Wrestling Venues

 Legendary announcer, Walt Harris interviewing Kinji Shibuya at the KTVU studios in Oakland, CA.

 

Wrestling fans in America, for the most part, love the large venues.  Certainly Madison Square Garden, Crypto.com Arena, United Center and others come to mind.

 

However, what about the small arenas or venue?

 

Before seeing my first big wrestling show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, it was seeing a one hour wrestling show at a television studio in Oakland.  KTVU Channel 2 would originally televise their promotional shows at 9pm each Friday night for a few years.  One night, some family friends and I had a chance to see a show.  There were four matches in the one hour time slot with commercials.  It was a beginning for this wrestling fan.

 

I've been fortunate to see some shows in all different venues.  Wrestlemania 31 at Levi's Stadium was monumental.  However, seeing a show in a small venue is every bit as important.

 

My last show was this past weekend at the United Irish Cultural Center with West Coast Pro Wrestling.  Several names were on the show, though Robbie Eagles, who was mentioned, didn't appear.  It was possible because of the IT issues that Eagles wasn't there.  The names of Shelton Benjamin, Titus Alexander, Alex Shelley and Alan Angels made up for it though.  It was a nice and exciting evening of independent pro wrestling in the Sunset District.

 

My next show......a little over four weeks at the venue above.  Brawl Pit Bulusan in Quezon City, Philippines.  The venue has hosted wrestling shows for several years now.  The upcoming event, Unang Tibok will be the inaugural show for the promotion, PUSO Wrestling.  

 

Right now, there are six matches scheduled for the show.  

 

Four of the matches are part of a tournament to declare an inaugural Pusong Pinoy Wrestling Champion.

 

There will be a battle royal in honor of a late, huge wrestling fan.  The Jun Capilos Jr. Battle Royal will be an exciting one to watch.

 

Also, the Pinay Vixen, Chelsea Marie will face "Mr. Philippine Wrestling" Jake De Leon in the Main Event.  This is a return match from the Pinoy Wrestling Night last month.

 

For more information, including tickets, please visit the PUSO Wrestling Facebook page.  PUSO Wrestling can also be found on Instagram, X and You Tube.

 

Finally, if anyone, or anyone you know is interesting in sponsoring the show, please email PUSO Wrestling at pusowrestling@gmail.com for more details.  Thank you.       

Before The Rock

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the 1960s into the 1970s, wrestling was big on KTVU Channel 2 every Friday night with the great Walt Harris doing the announcing.  The hour long show from the station's television studios had some of the big names in pro wrestling back in the day.  You could say that the 9-10pm time slot had more viewers than probably the other stations combined.

 

The other day, when I saw The Rock in the Wrestlemania 40 segment on WWE Smackdown, I couldn't help but thinking of the past.  The "Soulman" Rocky Johnson, The Rock's dad, was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up.

 

During the Territory Era, Rocky was a huge draw in Northern California.  He was part of the huge names such as Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson, Pepper Gomez, Peter Maivia, Kenji Shibuya and Mr. Saito.  It was a great time for this blogger as a wrestling fan.

 

Rocky Johnson could certainly wrestle.  It didn't matter if it was singles competition or tag team wrestling.  He, and a couple of partners in Pepper Gomez and Pat Patterson, held the San Francisco version of the NWA Tag Team belts.  Johnson was not only athletic, but he had one of the best drop kicks ever (then and now).  The timing of every one of the dropkicks was perfect!  

 

Rocky didn't have to say a lot in the interviews we saw.  He let his wrestling do the talking for him.

 

I remembered when the NWA and later, the AWA left out area.  By then, Rocky Johnson along with Pat Patterson hooked on with the WWF (WWE today).  I still enjoyed both wrestlers, but the feeling was different than before.  They were in a different company than what the NWA did for me.   

 

His son, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is definitely an icon in the business.  Certainly, there's been a lot of attention with him and the upcoming Wrestlemania 40 show in Philadelphia.  I'm actually excited to see his latest project in the United Football League turns out.