by Daniel Johnson
Angelo Poffo vs. Jerry Christie
Angelo Poffo played a brilliant heel during his time in Fred Kohler’s NWA territory running out of Chicago, Illinois. He would dress fancifully like Gorgeous George (the old school wrestler not the one his son “Macho Man” Randy Savage would later date), but back up his look with some technical wrestling and pure toughness. As commentator Russ Davis put it Poffo was, “Tougher than a home cured bacon rind.”
In this match preserved by the Chicago Film Archives through the Russ and Sylvia Davis Collection, 1932-1970 Poffo set his sights on a younger and leaner wrestler in Jerry Christie, who was wrestling out of California. Although Poffo had an obvious weight advantage Christie wrestled the sturdy man from Downers Grove, Illinois to the mat with a headlock takedown. From there Christie clamped on the headlock for a while before Poffo got loose. Poffo looked to have lost his temper when he struck Christie in the chest then put on a good old fashioned hammerlock. Yes, Poffo may have been taken down, but he wasn’t ready to get squashed like One Man Gang would do to his son, Lanny Poffo about 30 years later. Christie fought back and the Chicago International Amphitheatre came alive when he pulled his enemy’s hair and wrenched his neck back into the turnbuckles. Not to be outdone Poffo did the same and then closed the match with a neckbreaker or as Davis put it, “A reverse falling chinlock.”
The full match can be seen right here:
For more in the Old School Flashback series featuring action from the Chicago International Amphitheatre click here and here.
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