I have a weird history with professional wrestling. With my formative years being in the late-80s and early-90s, the WWF (it wasn’t WWE yet) was a pretty big deal. As such, I was at least passingly familiar with many of the wrestlers on the roster, and I absolutely loved Hulk Hogan, whose popularity was so all-encompassing at the time that you didn’t even need to watch wrestling to know who he was. Which was good, because mom didn’t, uh, let me watch it. Oh I had toys, and a Hulkamania shirt, even a VHS tape of Hogan’s animated series, but the actual real WWF was something I wasn’t allowed to tune in to. I guess ma figured it was too violent for little me? And by the time the WWF/WWE was experiencing another resurgence in the late-90s and early-00s and I was old enough to where mom probably wouldn’t have cared if I watched, by that point *I* didn’t really care. Not that I didn’t see some here and there, WWE or otherwise, but as far as I can remember, it was never appointment viewing for me back then.
This overall mindset continues for me to this day. I like a lot of the pop culture aspects associated with [vintage] professional wrestling, but the idea of actually watching it is something that causes my brain to zone out somethin’ fierce. I dig old memorabilia pertaining to it, I even like some of the old school video games (I played more of 1993’s King of the Ring on NES a month or so back than I probably should have, and finally bit the bullet and bought Mat Mania Challenge for the Atari 7800 shortly before that), and you know, I even dig some television broadcasts related to wrestling (I’m thinking mostly of Mr. T and Hulk Hogan co-hosting SNL together back in 1985). But actually *watching* wrestling? It’s just not my scene, man.
There is one aspect of wrestling that I take an especially great interest in however, although it would probably be considered exponentially niche. This kind of wrestling I would watch, though considering the era it hails from, that seems unlikely to happen.
I’m talking about old school, live, local, televised wrestling. I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing that happens anymore (does it?), or how widespread it was when it did, but to me it definitively points to a bygone era in broadcasting, and that makes it irresistible to yours truly.
With that ideal always in the back of my mind, when I recently stumbled upon an online auction for this complimentary ticket from televised wrasslin’ out of the Philadelphia area back in 1968, I knew it was something I had to go after.
As always happens when it comes to auctions (as opposed to something I can buy right away), the fear that challengers would, erm, challenge me for the right to own such a piece of memorabilia cropped up. I tend to figure everybody is into this sort of thing as much as I am, though in reality that very often isn’t the case. At any rate, as auction closing time drew nearer, the thought that I wasn’t going to get out of this one without dropping some serious coin grew progressively stronger. As it turned out, I won unopposed, and the final price wasn’t just reasonable, but really pretty cheap. Especially when you consider that, hey, when was I going to have the chance to nab another one of these again? It’s not something I can see popping up with any sort of regularity.
Actually, what initially brought this ticket to my attention had nothing to do with local wrestling, but rather the station it hailed from in this case: WKBS-TV 48 outta Philly. Looks like they served a portion of New Jersey, too. Why the interest? Because, as you can see above, WKBS was a Kaiser Broadcasting station, and I’m a serious sucker for Kaiser. Why’s that? Mainly because of Cleveland’s WKBF-TV 61 and Detroit’s WKBD-TV 50. Don’t get me wrong, I have an interest in all of the stations in Kaiser’s chain, but those two especially because of, uh, The Ghoul. (I’ve written about him more than once of course, though I’ll refrain from endless linking. Hit up the search button if need be.) Originating in Cleveland and becoming just as big, maybe even bigger, when syndicated to Detroit, The Ghoul also popped up on other Kaiser stations with varying degrees of success (probably still a sore point with original Svengoolie fans out of Chicago, but that’s another story), and rest assured, my fondness for all things Kaiser begins with him.
ANYWAY, this ticket and their wrestling broadcasts, it predates The Ghoul by some three years. Good for the event on June 13, 1968, I absolutely love how the fact it was in color was a big part of the ballyhoo. Talk about old school!
Rules and procedures are on the back of the ticket, as you’d expect. Look close: this was a complimentary ticket, though how one would go about nabbing one back in the day is unknown to me. Maybe all you had to do was write the station? Or a gift from a personal appearance by some station personality somewhere? Maaaan I don’t know.
You know, I’m assuming this was a live telecast, but there’s nothing on the ticket that specifically states that. It may very well have been taped for later broadcast. Finding TV listings from the right date and area would probably help where that’s concerned, and maybe even note who was wrasslin’ that day, but short of doing some online buying (which I’m not inclined to do), I don’t know any easy way of going about researching that. Maybe there’s an online resource I’m unaware of? Maaaan I don’t know.
If this was indeed taped for later broadcast, there’s perhaps a slim, slim chance the footage still exists somewhere, but that’s not something I’d bet money on.
I like how it appears this event actually took place at the Kaiser studio, as opposed to some local arena somewhere. That’s really, really cool to me. The fact smoking wasn’t permitted inside probably didn’t go over well with some attendants; didn’t pretty much everybody smoke back then? I was going to say it may not have been much of an issue since I automatically figured younger kids on summer break from school would have been in the audience, except that, look, no one under 16 was allowed in. Sorry kids, you lose!
The disclaimer is standard legal stuff, but still implies that something pretty wild had the possibility of going down. Gee, maybe mom was right in not letting watch wrestling?
I like this piece of paraphernalia a whole bunch. I doubt it’ll ever be worth much, but it’s just so neat that I don’t really care. (Plus, it’s not like I ever get rid of anything anyway.) It was local (well not to me, but…), it was Kaiser, and it’s definitely vintage. I can only say so much about it, but the era it evokes in broadcasting history is still undeniable. Anyone who’s spent even a bit of time on this blog should know what a sucker I am for this sort of thing.
THE NORTHEAST OHIO VIDEO HUNTER 