Welcome back. It's 1952. Lou Thesz is defending against former amateur and future pro champ Verne Gagne. I hadn't seen Gagne in his prime before, but even in the 70s and into the 80s, he could go a little.
There's another match between these two I initially wrote a review of that had mixed English/Japanese commentary, with voice over by Lou himself! Naturally it was too good for this world and got taken down and now we've got this match with Russ Davis instead. To be 100% fair, Davis is much better here than usual, actually adding to the proceedings in places by pointing out some subtle details of various holds.
Man, Gagne is working that hammerlock. Lots of wrist manipulation, and switches to a double wristlock as Thesz comes out. Gagne gets a ton of shine on this first fall, between the hammerlock, a toe hold, and rolling Thesz into a nearfall off Thesz's headlock. Gagne looks every inch the technical equal of the champ. The Gagne toe hold/Thesz double wristlock spot looks like something out of a classic lucha match - walking the line between the vaguely ridiculous and the completely plausible, which is a fun place for technical pro wrestling to live.
Verne gets a lot of mileage out of a side headlock, too. This is no resthold. Gagne's constantly trying to use it to get an advantage, wearing Thesz down for a pin attempt or maybe the sleeper. And Thesz is looking for a way out with a variety of head scissors, facebars, and even punches. Not that getting out necessarily helps him - Gagne gives him a shoulder block off the ropes that Thesz sells like he got hit by a train. It's a little cliche but it's true; these two get more out of a headlock than many lesser wrestlers get out of their full repertoire.
And after multiple attempts are countered with headlock throws, Thesz finally gets that trademark backdrop suplex and kills Verne dead. That hold can still get a finish anywhere in the world almost seventy years later. Its had many proponents over the years, but Thesz was the first to popularize it.
Lou comes out swinging for the second fall. Subtle heel, nothing - Lou is pissed off at spending all that time in a headlock, and drops some rabbit... forearms, I guess? . Verne has a good fiery comeback, though. If you watched any 80s AWA, you can really see the father/son resemblance here; 50s Verne looks a lot like 80s Greg. We are picking it up here in the second fall. Big body slam with the patented Lou bounce bump. Thesz elbow! And a pissed off Verne bringing the punches in the headlock. It is breaking down in Chicago! Sleeper hold!
Lou's knees look nasty. He's a better brawler than you usually hear about. Not much of a puncher, but that Thesz elbow is an all-time great pro wrestling strike, now these knees in the mix... at one point, Thesz hits a back elbow while trying to control Gagne with a toe hold. Thesz's best stuff is all technically legal while still looking like a cheap shot, which is a heck of a subtle heel line to walk. Perfect positioning for the travelling NWA champ taking on local babyfaces. (Shouts to Verne tumbling out of the ring off of one of those cheap shot elbows, too. Selling is the most important part of wrestling, and both of these men understand that.)
The Thesz body scissors calls back to Gagne's headlocks and hammerlocks from the first fall. These controlling holds give the wrestlers a base to work from, where the offensive wrestler can force nearfalls and call for the ref to ask for a submission. Meanwhile, the defensive wrestler can mount mini-comebacks while selling the danger of the hold. It's only a rest hold if they treat it that way. If the wrestlers treat a hold as important and potentially dangerous, no matter how innocuous it is, the audience learns to do the same. Conversely, if the wrestlers treat it as a chance to rest... well, likewise the audience. As my good friend Matt Penn says, they'll buy it the way you sell it.
Speaking of selling, there's a spot early on where Thesz hits a rolling double wristlock. Later in the match, he goes for it again and Gagne counters with a body slam. A third time, Thesz goes for the DWL, Gagne starts to counter, and Thesz bails completely on the situation. That's sound psychology, treating the match like a contest where both wrestlers learn and adapt, without having to go through complicated and obviously choreographed dance sequences. You see the same thing when Gagne adroitly jumps over a Thesz drop toe hold that caught him earlier in the match.
Holy shit, the Verne sleeper looks evil. That's a finisher! Tremendous sell by Thesz, too, not just of going out but of coming back to consciousness, too. Great attention to detail.
Finish a disappointing (though not surprising) time limit draw decision. The worst thing you can say about a lot of spectacular NWA title matches is that they fail to come to a real conclusion. There are some promotional excuses for this - not wanting to hurt a valuable local draw, trying to build an ongoing program - but I've always wondered how true those reasons were. Certainly later companies like the UWF and it's offshoots and the 90s version of All Japan built very successful runs on the idea of every (or nearly every) match having a decisive finish.
Notwithstanding that, this was a really outstanding performance. Thesz is an all-timer, not just a many time champion in his own right but the model for those who followed him, and Gagne was a top star for literally decades, and watching this match you can see why. Thesz I was already all in on - a masterful technician who understood the mental and physical side of the game as well as anyone. Gagne was every bit his equal. It sent me searching for more prime Verne Gagne, I'll tell you that much right now.
For more on Lou Thesz, read his autobiography Hooker. For a cross section of Thesz and the other legitimate pro wrestlers of the past and into the present, you can do no better than Jonathan Snowden's Shooters: The Toughest Men in Professional Wrestling. For an in-depth look at the NWA, I recommend Tim Hornbaker's National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling. For more on Verne Gagne and the company he built, try George Schire's Minnesota's Golden Age of Wrestling: From Verne Gagne to the Road Warriors.
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