Head over Heels: Remembering Wrestling at the Chase

(bright energetic music) - [Announcer] Hello, everybody.

Busch Bavarian, America's most refreshing beer presents Joe Garagiola and "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Schankman] It has been off the air since 1983.

- And now, the main event.

- [Schankman] Yet for many St. Louisians, those four words.

- "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Schankman] Still ring a bell.

(bell rings) (bright cheerful music) - King Kong Brody.

- Gene Kiniski - Rip Hawk - Gorgeous George.

- Bobo Brazil.

- Dick the Bruiser.

(audience cheering) (bright cheerful music) - [Schankman] It was part opera and part soap opera full of arm twists and plot twists.

- Whenever that TV was on wrestling, we was watching.

Grandpa was beating the sofa.

and grandma was beating the other sofa.

- [Announcer] Kevin has the claw.

- The spinning toe hold.

- The atomic drop.

- The figure four leg lock.

- The Las Vegas leg lock.

- The sleeper hold.

- The jump off the top rope with the knee and the head butt.

(bright energetic music) - I would call it a violent ballet.

(bright energetic music) - [Schankman] For almost a quarter century, thousands of St. Louisans had a weekly appointment with their television sets to watch a madcap morality play based on a sport with no season, no scoring, and arguably no sport since the winners were picked before the matches began.

- [Announcer] The figure four leg lock.

- [Schankman] It was really the fans who were having their legs pulled.

(bell rings) - I never talked to my dad about it.

He knew I knew, and I knew that he knew I knew.

- [Announcer] Oh, boy.

- [Schankman] But even fans who understood how it worked were willing to wink back because they found themselves hooked by the storyline and drawn to the characters.

- You get up and you run up to the front you know, you boo boo boo and like, "Come on out here, come on out here."

(bright energetic music) - [Schankman] It had something for everyone.

(high energy rock music) Good versus evil.

(high energy rock music) Hero worship and anger management.

(high energy rock music) Beauty and the beast.

(high energy rock music) And to follow it, all you had to know was how to count to three.

(bell ringing) - [Announcer] The atomic drop.

- It was campy and it was retro, even then.

That was when wrestling had a certain good natured innocence about it.

(bright cheerful music) - I looked up to these guys like they were movie stars.

- We had the first must see TV, it was "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Schankman] Over the years, the show was broadcast on different days of the week but most fans remember watching it either on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings.

Families went to church early.

so they could be home in time to watch cowboys and crybabies beat each other to kingdom come.

(audience cheering) (bell ringing) - It gave people a chance to kind of let out all their frustrations and put 'em in the ring.

- [Announcer] There's the choke.

- My mother thought it was ridiculous, you know, as so many mothers did.

But we would watch it together.

- [Schankman] In the 1960s and 70s, what Broadway was to theater and Hollywood was to film St. Louis claimed it was to professional wrestling.

- If you got known here in a big way you were gonna be known all over the country.

- [Schankman] And the promoter who made it all happen was a pudgy man with a funny name.

- Sam Muchnick.

A respected promoter in a business that had very few of them.

(bright cheerful music) - He didn't run it like the typical professional wrestling promoter, he ran it like a legitimate sport.

(bright cheerful music) - [Schankman] There were two other ingredients critical to the success of "Wrestling at the Chase", the location and the station.

And Harold Koplar owned them both.

- He took a gritty sport and he gave it this sort of elegant platform.

What is more fun than that?

- [Announcer] Hello.

- [Schankman] The appeal of "Wrestling at the Chase" was simple.

The phenomenon is a more complicated story.

But mostly, it's a love story between professional wrestling and its ardent fans who have always been more intrigued by what it was than bothered by what it was not.

- You just got hooked on it.

That simple.

It's something I fell in love with.

(bright cheerful music) - [Announcer] Valentine, applying the pressure.

There it is, the art museum on Saturday morning.

(gentle instrumental music) - [Schankman] Wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, is considered the world's oldest competitive sport.

It shows up in cave paintings and stone carvings dating back thousands of years.

(bright cheerful music) But it was in St. Louis where the history of wrestling changed dramatically.

- Freestyle wrestling got its introduction in 1904 in St. Louis at the Olympics.

- [Schankman] Unlike Greco-Roman wrestling, in freestyle wrestling almost anything goes.

And for spectators, that difference made all the difference.

- The Olympics opened up wrestling to the masses made it more dynamic, made it more interesting, and made it more attractive to people everywhere.

(bright cheerful music) - [Schankman] In the early years of the 20th century, wrestling at its best was wrestling at its worst.

You'd find it on sketchy carnival midways and in dimly lit legion halls.

Sportsmanship was being replaced by showmanship and they called it professional wrestling.

(bright cheerful music) - Wrestling became theater on a mat.

- You gotta have somebody's boo for you and you gotta have somebody cheer for you.

'cause if everybody's cheering for you it ain't no fun to watch.

- [Schankman] In its early days, professional wrestling was organized into 32 geographic territories each with its own promoters, performers, and champions.

But all that changed in 1949 with the creation of the NWA, the National Wrestling Alliance, an umbrella organization which consolidated the territories and sanctioned just one world champion.

- And that champion would visit all the territories.

And the other things it would do is it would move talent from territory to territory and people then started seeing new wrestlers.

- [Schankman] And they started seeing them in a new way.

- [Announcer] How do you do.

Welcome to Wrestling Champions.

- [Schankman] In the 1950s, professional wrestling was reaching adulthood.

The television was still in its infancy with lots of air time to fill and little to fill it with.

The solution to both those problems would turn out to televised wrestling.

- There was more money made on television revenue for wrestling than baseball, football, and basketball combined.

It was that popular.

- We're gonna force the issue, we have to right here on TV.

- [Schankman] But by the late 1950s with professional wrestling shows saturating the airwaves, the ratings began falling.

So stations began dropping wrestling.

(lively upbeat music) But in St. Louis.

- [Announcer] He's holding on to him.

- [Schankman] A Ukrainian born immigrant who felt he knew what amused the average American was about to help wrestling get up off the mat.

- Buddy Rogers was great.

Lou Thesz was great.

I had showmanship When I promoted, but I had wrestlers also.

(lively upbeat music) - [Schankman] Sam Muchnick was considerably smaller than the wrestlers he promoted, but he was good at thinking big.

Like his wrestlers, Sam Muchnick was a character.

A rumpled raconteur with a reputation for leaving large tips and making square deals.

(lively upbeat music) - Everybody loved to come to St. Louis to work for Sam Muchnick.

- Most promoters are businessmen and they wanna get you to work for as little as they can get you for, right?

Sam Muchnick was known to be a great payoff guy.

- If your payoff came down to X amount of dollars and 87 cents, in your pay envelope the 87 cents was there.

- [Schankman] Sam Muchnick's first job in sports was covering baseball and wrestling as a reporter for the St. Louis Times.

Then in 1932, when the St. Louis Star bought the Times Muchnick left the press box behind and took a job with a local sports promoter named Tom Packs.

Nine years later, a pay dispute led Muchnick to leave Packs and start his own wrestling promotion, as they're known in the business.

But with World War II raging, Muchnick put his new business on hold so he could enlist in the army air force.

But even in the middle of a war, wrestling was never far from his mind.

After the war, Muchnick returned to St. Louis renamed his promotion, the St. Louis Wrestling Club and became one of the founders of the National Wrestling Alliance.

Muchnick served five terms as the NWA Executive Secretary and 21 years as its President.

Baseball had Stan the Man, wrestling had Sam the Man.

- And because of his actions, his control of the wrestling sport across all these territories across the country, the world of wrestling focused on St. Louis.

- He was very, very honest.

He always told us all the time growing up, "Look yourself in the mirror every morning and be able to say is that person you're looking at a good and honest person."

- [Announcer] Attaboy.

(audience cheering) - [Schankman] Not only did Sam Muchnick play by the rules in St. Louis, he made the rules.

- You got throwed over the top rope, you got disqualified.

You jumped off the top rope, you was disqualified.

(audience cheering) - [Schankman] Touching the referee.

Tossing the furniture.

Muchnick also disliked gimmicks.

Whenever Big Moose Cholak came to town, Sam made him leave his antlers in the car.

- [Announcer] Says it's all right.

(lively upbeat music) - [Schankman] At the same time Sam Muchnick was building his legacy, Harold Koplar was trying to extend one.

His father was Sam Koplar, a St. Louis developer responsible for some of the city's landmark buildings including the theater that later became Powell Hall.

But Sam Koplar's most ambitious project was the 28-story Park Plaza Hotel built in 1929 on land adjacent to a competing hotel called The Chase named for Chase Ullman, the man who built it.

Eventually Sam Koplar bought it, connected it to the Park Plaza and put his son, Harold, in charge of running it.

And the new Chase Park Plaza was a lot of hotel to run.

(bright energetic music) - In 1948, there were eight different live venues going seven days a week.

I was always hopping, always jumping, always something.

(bright energetic music) - One of its crown gems was the Chase Club.

The Chase Club started in the 1930s but as of 1950 it became nationally known.

And what made it nationally known was not the food it was the entertainers.

(bright energetic music) - Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra would play at the Chase Club.

- Everybody knew the Chase.

The Chase was like, you know, the place to go.

(bright energetic music) - [Schankman] The Chase Park Plaza was a center of St. Louis culture.

It was home to talk shows, telethons, and the society event of the year, the annual Veiled Prophet Ball at which a Queen of Love and Beauty is crowned by the mythical Veiled Prophet of Khorassan which accounts for the ballroom's curious name, (bright energetic music) the Khorassan room.

(bright energetic music) When it opened in 1957, it was the grandest ballroom in St. Louis famous for its galaxy of starlight chandeliers.

But Harold Koplar was not content just owning the city's swankiest hotel.

- He had this idea, let's put it on TV so people at home can partake in the fun as well.

And that was kind of the impetus for him to go and get a television station license.

- [Schankman] On April 28th, 1959 Channel 11 KPLR-TV, that's Koplar without the vowels, signed on the air.

It was the fourth television station in St. Louis and one of the first independent stations in the country, meaning it had no network programming.

- The solution, at least my grandfather thought, would be to provide local programming.

And part of that was, he had cameras set up all over the Chase Park Plaza in conference rooms, in ballrooms.

He would just kinda bring the camera around.

It was like the early days of reality TV.

- One day, myself and somebody else was pushing the camera through the snow and it ended up in the snow.

(upbeat instrumental music) - [Schankman] Harold Koplar was willing to try anything to fill airtime.

KPLR broadcast Cardinal baseball but also showed little league games, did newscast from the pool, and ran "Three Stooges" shorts on a kid's program called "Captain 11's Showboat".

But the idea for what would become KPLR's signature program came to Harold Koplar through a stroke of serendipity 30,000 feet in the air.

- In 1958, he's on an airplane.

And who else is on the airplane?

Sam Muchnick.

And they got talking.

- And Sam Muchnick is talking to my grandfather about wrestling and my grandfather actually wrestled in college and he's also the consummate showman.

So, this was like a dog whistle to him.

I mean, he was immediately interested.

- Sounds interesting.

- Mr. Koplar said, "Okay, we'll have it in the Khorassan room."

And I said, "You don't wanna a lot of blood on the carpet in the Khorassan room, do you?"

He said, "What difference does it make?

Let's make it major league."

- [Schankman] The two men scribbled the first and only written agreement they ever had between them on either an airline napkin or a doily, depending on who's telling the story.

- Sam Muchnick, at first didn't wanna do television.

Why would people come and pay if they could sit home and watch it?

- The prices are $1.50, $2, $3.

- [Schankman] Eventually, Muchnick changed his mind.

- The date is Friday, April 6th.

(bright energetic music) - [Schankman] Television, Muchnick realized, could be used to promote ticket sales for his large events by inciting blood feuds on TV that were almost always settled by a title match in front of paying fans at the cavernous St. Louis Arena or Kiel Auditorium.

(audience cheering) So in 1953, Sam Muchnick created St. Louis's first local TV wrestling show.

But it was not "Wrestling at the Chase".

- It was called "Wrestling at the St. Louis House".

- [Schankman] It aired on Channel 5, it lasted two years.

- [Announcer] Reminds me of the way a father would pick up his small child.

- [Schankman] By the mid 1950s, there were so many network wrestling shows on television promoters were cutting off their own air supply.

- [Announcer] I think that's gonna be the end of this match.

- [Schankman] Viewership dropped.

Sponsors fled.

It looked like television wrestling was down for the count.

But wrestling is all about falling down and getting back up again.

And Sam Muchnick believed with the right approach TV wrestling could stage a comeback.

(bright cheerful music) - [Announcer] Now here's the first event.

- [Schankman] On Saturday, May 23rd, 1959 Channel 11 broadcast the premiere episode of "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Announcer] There are three minutes left.

- [Schankman] The program was a hit right from the start because "Wrestling at the Chase" had star power outside the ring.

Joe Garagiola, the popular Cardinals catcher turned Cardinals broadcaster was the name above the title and the man behind the mic.

- The name Garagiola, I mean, wow.

I mean, that was really a childhood hero.

- Tell us about some of the holds.

First of all, a headlock.

- [Schankman] Joe Garagiola was the first to admit he knew hardly anything about wrestling so his play-by-play patter was more fun filled than fact filled.

- [Joe Garagiola] We lose a dancer a week that way.

What does Gorky mean in Russian?

Boy, that's a lot of raviolis.

- [Schankman] But it was the glamour of the Chase itself that made "Wrestling at the Chase" unique.

People came to the Khorassan room dressed like they were going to the symphony.

- The juxtaposition is what made it so much fun.

I think of like a Grey Poupon commercial and, you know, the Kool-Aid guy just rushing in.

(bright energetic music) - Every time they had a match at the Chase, I was there.

I would catch the bus over to the Chase and it was like, wow, this is beautiful.

I just love this place.

(bright energetic music) - There might be the gentleman who calls his girlfriend and says, "Hey, we got tickets to the Chase tonight."

She's dressed to the nines thinking she's gonna go listen to the soft voice of Frank Sinatra.

And her boyfriend says, "No, we're at the Chase wrestling."

But you know what?

She wasn't upset because people went there to be seen.

- [Schankman] And chances were good they would be seen.

"Wrestling at the Chase" was Channel 11's biggest draw, followed close behind by "The Three Stooges".

Sometimes it was hard to tell them apart.

- If I was at my grandparents spending the night, I would watch with them.

If I was at home, I watched with my mom and dad.

But, we never missed it.

We loved it.

- It was so exciting for a nine year old boy you know, to watch these guys.

And here I am, I'm 70, gonna be 71 and it's like I'm still feeling that.

- We couldn't stay up late to watch the night show but Sunday morning, like everybody else, go to church or try to sneak home or be late, whatever to catch the wrestling.

(dramatic upbeat music) - My grandmother's Gelina Ronzio.

Her favorite program was "Wrestling at the Chase".

She honestly believed they were fighting to the death.

(lively opera music) She'd be down on all fours counting with the referee trying to get the count to go a little faster.

If her man was on the floor, she'd be cursing probably in Italian screaming and hollering for him to get up, "Get up, get up."

- [Lamont Thomas] I watched with my dad.

- [Announcer] Attaboy.

- I was doing the most woo, wow, oh and, you know, and everything.

And my dad, he would just sit there and just watch me.

Grew up in the housing projects in East St. Louis, Illinois.

On Wednesday nights, we would take a little black and white 12 inch television that we had and run the extension cord out in the backyard and it was a neighborhood get together every Wednesday night.

- [Schankman] When "Wrestling at the Chase" moved to Saturday night, Channel 11 reran the same episode the next morning.

- And grandma would sit there like it was a brand new match and boo and hiss and applaud.

I don't know if she ever realized that she saw that the night before and didn't realize that was a replay.

- John, let me introduce myself, Joe Garagiola.

- [Schankman] "Wrestling at the Chase" would remain a St. Louis television phenomenon for almost 25 years.

- John I'm curious.

- [Schankman] But Joe Garagiola left in the fourth year to join "The Today Show".

In 1963, George Abel, the original announcer on "Wrestling at the St. Louis House" became the new announcer for "Wrestling at the Chase".

A job he would hold for a decade.

But a change was coming more significant than hiring a new announcer and it would transform the look, the location, and the audience for "Wrestling at the Chase".

- And we'll be coming back now with our next match right after this message.

♪ I got color TV ♪ RCA Victor Color TV ♪ I know what I've been missing now ♪ ♪ Wow ♪ I got color TV.

- My uncle Buzz bought grandma Mac and her husband Otis a color television and grandpa took it apart because he was trying to figure out why there was color coming through that screen.

He ruined the television.

- [Announcer] It's "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Schankman] The switch to color broadcasting changed both the look of "Wrestling at the Chase" and the location.

KPLR's studio facility had been built adjacent to the back of the Chase Hotel allowing direct access from the station to the Khorassan room.

- [Broadcaster] The following program is brought to you in Living Color on NBC.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Schankman] The Living Color revolution made television more exciting but for the staff at Channel 11 it also made moving equipment from the studio to the Khorassan room a huge hassle.

(bright cheerful music) Color cameras weighed a ton, cost a fortune, and did not like to be jostled.

So in 1967, "Wrestling at the Chase" was moved from the Khorassan room to the Channel 11 studio.

Since the Koplar's considered the station part of the Chase Hotel complex, the name of the show stayed the same.

The switch to color also changed the view for the fans in the stands because in the studio the audience sat closer to the ring and that meant occasionally they saw some colorful things in person that viewers at home did not.

- There was a native American wrestler and he went by the name of Chief Wahoo McDaniel.

(gentle upbeat music) And at one match he was wearing a breechcloth and someone, might have been Ollie, someone in my headphones said, "Oh my God, he's fallen out of his breechcloth."

(gentle upbeat music) Panic initially was my reaction, I think.

I started telling the camera people to go with just tighter shots, head waist up shots.

We reviewed the tape and we fortunately did not catch any of that wardrobe malfunction on tape.

But the audience still got an eyeful that's for sure.

- [Announcer] King Kong Brody.

- Seeing it live was considerably different.

It was a small studio, which kind of stunned me.

The ring was smaller than I thought but the sound that the ring made was just incredible.

(bright energetic music) (audience cheering) - People would line up outside early Sunday morning for these tapings.

Instead of having about a thousand people, it was limited to about 300.

And instead of having people dressed to the nines all dolled up, people came as everyday Joes.

- [Announcer] The front row scatters.

- [Schankman] Moving the ring to the studio allowed Sam Muchnick to record three shows in one afternoon.

For the announcers, that meant bringing three changes of clothes.

For the wrestlers, that meant taking a pounding three times in one day.

For the audience, it meant a long afternoon.

- We did one show and then the next show we would have everybody switch chairs so you don't see the same people all the time.

- [Schankman] Darla Staggs came so often, she started bringing lunch for the wrestlers.

- Me and a couple of my friends we would take everybody's order and go to White Castle and bring back tons of belly bombers, as they call 'em.

And I'm just glad I wasn't up there with them after they ate them.

- [Schankman] The notoriety "Wrestling at the Chase" brought to St. Louis came at a time when the area was already getting a lot of national attention.

As the home of McDonnell Douglas, St. Louis had been making important contributions to the space program.

(bright cheerful music) In the world of show business the city was known for its hopping entertainment district called Gaslight Square considered an important place to perform if you were an up and coming singer or comic or both.

And then, there was the new Gateway Arch.

♪ We shall not be moved But the 1960s and 70s in St. Louis were also years marked by continuing racial strife and division.

(gentle piano music) Yet in the studio for "Wrestling at the Chase", white and black fans sat side by side finding common ground watching the action in the ring.

- You know, it was like, okay, that's out there.

In here, we're all here for the same thing, for enjoyment or, you know, relieve our frustrations or whatever we were there for.

And everyone got along.

- [Schankman] The African American wrestlers appearing on "Wrestling at the Chase" included superstars like; Bobo Brazil, Rufus R. Jones, and Rocky Johnson who sometimes brought his young son, Dwayne, with him better known today as The Rock.

- [Announcer] You could see her pull her hair.

- [Schankman] Sam Muchnick also liked to book famous female wrestlers including; Penny Banner who was from St. Louis, and Mary Ellison, better known as The Fabulous Moolah.

- [Announcer] I hope you can hear that one lady.

Her voice seems to just pierce right on through.

- [Schankman] Sometimes it seemed like female fans were more blood thirsty than the men.

- Lucy was a little old woman that had red hair into a beehive, looked like bees would fly in it.

- Oh, my gosh.

She was at all the TV studio tapings.

She was at all the Kiel shows.

She had a rubber chicken and she'd shake it at the guy.

- One time Dick Murdoch said to her, "Shut up your old bat."

And she really got angry.

- And the camera stayed on her while she was blasting.

You know, that was exciting, I'm like "Wow, that lady really given it to him."

You know, it was a good time.

- Welcome to "Wrestling at the Chase", the opening bout a one fall with a 10 minute time limit.

- [Schankman] In 1969, Sam Muchnick, took a chance on a new ring announcer with no experience in either wrestling or television, but he had a familiar last name.

(bright cheerful music) His business card said, "Joe's brother."

But Mickey Garagiola's real job was waiting tables at Ruggeri's, one of St.Louis's most popular restaurants.

- [Announcer] The winner of the match, David Von Erich.

- He was at the restaurant way before he was at "Wrestling at the Chase".

I mean, he started there in '36.

And so, I think he sort of became a celebrity at Ruggeri's before he became a celebrity on "Wrestling at the Chase".

He was a character.

He always had a story.

- Sam Muchnick was one of his regular customers at Ruggeri's and there came a time when Sam said to my dad, "Mickey, I want you to be my ring announcer."

- And Mickey said, "I don't know nothing about ring announcing."

And he said, "Can you read?"

Mickey said, "Oh yeah, I can read."

He said, "All you gotta do is read what I put down on a card for you."

- And he says, "Sam, I can't do it."

And he's trying to think of all kinds of excuses why he couldn't do it.

Finally, he says, "Another reason I can't do it, Sam is because your show is on Saturday nights and Saturday nights is my best night at the restaurant.

So, couldn't possibly do it."

Well, Sam straightened him out.

Sam said, "We tape on Sundays and I know the restaurant is closed.

So you can do this, Mickey."

- [Announcer] Let's hear from Mickey Garagiola.

- [Schankman] Some shows went better than others.

- [Mickey Garagiola] 5 minutes and 23 seconds.

(audience cheering) (bright energetic music) - [Schankman] Despite appearances, the wrestlers respected Mickey and even gave him a pass when occasionally his mouth moved faster than the action.

- [Mickey] DiBiase, is the champion.

(audience cheering) - I pinned Harley.

It's a tag team match, and Mickey jumps up, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new world champion."

- Race is laying there, and he's hollering "no, no, no."

And I'm saying, "What do you mean, no, no, no."

I said, "He beat you."

- No, wait a minute it's a tag match, it's not world champion.

- I thought it was a great bout and I can't help it.

And today, Ted DiBiase always thanks me for it for making him the champ.

- [Schankman] To this day many wrestling fans still fondly remember Mickey Garagiola.

But it was a different man, a younger man, who would become the show's enduring ringside champion.

- [Announcer] Johnson held him down.

Count of 1, 2, 3.

(bell rings) (audience cheering) (lighthearted guitar music) - [Schankman] At times his voice was as loud as his wardrobe.

- We'll be back with a curtain raiser right after this.

- [Schankman] Larry Matysik, was a part-time auxiliary police officer but a full-time lifelong wrestling fanatic.

- How many times have I won this Missouri state title outright?

- This is the second time you've had it - [Schankman] As a teenager, Matysik wrote to Sam Muchnick asking for permission to interview wrestlers for articles he hoped to get published in wrestling magazines.

Muchnick said, "okay."

- And all of a sudden, a young Larry Matysik starts doing things in the office for Sam Muchnick and they evolve into this protégé type mentor environment.

- [Schankman] After college, Matysik went to work for Sam Muchnick full-time.

And in 1972 at the age of 24, Sam Muchnick made Larry Matysik the new ringside announcer for "Wrestling at the Chase".

- King Kong Brody, making it very clear he doesn't care for tag matches he's his own tag team and who are we to argue?

- [Schankman] Matysik was never at a loss for words, but he had a favorite.

- We have a donnybrook.

What a donnybrook.

Bulldog Bob Brown, he started this donnybrook.

- [Schankman] Matysik's play-by-play grew even more colorful after he picked a up a sidekick.

- [Larry Matysik] Mickey Garagiola.

- [Mickey Garagiola] The only thing I'm interested is how his grip is on his wallet, that's the only thing I worry about being a waiter.

You know what I mean, Larry?

- [Larry Matysik] You're worried about Pat's grip.

How is his grip on his wallet?

- [Mickey] Very good.

- [Matysik] Very good.

He has a good grip on his wallet.

Larry was great to my dad because he really helped him on camera.

Couple times he bailed him out of some little messes that my dad got himself into.

- You gave Ted DiBiase all he could handle.

- Larry wanted to get to know you so when he did introduce you and when he did talk about you, he knew more than just Jerry Brisco, the wrestler.

He knew Jerry Brisco, the person.

- What did I think of wrestling the first time that Larry took me with him to wrestling?

The first date, he took me to the Fox Theatre to see, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".

And it was really great and I really love this.

And then the second date was a wrestling match.

(audience cheering) I thought this is really boring.

And I thought, okay, he loves it and really boring but he educated me.

- Race must win one fall from David and one fall from Fritz within 30 minutes or forfeit the bout.

- When you met him and he talked about wrestling you could just see the love that he had for the sport.

He just really was a good ambassador for it and especially for "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Larry Matysik] Oh, he caught him in a claw.

He caught Race in a claw.

- He was by far the best.

When you heard Larry Matysik you could have a vision impairment and you could hear him call the action and feel like you were sitting right there at ringside.

That's how good he was.

(gentle piano music) - [Schankman] Viewership for "Wrestling at the Chase" was phenomenal sometimes as high as the 10 o'clock news and Cardinal baseball.

And thanks to Larry Matysik's irrepressible enthusiasm and Mickey Garagiola's eccentric observations, they became one of the most beloved broadcast teams in the business.

- There wasn't a day that I went into work at the office alongside the great promoter, Sam Muchnick, that I didn't realize how lucky I was how much I was learning.

I wish it could have lasted forever.

- I did have my high school prom in the Khorassan room.

And of course my buddies and I were looking for the wrestling ring, which we never did find.

(lively upbeat music) - [Schankman] More than half a century after it first went on the air, generations of fans still cherish their memories and retell their stories about "Wrestling at the Chase".

Sports historian Ed Wheatley spent two years collecting some of those memories for a "Wrestling at the Chase" coffee table book.

- You know, sometimes those memories were one brother pretending he's Dick the Bruiser going over to the other brother who he said, "You're Cowboy Bob Ellis."

And they were repeating the match they just seen.

And sometimes the lamps got broken and the coffee tables went flying.

But that was the reality of what "Wrestling at the Chase" meant.

(bouncy guitar music) - I was the youngest and the littlest.

I lost most of the time.

(bouncy guitar music) - Well, if you only had a couple three, four guys, you couldn't do baseball so you'd do "Wrestling at the Chase" and you'd do tag teams and you'd be in somebody's basement until their mom came down and said, "Quit making so much racket."

- My mom had just wallpapered our living room wall.

- [Schankman] It doesn't take a genius to see where this is going.

- My brother was poking my head with his bony finger.

I had asked him to stop multiple times and he didn't.

- [Schankman] That led to one brother applying the Baron Von Raschke brain claw.

The other returned fire with a Harley Race shove to the gut.

And on it went.

- He goes, "Put me down."

I go, "Why, are you gonna stop?"

He goes, "Put me down."

I put him down and sure enough, there was a big old hole in the wall.

- [Schankman] Worried about the potential grudge match, the Liebler's replaced the wallpaper with paneling.

Ironically, while kids seem to have few misgivings about pummeling their opponents, the wrestlers they love to imitate were trying to do the opposite.

- [Announcer] Right against the jaw of O'Connor.

Perfectly applied.

- The art professional wrestling.

Number one, is not hurt your opponent and not get yourself hurt.

- [Announcer] Oh, good counter by Kelly.

- It's always uncomfortable for me to say, but the wrestling is entertainment.

- [Announcer] Atomic knee drop, slamming the tail bone down into the knee.

- The punishment that those people have taken and some of them still take, it's not fake.

- It's very hard on the body.

I've had both knees replaced, my hip's out, I've needed back surgery for 20 years.

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

- [Schankman] Even when the moves are planned, things can easily go wrong.

- All I remember is, he had me in a bear hug.

But he had me up so high and I told him, I said, "Okay, run me back into the turnbuckle."

Well, when he ran me back into the turnbuckle the top turnbuckle hit me about the middle of my lower back and it whipped my head back.

And my head went all the way to the ring post and when I came back up, I covered him and me in blood.

- Gentlemen you're both familiar with the rules of Missouri State Athletic Commission.

- Well, my dad, Joe Schoenburger, was one of the referees people would always ask him, is that real?

You know, what's going on?

But he would always just say, "These are great men and women and they stay in shape and they're professional."

- [Broadcaster] KMOX, The Voice of St. Louis.

- So it's sometime in the mid to late seventies and I'm the newcomer at venerable KMOX, The Voice of St. Louis.

And it's kind of a tradition on Friday nights that on Sports Open Line, Sam Muchnick will call in and preview the following night's card at Kiel Auditorium or at the arena.

And after Sam rattles through it, I say, "So Sam, for those who can't attend tomorrow, might be outta town, can you give us the results right now?"

And the people in the studio laughed and people who were listening later told me they thought it was very funny.

Sam did not think it was funny.

- [Schankman] The bubble burst for Joe Holleman after his father witnessed Fritz Von Erich and Dick the Bruiser eating lunch together.

- And I was just thinking there's no way Dick the Bruiser and Fritz Von Erich, mortal enemies.

There's no way.

And I'm like telling my dad you're outta your mind.

And that's finally when he had the talk where he said, "Son, I hate to break this to you but it might be potentially orchestrated outcomes to these matches."

It was right below, there may not be a Santa Claus.

- [Announcer] Boy, look at that physique on Kevin Von Erich.

What a build.

He's Superman, believe me, without the cape.

- It didn't matter to me.

I just thought these guys were tremendous athletes and tremendous showmen.

- There were probably more pure athletes during that time than there ever was in the business.

And if you weren't athletic, you weren't brought to the Chase.

- Well, obviously, they know more than what we know.

We let the audience know what's gonna happen when we are ready to do it.

Just like a magician, he doesn't tell you all his tricks.

He waits, brings you in, and then he shows them to you.

And you go, wow.

- [Schankman] Like many pro wrestlers Gary "Night Train" Jackson started as an amateur wrestler in high school.

Some of the biggest names in pro wrestling began their careers playing other professional sports.

(bright energetic music) Richard Afflis was an offensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers before he turned to wrestling.

- I drink beer, I smoke cigars, and I'm gonna win that title.

- [Schankman] It was a football injury to his throat that left him with the gear grinding voice which he used to great effect when Richard Afflis became Dick the Bruiser.

- [Announcer] Look out.

- [Schankman] To studio technicians, he was also Dick the Breaker.

- Dick the Bruiser was mean.

He would go over, knock the chairs down, grab a microphone and go up there with one of the wrestlers, wrap the cable around his neck, and hit him a few times with the microphone.

And after all I said, "No, no more.

I'm getting these old microphones we haven't used in 20 years so you can do what you want with them."

- [Schankman] The wrestling model, Sam Muchnick perfected in St. Louis could have worked anywhere.

But as the 1980s approached wrestling was changing everywhere and so was television.

"Wrestling at the Chase" was about to tango with a heavyweight determined to be a new kind of champion.

- [Announcer] Look out.

- Hey, I'm King Kong Brody.

Nobody can beat me.

I know the Decent Boys over at the new deal and their prices can't be beat.

- [Schankman] "Wrestling at the Chase" was such a cultural phenomenon some of its biggest stars found work in St. Louis outside the ring.

- If you don't get the best deal, call me.

(gentle piano music) - [Schankman] Lou Thesz, who grew up in St. Louis, became one of the best professional wrestlers in history.

But in 1969, he received rave reviews for his acting when he appeared in The Muny's production of "Guys and Dolls".

After his wrestling career ended, Thesz occasionally came back to St. Louis to appear as a special guest referee.

- I wanna get back home, it's really a crazy magnet it's tough to leave here again.

- [Announcer] "Why don't you break it up," complains Brown to referee Joe Tangaro.

- [Schankman] Joe Tangaro was another professional wrestler who turned into a referee and then a restaurateur.

In 1964, he bought a popular south St. Louis restaurant called the Chariton adding his signature to the name while keeping its signature dish on the menu.

- One of its specialties was a whole fried frog and apparently a lot of people bought the whole fried frog.

It was pretty good.

- [Announcer] Orton grabs Dean by the hair and runs him into the buckles.

- [Schankman] Cowboy Bob Orton Jr. moved to St. Louis while he was still wrestling and is still in the wrestling business.

- Let's go guys, get somebody in there.

- [Schankman] Orton is the ace up the sleeve at Ace Wrestling Academy, a professional wrestling school run by Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling an independent promotion based in East Carondelet, Illinois.

- Yeah, don't be throwing stuff if you don't know how to do it.

- [Schankman] As a coach, Orton knows a lot about how to develop young wrestlers.

His son is WWE star, Randy Orton, who also lives in St. Louis.

- Something to do and it's fun for me.

(gentle piano music) - [Schankman] For all the years, Sam Muchnick ran both the St. Louis Wrestling Club and the National Wrestling Alliance his wife Helen was always by his side.

So when she died suddenly in 1981, Sam was devastated.

Within the year, he sold his shares in the St. Louis Wrestling Club and retired.

(gentle piano music) - Everybody in this building knows that tonight is a very special night for wrestling in St. Louis and around the world.

- [Schankman] On New Year's Day, 1982, a retirement party for Sam Muchnick was held at the Checkerdome.

- For the all time great.

- [Schankman] One by one wrestlers, sports writers, and politicians stepped into the ring to thank Muchnick for the entertainment he brought to fans and the respect he brought to professional wrestling.

- I think the highlight might have been when Joe Garagiola showed up in the ring and he was really surprised when he was there.

He did not expect that.

- We'd like to present Sam with his present.

Why don't you just rip a little off of it.

- [Schankman] Channel 11 presented Sam Muchnick with a VCR so he could enjoy watching old episodes of "Wrestling at the Chase" over and over again.

And he did for a long time.

Sam Muchnick retired at age 77, but lived to 93.

His final years were spent happily swapping old stories with old friends and old wrestlers.

When he retired, it was a group of old wrestlers who bought Muchnick's shares of the St. Louis Wrestling Club.

- Hello, I'm Larry Matysik.

- [Schankman] They named Larry Matysik general manager but philosophical differences with the new owners led Matysik to do what Muchnick had done 40 years earlier.

He left to start his own promotion and his own TV show to compete with "Wrestling at the Chase".

- Hey, I'm King Kong Brody.

- [Schankman] The matches were taped at the Checkerdome and shown on Channel 30.

With Mickey and Larry together again.

- [Larry Matysik] And certainly a great honor to have Tony Atlas here on St. Louis Wrestling.

- [Schankman] But it was a short-lived comeback.

- [Announcer] A two ring battle royal.

- [Schankman] By the fall of 1983, the National Wrestling Alliance was collapsing, cable television and pay-per-view events were becoming professional wrestling's new world order.

Less than three months after going on the air, Matysik's new show and his old show "Wrestling at the Chase" both signed off the air.

- Larry Matysik and Mickey Garagiola saying, so long.

- After "Wrestling at the Chase" was done with its run the World Wrestling Federation came in and did a program called "Superstars of Wrestling" and they did production at KPLR there for about a year after "Wrestling at the Chase" had finished.

- [Schankman] The first episode of "Superstars of Wrestling" was taped in the Khorassan room.

- It was the beginning of the new era of wrestling.

And I sort of missed the old days to tell you the truth sometimes.

- [Announcer] Should be a fast and furious one, two real good athletes.

- It was on for so long, I think you take it for granted that it was gonna last forever.

- [Announcer] One minute left.

One minute.

- They're just such wonderful memories getting to do that with my grandparents and my parents.

You know, they're all gone now so don't have that to do all I have is the memories and I think about that a lot.

It means a lot to me.

- [Schankman] So many of the greats from "Wrestling at the Chase" are also gone.

- And I love this belt.

I love it.

- [Schankman] After Dick the Bruiser retired, he tried to start his own promotion but gave up after losing too many wrestlers to the WWF.

- [Announcer] Now, Bruiser has tremendous power you ought see him on a bench press.

- [Schankman] Richard Afflis, Dick the Bruiser, died in 1991 at the age of 62 after rupturing a blood vessel while lifting weights.

- Introducing from Santa Fe, New Mexico weighing 304 pounds King Kong Brody.

- [Schankman] He was one of the best known performers to ever wrestle in St. Louis.

- And I don't need nobody out there telling me what to do.

- [Schankman] But it's what happened to him in Puerto Rico that his fans can never forget.

(grieving piano music) On July 16th, 1988 Brody had gone to wrestle at a stadium in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

But before he made it out of the locker room, a local wrestler stabbed him.

Brody died the next morning.

In court the killer, who was the only witness called to testify, claimed self defense and was acquitted of all charges.

(grieving piano music) King Kong Brody, who's real name was Frank Goodish, was 42 years old.

(grieving piano music) - Ladies and gentlemen welcome the master of the brain claw, Baron Von Raschke.

(crowd cheering) - [Schankman] Larry Matysik never fully retired from the world of wrestling.

After his attempt to establish a new St. Louis promotion failed, he spent 10 years working for the WWF.

He also created a St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame, wrote a memoir, and won the Melby Award for wrestling journalism in 2014.

(brooding piano music) But by then, failing health had taken away his mobility making it impossible for him to receive the award in person.

From his wheelchair, Larry Matysik taped an acceptance speech.

- You know, toward the end of Gene Kiniski's life I had gotten in the habit of calling Gene on a pretty regular basis.

Great guy, you all know that.

A lot of wrestling stories there with Gene Kiniski.

And I said to Gene towards the end when Gene's mind was still strong everything else kind of breaking down around the old lion.

I said, "Gene, do you have any regrets?

Is there anything you regret about the wrestling business?"

He kinda hesitated.

And Gene Kiniski said, "I've got one regret.

The regret is I can't go back and do it again."

- And I'll just roll you straight back like.

(audience cheering) - That's my regret.

I bet it's your regret.

That's a pretty good regret.

(brooding piano music) - [Schankman] Of 1,100 episodes of "Wrestling at the Chase", only 60 still exist.

- Let's get the dust off.

- [Schankman] And it was Larry Matysik who saved them.

(brooding piano music) Larry Matysik died in 2018 at the age of 71.

- He loved wrestling.

- [Schankman] His Memorial service was conducted in a wrestling ring.

- And he lived his passion all the way to the end.

(gentle somber music) - [Schankman] Just a few years after "Wrestling at the Chase" folded, so did the Chase Hotel.

The building was getting old and its financial losses were getting steep.

In 1981, the Koplar's sold it.

In 1989, the new owners closed it.

(gentle somber music) But in 1999, (bright cheerful music) $100 million renovation brought the Chase Park Plaza back to life.

The old Chase Club became the Chase Cinemas.

(bright cheerful music) The Khorassan room was refurbished and today remains one of the city's most popular event spaces with its original starlight chandeliers still twinkling above.

- To say I'm excited to be back in St. Louis, is an understatement.

To say that I'm at the Chase is an amazing moment.

- [Schankman] In 2021, the National Wrestling Alliance attempting its own comeback used the Khorassan room to stage two nights of pay-per-view wrestling.

They called it "Wrestling at the Chase".

In 2019, the old "Wrestling at the Chase" studio was demolished to make way for a new hotel co-owned by the Koplar's.

- Ladies and gentlemen, we're celebrating "Wrestling at the Chase".

- [Schankman] Many of wrestling's greats are enshrined in the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame.

But in 2021, Mickey Garagiola, Sam Muchnick, and Larry Matysik were all inducted posthumously into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

- When we inducted Yogi Berra a few years ago in the Hall of Fame, he said, "Thanks for making this night necessary."

Well, we honor the memory of these three men tonight the pro wrestling who made this night necessary and long overdue.

- I wish my dad was here.

He'd have loved this.

- My dad would think it was great that this thing he developed was continuing to have a positive influence on everybody, that everybody can look back at that time and that type of wrestling and smile.

- He loved wrestling.

He loved his family but he loved wrestling along with us.

(lighthearted rock music) (audience cheering) - [Schankman] Today, four decades after "Wrestling at the Chase" went off the air, independent wrestling promotions in Missouri and Illinois continue to provide local fans with matches to watch and melodramas to follow.

But for independent promotions to thrive professional wrestling will always need to encourage enthusiastic prospects willing to learn the ropes.

- You're in trouble now, Vincent.

You gotta work on that stuff.

- [Schankman] And that brings us back to Ace Wrestling Academy.

Some are here just for fun.

Others are hoping they have the talent to travel the independent circuit.

And then there are the young hopefuls, like 19-year-old, Ethan Tolentino.

So head over heels for professional wrestling he is determined despite his small frame to become the next big thing in the ring.

- [Ethan] I've wanted to be a pro wrestler my entire life.

I go to the gym every day try to get better every time I'm here.

I wanna make a name for myself everywhere.

- Who's next?

(lighthearted upbeat music) - [Schankman] It is tempting to think of "Wrestling at the Chase" as a product of a simpler time.

But when you consider everything that happened in the 1960s and 70s, maybe it's just the entertainment that was simpler.

- [Announcer] Fans are lining up tonight at downtown St. Louis for the WWE's Royal Rumble.

At the Edward Jones Dome.

- [Schankman] At its highest level, professional wrestling today is a lot of things, but simple is not one of them.

It has become an industry of the mega.

Mega stars.

Mega shows.

Mega money.

- [Announcer] Up over the top goes Rocky Johnson.

- [Schankman] But every once in a while it's worth remembering that it was an evolution not a revolution that turned professional wrestling into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Reimagined by big thinkers but built on the shoulders of giants.

- "Wrestling at the Chase" is just not wrestlers in a ring wrestling.

In the big picture, it's history.

It's a history of St. Louis.

- If you look at the tapes now you will still see that energy.

I mean, I still look at stuff like that today and I still get that energy, I get those goosebumps because that was what I grew up on.

- And that's it, hope you enjoyed it.

Good night, everybody.

- What I hope people remember about "Wrestling at the Chase", I hope they have the same memories that I do.

It puts a smile on my face when I think about it.

It puts a lot of sense of pride that I was a part of that.

And I hope that people that surviving that, that attended one of those matches can still look back and say, "You know, I was a part of history and I didn't even know it."

(audience cheering) - [Announcer] Do you believe that?

This crowd is going nuts.

(bell ringing) We have a donnybrook.

(audience cheering) (bright cheerful music) ♪ They grunt and they groan ♪ They grunt and they moan ♪ Doing the wrestling polka ♪ They kneel and they bow ♪ They jeer and they howl ♪ Doing the wrestling polka ♪ They tune in the evening ♪ They're on their favorite channel ♪ (bright cheerful music) He signed Sam Muchnick's name to all the checks.