Probably the most often asked question in wrestling is "whatever happened to .......?" Of all the pro wrestling gimmicks and stipulation matches, the battle royal may be the most enduring. It can be the scheduled main event, or it can be an impromptu emergency add-onwhen the main event fails to show.
If you combine that most asked "WHT" question with the most-presented specialty match, you have the 1989 Old-Timer's Battle Royal.
San Francisco always made the claim to put on the biggest and best battle royal every year. But, as good as the San Fran battle royals were, they could never make the claim to exclusively include only main event national stars. Only ONE battle royal could ever make the claim of all main eventers, and that took place in 1989 on a WWF card held in New Jersey.
As an old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for." The answer to many of those "whatever happened to" questions participated in that special legends battle royal, but unfortunately, they did not appear as physically imposing as they do in our memories when they ruled the
rings.
While we all sadly get an A for aging, all these athletes in the battle royal certainly deserve an E for enthusiasm. While I mentioned that these stars had aged, it was quite a contrast to today's scene in that only one of the old timers wore a full body t-shirt, while a great many of today's young stars totally cover up.
The old time stars were individually introduced as they walked the aisle to the ring. The line up included, The Crusher, Al Costello, Bobo Brazil, Killer Kowalski, Gene Kiniski("Canada's greatest athlete") Sailor Art Thomas, Pedro Morales, Dominick Denucci, Tony Garea, Edouard Carpentier, Rene Gouet, Chief Jay Strongbow, Baron Sicluna (Isle Of Malta's greatest athlete???), Ray Stevens, Nick Bockwinkle, Pat O'Connor, and Lou Thesz.
Who was missing?
With pro wrestling's history, if you had an Indian in Strongbow, then a cowboy in Ellis or McKenzie would have provided balance. Old Jersey politics may have had a rep for paying off inspectors but there was probably not enough money to pay off the fire marshall to allow The Sheik or Great Mephisto to rain fire balls around the ring. Bruiser maintained he was not retired and seemed to be insulted to be asked to mingle with old timers. (That sounds like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.)
Bruno would have been an interesting political addition to the mix. Pat O'Connor was there, even though the head to head WWF competition put both his St Louis and Kansas City promo out of business. (Pat's wife did not want him to go, so he left that weekend without telling her where he was going.)
Where was Verne Gagne? John Tolos was in shape enough to go. How about the stars from the South?
Pat Patterson did not wrestle because he probably was the one to put most of the deal together. The EMS crews were probably ready to put in for overtime, but I believe Strongbow's broken wrist was the only casualty.
Not that there wasn't plenty of action. Carpentier did one of his steamroller front somersaults onto the back of Rene Goulet. O'Connor did one of those battle royal spots where he rope walked with his hands around half the ring as Kowalski and Garea tried to toss him over. Kiniski was very animated and continued his share of the action after being eliminated sixth from the end. Kowalski was fifth runner up.
Ray Stevens took the bump of the match and maybe of the entire nights' card. O'Connor arm whipped him and Ray, with a very fast running start from the middle of the ring, flew over the top rope.
Bockwinkle missed a punch and O'Connor grabbed him in a body slam, then tried to toss him over. Thesz came up from behind and was able to get Bockwinkle over, but O'Connor held on and, in one of those hold your breath moments, was able to swing back in from elimination.
DEJA VU!! Decades after the late '50s and '60s, a famous duel was about to happen again. Lou Thesz vs Pat O'Connor. In pre-match interviews, all the participants raved about Thesz. When O'Connor was
asked about Thesz, he said "fantastic," but then went on to say that in the twelve times they wrestled in St Louis, he does "not know what the true score was as they both won some and some were stalemates. In the twelve times they wrestled, they must have spent ten hours in the ring." I don't know if this was said to hype up the finish of the match, or whether it was O'Connor's ego talking.
They went on to do chain and transition wrestling with the escapes and reversals they did long ago. One twit in the crowd actually yelled, "Boring." I'll bet if the readers of this had heard that dolt, they would have grabbed this "fan" by the legs and drug him down the steps with the guy's head bouncing off each and every step.
Pat threw a forearm that Lou ducked under and then dumped Pat over the top. For you trivia buffs, this made Lou Thesz the winner of the first and probably last Old Timers Battle Royal.
While this special event was fun to see, it was certainly an odd juxtaposition, seeing old school wrestlers on a 1989 WWF card in the WWFs hottest period of showcasing their new interpretation of wrestling.
