
I have a huge collection of professional wrestling DVDs that go back to when they were being cranked out in the mid 2000s by both WWE and TNA, as well as from a plethora of independent video production companies.
Wrestling DVDS were easily accessible back then and on any given day, in many different chain stores, you could find a wide variety of wrestling DVDs for sale. This included documentaries on individual wrestlers, themed match collections, and full wrestling shows.
Those were the days when DVDs were relatively new technology, only a few years old.
The video stores and chain outlets all had a pro wrestling DVD section. New releases came out on Thursdays. I’d go to the various stores on that day, and the day after, to check out and ultimately purchase most of the new pro wrestling titles.
DVDs are now essentially obsolete, and they haven’t hit a nostalgia wave yet in the United States like vinyl records have.
I remember well when Blockbuster Video went out of business. It seemed to happen very quickly too. I went there on a Friday night as usual, rented a few DVDs, then skipped my next usual Friday night trip. When I went there the following Friday the store was gone. I had no idea that the chain was going out of business and was quite surprised to show up and find the sign removed from the storefront.
Streaming ended wrestling DVDs as a thing it seemed for wrestling memorabilia collectors for the most part. It’s to be determined if wrestling DVDs make a nostalgia comeback in the wrestling merchandise collector community in the next decade.
Recently, I’ve been revisiting my enormous collection of pro wrestling DVDs for the first time in many years. They’ve been packed away in storage containers for over a decade and I’ve just started going through them to see what I have.
What I have discovered is that I have more pro wrestling DVDs than I recall ever purchasing.
I’ve been going through my collection looking specifically for DVDs I don’t recall watching, with an interest in finding DVDs of footage from the territory days of the early to mid-80s before WWE (then WWF) expanded into a national promotion. This was when Vince McMahon began an active campaign to decimate the territory promotions from existence, which was largely accomplished by the end of the ‘80s.
In my search, I came a across a DVD called St Louis Wrestling Volume 9 with matches from 1983. The DVD box has a 2005 release date.
It provided the inspiration for this post.
- Russell Franklin
In 1983, the pro wrestling scene in the United States was full of territorial promotions.
By territory, I mean a region typically covering multiple states where a promotion runs shows in mainly small towns, but also at least one city, and often at the same venues from week-to-week. These promotions also had a TV show that aired on a local station that was designed to get fans interested in buying tickets to see live events.
This was the operating model of the vast majority of professional wrestling promotions in the U.S. largely from the 60’s into the ‘80s.
St. Louis was a major area for professional wrestling.
The promotion there, St. Louis Wresting, was different in that it wasn’t a traditional promotion in the territory sense like other major geographic pro wrestling areas around the United States.
St Louis Wrestling was a one-town promotion.
They had a weekly TV show “Wrestling at the Chase” that ran from 1959 to 1983, named as such because it was taped at Chase Hotel. The promotion also held monthly events at the St Louis Arena and Keil Auditorium.
They’d bring in a different top name talent from all the different territories from across the country to have an all-star show.
The major local title was the Missouri heavyweight championship, and it was in existence from 1972 to 1983. However, at the major St Louis Wrestling shows the NWA champion was generally who was featured in the main event. This was usually Harley Race or Ric Flair, and they’d defend the NWA title on the shows, rendering the Missouri title as a secondary title within its own promotion.
St. Louis Wrestling was part of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), which featured a collection of promotions around the country that were loosely affiliated under the same national sanctioning body and recognized one world champion.
The promoter of St. Louis Wresting was Sam Muchnick, and any student of wrestling history knows that name. What he was known best for was that wrestlers who worked for him said he aways provided good payoffs in an era where that wasn’t always common.
Muchnik retired in 1982, and he sold off the promotion to Bob Geigel and Central States Wrestling, which was another territory promotion nearby, one that operated in the traditional territory business model sense.
There was a split shortly after, as Larry Matysik, who was Muchnick’s TV commentator and the general manager, split off and formed his own group.
Right around this time the WWF’s national expansion was beginning as they moved from being a Northeast territory promotion to running shows nationwide.
Matysik got involved with WWF with the idea it was a partnership with them, but it ended up with WWF taking the time slot for Wrestling at the Chase in late 1983.
The other faction of St Louis Wrestling from the split was purchased in 1985 by Jim Crockett Promotions, a territory promotion that operated out of the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
For his national expansion, Jim Crockett, Jr. would re-brand his promotion to the NWA and they would be the WWF’s main competition in the ’80s wrestling war that followed.
Crockett, after absorbing the St. Louis Wrestling faction that has been owned by Geigel, ran one last card in St Louis under the St Louis Wrestling name before absorbing the entity into his own promotion.
ST. LOUIS WRESTLING VOLUME 9 DVD
I recently watched footage of St. Louis Wrestling for the first time.
I’ve had a long-time fascination with territory promotions and their business models.
The footage I saw was from 1983 on a DVD called St. Louis Wrestling Volume 9.
Historically this is a very interesting time period because there are a lot of wrestlers on this DVD who are about to be signed away by WWF.
In 1983, pro wrestling was at the end of one period and about to begin another. The territories were on the cusp of a quick collapse and Larry Matysik, who does several hosting segments between matches on this DVD, acknowledges this in the opening intro of the DVD.
A fan of St Louis Wrestling in 1983 might been coming to the tapings at Chase Hotel every week for years and there’s no way they could have known at the time of the matches on this DVD that this promotion was going to be out of business in less than a year.
It must have been quite shocking for them when they turned on the TV to watch the new airing of “Wrestling at the Chase” and instead it was WWF.
The first match on St. Louis Wrestling Volume 9 DVD is Tony Atlas versus Ted Allen and takes place shortly before Tony Atlas won the WWF tag team champion with Rocky Johnson that same year.
Atlas looks bodybuilder huge. He was the Mr. USA bodybuilding champion in 1979, and he had enormous muscles for that or any era.
The match with Atlas and Allen is an enhancement match.
What do I mean by enhancement match?
It means the match consists of a top star against someone who seldom wins a match. The match itself might be mildly competitive for a little bit, but the promoter wanted fans to buy tickets for a live event if they wanted to see a competitive match between two stars.
Next up is Adrian Adonis versus Jesse Ortega. This match is much like the match before in that it’s an enhancement match.
Adonis, like Atlas, would be off to the WWF soon and in early 1984 teamed with Dick Murdoch as the North South Connection. They would go on to win the WWF tag team championship from Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson.
The next match is Ken Timbs versus Jerry Oates. These are two territory names from that era that I’ve heard of before. I don’t recall either of them ever being in a national promotion though.
Timbs has bleached blond hair and is a heel and Jerry Oates is your clean cut, quintessential, well-built good guy of that era who uses lots of scientific holds.
Oates wins the match with a spinning toe hold submission.
Following that, it’s a tag team match with Chavo Guerrero, Sr. and Tiger Conway versus Randy Savage and Butcher Salviccio.
The tag team match is announced as most pinfalls by curfew wins and they bill Savage as the ICW world champion. ICW was the promotion owned by Randy Savage’s father, Angelo Poffo, and for much of its existence was considered an outlaw promotion.
Being called an outlaw promotion meant the promotion wasn’t part of the NWA and ran in overlapping territories with an NWA affiliated promotion. At one point, particularly in the ’70s, wrestlers who worked for outlaw promotions were barred from wrestling for NWA affiliated promotions.
The ICW, compared to other such outlaw promotions, had a lengthy run. They began in 1978 and ran all the way until 1984. They had a locally broadcast wrestling TV show in Lexington, Kentucky. ICW is also where Miss Elizabeth, of WWF fame and Savage’s first WWF manager and real-life wife, first appeared.
For some reason on the tag matches on this tape they have two refs, one outside the ring ropes standing on the ring apron and one inside the ring. I’m not sure what the reasoning was for this, and they do not explain it in the commentary.
Guerrero gets the pin on Salviccio right before the curfew, which ends up only being about 10 minutes after the match started.
Then we get another Savage match, this time a singles match versus Jason Reeves.
Historically this is interesting because in a few years Savage will be in WWF and an immediate sensation. When he arrives in WWF, his muscles will be a little bigger than they are here, his beard a little thicker, his hair a little wilder.
He rises quickly in WWF and by Fall of 1985 will be in main events at house shows against Hulk Hogan, in sold out buildings across the United States night after night.
It’s pretty clear even in an enhancement match like this that Savage is something special and will be going on to become a major star in professional wrestling.
The finisher Savage used here is impressive looking. It’s a flying elbow just like the move he would do in the WWF off the top turnbuckle to the center of the ring, but with this flying elbow here he literally leaps all the way across the ring. It’s not a tiny looking ring either.
Savage pulls up Reeves at the two count and gives him a piledriver for the win.
Next up we get Terry Gordy and Eddie Mansfield versus Tom Pritchard and Spike Huber. This is a decent showcase for Terry Gordy and his style. Terry Gordy is one of those names that if you’re a newer wrestling fan you might not have heard of him before, even if you study up some on wrestling history like I did as a new wrestling viewer.
What was special about Gordy, and showcased here, is that he had a realistic-looking brawling style and was very athletic for his size. You see here in this match how quickly he moved for his size and that he also had a lot of versatility to his moves. For example, he does a front drop kick, and it’s as impressive as it sounds because Gordy was a very big man, probably legit close to 300 pounds. He also delivers a crisp looking hanging suplex where he brings Spike Huber back into the ring from the apron.
The finish they do here is Gordy using an Oriental Spike that’s very similar to WWE wrestler Solo Sikoa’s finishing move. The difference here though is Gordy clamps his hands on his opponent’s chest, putting pressure with his forearms, almost like a headlock that slips down, before delivering the spike.
Next, it’s a pre-Four Horsemen Tully Blanchard facing Spike Huber.
These two were having a heated feud in St. Louis in 1983. On the DVD there’s various footage showing what led up to the finale of their feud, which was an October 1983 Texas death match.
It starts off showing clips from a two-ring battle royale match that looks like it was shot from the upper rows of the arena in a spectator seat. The final two wrestlers in the ring are Blanchard and Huber. The match ends with Huber winning by pinfall.
Then there’s footage of Blanchard and Huber in a one-on-one match. It’s a clean scientific style match as they maneuver back and forth on the mat for control. It feels a lot like an amateur match with Huber largely controlling it and targeting Blanchard’s left arm throughout. The match ends in a time limit draw.
Next, there’s a six-man match with Tom Pritchard, Spike Huber and Dominic DeNucci versus Tully Blanchard, Eric Embry and Killer Karl Cox.
Soon after the match starts, Blanchard and Spike Huber begin brawling outside the ring. In the middle of that, Tully Blanchard walks off and leaves the match entirely, but he comes back at the end and attacks Spike Huber.

There’s a brief cutaway after that match with Matysik where he talks about the collapse of St. Louis Wrestling that occurred not too long after all the footage from this DVD was originally filmed. He mentions he was planning to build the promotion around The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts), Bruiser Brody and Dick Murdoch and he had the talent all signed when WWF came in and took over St Louis. He doesn’t go into in any more detail and explain further what “came in” and “took over” meant specifically, but it does give the viewer a little bit of context on how quickly this promotion went from thriving to non-existent.
Next, there’s footage of a Bruiser Brody commercial for what appears to be for a local electronics store. The footage is amusing more for the outtakes where there is a bunch of businessmen in suits grinning the whole time, sitting near Brody and looking enamored by him.
The gem of this DVD is slightly grainy footage of Dick Murdoch versus Bruiser Brody from Japan that presumably aired on an episode of “Wrestling at the Chase”. This is vintage Bruiser Brody with the kind of wild entrance I used to read about in the pro wrestling magazines back in the 80s. Brody comes to the ring right through the crowd, who scatters at the sight of him waving his large iron chain in the air.
Murdoch bleeds heavily in the match after he gets run into a ring post twice, but this is more much than a bloody brawl. There’s a lot of wrestling moves you wouldn’t expect to see from these two. For example, Dick Murdoch does a drop kick and sunset flip, and Bruiser Brody does a flying cross body. They also do a simultaneous double drop kick on each other.
I’ve seen tons of matches with each of them and don’t remember these guys ever doing moves like that in the United States.
They end up on their knees, trading blows, both bleeding profusely. Bruiser Brody shoves off the referee and it just turns into an absolute melee brawl.
In Japan, and they still often do this, the newer wrestlers, called Young Lions in New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, are around the ring acting as seconds. Here, they come in and try to break up the fight, and Murdoch and Brody start wailing on these guys.
Bonus footage on the DVD includes Kerry Von Erich with the Missouri heavyweight title, which he held from January 1983 to April 1983.
St. Louis Wrestling Volume 9 was very enjoyable to watch, and I hope to find more DVDs from this series as I continue to unpack the storage boxes I have that are full of pro wrestling DVDs.
I’ll let you know here on Substack what I find!
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