One of the many candidates for the seat of wrestling culture would be the Kiel Auditorium in St Louis. This building opened in 1934 to great fanfare as being state of the art for that time period. (Any of you architectural buffs who would like a Xerox copy of the opening celebration program, let me know-and no, I was not around then.) The Kiel hosted basketball teams of St Louis U and the pro St Louis Hawks, both of whom won several division championships and one world championship for the Hawks. But if you are talking world championships in the Kiel, then you are talking wrestling. The baseball park Busch Stadium has a statue of Stan ‘The Man' Musial in front of it. It would only make sense to have a statue of a St Louisan with even more sports records erected in front of the Kiel -- that being Lou Thesz. Thesz not only won and lost titles in the Kiel, but promoted as well until he merged with the other promotion headed by Sam Muchnick.
Since St Louis was not a territory and only promoted that city every other Friday, it could attract major stars and champs from other territories. The central location and very generous payoffs made the Kiel a popular working place for wrestlers. It would probably be easier to make a small list of stars who never worked the Kiel. On that small list, I always was curious why Freddie Blassie did not work Kiel after his initial start. The Destroyer had a good excuse by saying he sold out everywhere in Japan and California, so why should he come to St Lou.
I became a fan in 1959 at age ten and could not have watched wrestling in two more different places. It was a strange dichotomy.
The TV started in ‘59 at the luxurious showcase hotel of St Louis -- The Chase. The wrestling was shown in the Khorassan Ballroom and attended by patrons dressed more for the opera.
The Kiel fans were dressed like wrestling fans. The Chase was illuminated by chandeliers, while the Kiel had the ring lights with smoke as thick as London fog.
The Chase patrons sat at tables covered with table cloths and cloth napkins, while the Kiel fans only had concession napkins, much too thin to help clean a mustard stain.
The Chase served different meals from its top-rated restaurant. The Kiel only served hot dogs two ways -- still frozen in the middle or nuclear blackened.
The Chase had waiters serve cold beer in pitchers, while the Kiel had carnival type workers serve beer that foamed all over when it was opened.
The Chase served cake or pie for dessert, while the Kiel offered cotton candy so sticky sweet you needed a Brillo pad to get if off your hands.
One could certainly overlook any culinary or decorative shortcoming, because to wrestlers and fans alike, the Kiel meant pro wrestling. While the Kiel offered great wrestling, it did not offer the complete dimensions of pro wrestling. Very little outside the ring craziness and little in the ring craziness like wild interviews. One of the rare times a mic was used was by Dick Murdoch -- who could tell him not to say anything? He was wrestling a local favorite, and he grabbed the stick and said, "St Louis boy Leon Spinks just got his ass kicked tonight, and I'm going to kick another St Louis boy's ass tonight."
When you think of Kiel, you think of wrestling action in the auditorium. Few out-of-towners are aware that an Opera House was attached and the two were only separated by a wall. Gene Kiniski remembers watching a ballet at the same time some ballet people were over watching wrestling. Probably a mutual respect, but probably not a mutual understanding of each others art form.
Speaking of respect, I remember looking back throughout the years when an NWA title match was going on. Several of the wrestlers would be on the back stage watching the traveling champs perform in what was usually a great match. The Kiel had so many unique and one of a kind matches for the other wrestlers to watch. Bruno Sammartino was, as far as I know, the only wrestler to debut at Kiel in a main event. A few Bruno main event wins culminated in a one-hour draw against just-crowned new NWA champ Harley Race with Lou Thesz as ref.
St Louis was not big on tag teams, so Kiel was not home to many tag team main events. One tag that stood out had five NWA champs. Kiniski and Jack Brisco vs The Funks (Terry and Dory) with Pat O' Connor as ref. Harley was also on that same card. After those great cards, I could never figure out until later how my mother knew to always pick me up at exactly ten after eleven every card. (It cost extra to rent if everyone and the ring was not out of the building by midnight.) She would call the office and ask when the matches would be over, and they always said "right at eleven."
Work rate was how one got over at Kiel. Until the mid-80s, there really was not much in the way of body gods. Superstar Graham did get a short run in the late 70s. I guess the best body I ever saw as a youngster was Nature Boy Buddy Rogers. When I got a little older, my opinion of best body seen at Kiel changed to the curvy Penny Banner. A favorite Kiel main event spanning decades would have a Von Erich name in it. Like the Dallas Sportatorium, Kiel saw the Von Erichs grow up, and four of them came within a half count of winning the NWA world title at Kiel -- Fritz, David, Kevin and Kerry. The three sons wore the other Kiel title -- the Missouri title.
When that belt was designed by Reggie Parks, he probably did not know that NWA champs Kiniski, Race, Dory Funk, Terry Funk, Brisco, Kerry, Ric Flair, WWF champ Bob Backlund, and major regional title holders like Bruiser, Dick Murdoch, Johnny Valentine, Ted DiBiase, Dick Slater, Ken Patera and Crusher Blackwell, would be crowned at Kiel. (Reggie came close to winning the belt he made.)
When the WWF started its national push, Kiel was the first major building being invaded by this heretofore foreign promotion. It was certainly a big beginning with a sellout, and for the first time, the Opera House side was opened for a closed circuit screen to accommodate the overflow crowd. With the wrestling war, the battle over buildings became as intense as a Texas Death match. Jockeying for positions on the calendar took some mental and financial muscle between the WWF and NWA/WCW. The city, to keep its hockey team, needed to offer a new hockey arena with all the lavish and expensive amenities. This meant tearing down the old Kiel and rebuilding it to keep up with the progress of other sports towns and teams.
When the old Kiel finally closed in 1991, the very last event was a wrestling match. How fitting for wrestling history. How ironic was the first match booked on that WCW card. The city had just been going through a series of news articles on the subject of gay bashing the weeks before the Kiel closing and final card. Liberace had long ago performed at Kiel. Well, Liberace could not have been any more flamboyant than a totally pink clad Rip Rogers prancing down the aisle to open to the final card. YIKES!!!!
For any trivia question buffs who might want the answer to who did the final job at the old Kiel -- in a tag team (of all things), Ric Flair and Arn Anderson lost to Sting and El Gigante when Sting pinned Arn. The only old Kiel PPV was a Starrcade with Sting/Black Scorpion and the return of Dick the Bruiser as the ref.
Before closing, I feel I must mention my favorite Kiel moment. Some might say it's stupid, but others might also say "amen." Before the matches began on the night of the building closing, I was with two local radio guys. We decided to wander around the old rooms and catacombs of the building. We eventually ended up on the stage of the Opera House. While on the stage facing 4,700 empty concert seats, we broke into song – the song being "Swinging the Alphabet" by the Three Stooges. So, while the last ever event at the Kiel Auditorium was technically a wrestling match, the last song (technically) ever sung in the Kiel Opera House was "Swinging the Alphabet."
Sorry about the non-wrestling story, but there are some crossover fans since wrestling was, at one time, followed by an hour of the Stooges.
An old Kiel question I have wanted answered for years is, how in the heck did Dory Funk Jr. carry Rufus R Jones for an entire hour in a title match?
If anyone is interested, I have several audios of old stars. The Bruiser, The Crusher, Bruiser Brody, Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, Gene Kiniski, John Tolos, Freddie Blassie, Pat O'Connor, Sam Muchnick, Roddy Piper, The Destroyer, and several old teams and sports.
