end of Bobby Heenan's working relationship with Bruiser? Also, "Major Duke George"? Ohmigoodnish, another manager with a whistle.

Beau Jan Gels No,this is the Convention Center.MSA was still a month away.

Just think MSA has been gone ten years now.

Time sure has moved fast. I remember when it opened for business.

There is a video on YT from early days in his career where he is clean shaven and not scary at all. The stache and brows make a world of difference.

THESE WERE TAPES THAT WERE PURCHSED BY THE LATE RON MARTINEZ AND HIS FATHER PEDRO MARTINEZ BACK IN THE DAY PM TAPE AND VIDEO COMPANY OUT OF FORT LAUDERDALE. FL, AND TRANSFERED OVER TO HOME PLAY FORMAT AT THE TIME WAS VHS. THEY HAD ALLSTAR FROM THE BRUISER PROMOTION, THE SHIEKS BIGTME PROMOTION, NWA, SOUTHWEST AND OTHERS. MARTINEZ DID THE OHIO ANNOUNCING AND COMMENTARY IN THE CLEVELAND AREA WITH JACK REYNOLDS. HE BOUGHT A LOT OF TAPES FROM THE OLD PROMOTERS. SADLY A LOT OF THE BIGTIME WRESTLING TAPES WERE LOST DO TO POOR SHELVE LIFE AND TAPE OVERS BECAUSE OF THE COST OF THE TV RECORDIND TAPES BACK THEN!! WHAT A SHAME!! PAUL BOESH HOUSTON PROMOTION SEEMED TO HAVE TAKING CARE OF HIS TAPES PRETTY GOOD I WONDER WHY HE TRYIED AT THE TIME TO BY SOME OF HIS BACK THEN TO? WOULD LOVE TO SEE SOME OF THAT STUFF OF THE HOUSTON PROMOTION FROM THE SIXTIES LIKE MORE BULL CURRY AGAIST VALENTINE CLASSICS LIKE SHOWN ON KZfaq THAT WOULS BE GREAT!! HOPE THEY WERE NOT TAPED OVER!!!

@@stuartdinkes8048 ok, calm down.

YES IT CERTAINLY WAS THATS WHY YOU SEE SPIKE HUBER THERE WHO WAS MARRIED TO BRUISERS DAUGHTER.

I'll assume that means no. Thanks anyway.

It's a movie theme, and I forgot to write the title down. It is very incongruent to the film, as I recall.

It's from the soundtrack to the Paul Newman film Harper.

Ox had just wrestled the bout before this,taking Bob Ellis' WWA belt, and was bleeding in that bout. Ox was starting to bleed in this one, so he had Zapata hit him on the spot.

That match was older... but the show is from 77. The WWA would often air older matches to fill time.

The main event was 1974.

The show was taped 8/10/1974

Expo Center in Indianapolis.

@@RasslinRelics thanks

Damn shame, too.

Bill Miller was a main event wrestler from the 60's. He was also a legitimate tough guy. In 1972 I attended the Super Bowl of Wrestling at Chicago's Comiskey Park. One of the matches was Dr. Big Bill Miller vs. Bobo Brazil. They went to a time limit draw. While Moose Cholak was a local popular attraction, he was never really more than a mid-card star. When put into a main event teaming with Bruiser or some other top babyface, you could be fairly certain that Cholak would be doing the job in the end. While Miller may have been near the end of his career in this match, there was no way he was going to put over a guy like the Moose.

The same can pretty much be said about Sailor Art Thomas. I saw him team up with Bruiser at a local high school, most likely against Bobby Heenan and whoever he was managing. I don't have the see the end of the main event here to know that the Sailor would be taking the 3 count when all was said and done. He was a glorified jobber. He might win impressively on tv, but in the live events, he was rarely vertical when the match ended.

I did like Sailor Art Thomas. Only saw him in a few matches, which he did win. Before he was a wrestler or maybe at the same time he was also in bodybuilding competitions.

@@jimdiebel1894 Yes. Sailor had his glory days in late 50's with Vince Senior's WWWF where I saw him empty the locker room of bad guys. He later joined the phenomenal Sweet Daddy Siki in tagteaming against the Fab Kangaroos. But it was the 1960's Texas area where he was NWA Texas State Champion punishing the heels and was the threat to World champ Buddy Rogers. Sailor had Rogers defeated in one bout -but the latter won by DQ when Sailor Art refused to release Rogers from the Bearhug.

@@jimdiebel1894 Bruiser was counted out after being hit with the fire.