Attending 1983 St. Louis Matches

(I released an encore episode of the podcast this week, Episode 132.)

During the summer of 1983, I did something rare by attending a handful of live wrestling cards without my sister Vicky. Vicky, who was fifteen years older than me, started taking me to the St. Louis wrestling cards.

Vicky had two season tickets in 1981 and 1982, so we attended most cards between June 1981 and June 1982. However, six months into the new Central States ownership group, it was painfully obvious they did not have a clue in how to promote St. Louis. Vicky let her season tickets go at the end of 1982. We only went to cards that interested us after that. We did not attend any St. Louis Wrestling Club cards in 1983.

Larry Matysik, the longtime St. Louis announcer, resigned at the end of 1982 and started his own “outlaw” promotion in the middle of 1983. Larry ran six cards before shutting down operations at the end of October 1983.

Vicky did not want to go to the matches because she knew amore than me at the time. Larry had to promote his cards at the 19,000 plus seat Checkerdome, later the Arena. While the owners gave Larry a deal, it would be next to impossible to fill this building every month. She did not want to become a fan of the promotion and have them shut down right away, which is what happened. Larry did draw two crowds of about 7,000, comparable to what the St. Louis Wrestling Club drew at the time.

Since I could walk to Checkerdome and the Greater St. Louis Wrestling Enterprises, Larry’s promotion, had tickets in the $5-7 range, my parents bought me a ticket as long I had someone go with me. A neighborhood friend also purchased a ticket, so we went to three to four of Larry’s six shows.

I know that I attended the card on August 19th because I remember Bruiser Brody versus Toru Tanaka as well as Adrian Adonis versus Spike Huber with Lou Thesz as special referee. Larry booked talent from Joe Blanchard’s San Antonio promotion.

Randy Savage also teamed up with Tiger Conway, Jr. to wrestle the tag team of Dick Murdoch and Bob Sweetan. Savage turned on Tiger Conway, Jr., to set up a match for the September 17th show.

I attended the September 17th card to watch the Savage and Conway rematch as well as the main event of Bruiser Brody versus Nikolai Volkoff. The referee disqualified Volkoff in the main event. I am not sure if I attended the October 7, 1983, show. I do not remember the card, but it was also forty-three years ago.

I did attend the final card on October 29, 1983. Bruiser Brody versus Nikolai Volkoff headlined the card. Marty Jannetty wrestled Eddie Mansfield in the second match as Marty Oates, the kayfabe brother of Jerry and Ted Oates.

Larry Matysik shut his promotion down after the October 29th card. The St. Louis Wrestling Club lasted two more years until Bob Geigel and Harley Race sold the promotion to Jim Crockett, Jr. right before Starrcade 1986.

By that time, Vince McMahon took their Wrestling at the Chase show and regularly ran St. Louis. Because of the Central States promotion’s promotional mistakes, St. Louis went from one of the strongest National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) towns to a World Wrestling Federation town.

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