Friday Night Houston Wrestling.
I was riding along today when someone on the radio mentioned that tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. I don't know why, but the name of Irish Danny McShain popped into my head. So, as I was driving along, my mind went back to a Friday night, sitting around the old television set, watching the Houston wrestling show. You may have had one like ours. We had it serviced periodically by the TV repair man who would come out to the house with his box of tubes and then he would set a mirror in front of the television and go behind the television and start pulling out tubes, one after another, while watching the mirror that reflected the TV screen, so he could see if the picture was right.
At any rate, back to the wrestling. I remember it as if it was yesterday. The one thing that really made me mad was that my Dad would always claim that the wrestling was fake. I don’t know what he was watching, but my brother Coogie and I knew otherwise. The stuff was real, man, and it just made me mad to hear someone say it was fake.
Paul Boesch was making the announcement about the tag team match that was about to take place. He was standing there with his cauliflower ears, holding his microphone, discussing the combatants, and what a great show it was going to be. The first person to make his way into the ring was, of course, Irish Danny McShain. He was strutting around the ring in the usual way. He really made his opponents mad with his strutting. Then, we saw from the corner of the TV screen, “Wild” Bull Curry flying into the ring, over the top rope. The Bull did not have eyelashes; he had hair growing from the top of one eye to the corner of the other eye, about 1 to 2 inches thick. He was quite a scary guy. Well, he did not wait for any bell or anything, but went straight after Irish Danny, in a vicious manner. He had a headlock on him, and was pounding away at the top of his head, when who should appear, none other than El Medico. He immediately went to his finishing move and gave the Bull a brain buster, but it didn’t work.
So at this point the tag team match had not even begun and you had the Bull attacking Irish Danny and El Medico was trying to pull him off. I'm not sure who the fourth contestant for the tag team was supposed to be, but next, coming into the ring between the ropes, entered the notorious Duke Yeomuka. (we called him Duky Amuka). They were all flailing away at each other, and by this time Danny McShain was trying to execute his favorite move on the Bull. I'm sure you remember his favorite move; it was called the double foot stomp. I think I saw his move in the last summer Olympics, you know, while your opponent is down, you use your foot and stomp him two times. I think it is a well known wrestling move. Because the match had not even begun, there was no way that Irish Danny could even contemplate executing his famous finishing move, which was, of course, the Irish Cannonball. I’m not sure what it was actually.
At the announcer’s booth, Paul Boesch was trying to narrate this scene, but things were getting quickly out-of-control. All the while, we were hooting and hollering, while our dad sat there telling us it was all fake. Shows you how much he knew! Maybe the match was supposed to include Irish Danny, the Bull, El Medico, and Duky Amuka, but I'm not sure. At about this time, as all four were going at each other, Bull Curry picked up a folding chair and was about to smash Irish Danny over the head with it, and Duky Amuka had El Medico’s arms twisted up in the ropes and was beating him on the top of his head, which was covered with a silver mask; when much to everyone's surprise, Pepper Gomez, Tosh Togo, and Cyclone Negro, flew into the ring. I don’t know where they came from.
Paul Boesch was beside himself. He could not keep up with the action. By now Tosh Togo had Irish Danny McShain in a cross nelson scissor clamp and Bull Curry had one of Irish Danny’s legs and was chewing on it. You know, Pepper Gomez was known to be an honorable wrestler, I don't recall that he ever resorted to picking up chairs or some other antic, such as sneaking in some brass knuckles. He was not like Duky Amuka, whose favorite move in the ring was known as, “salt in the eyes.” Pepper looked confused and I don't think he knew what to do. So the scene was this, Bull Curry, Irish Danny McShain, Tosh Togo, El Medico, Duky Amuka, Cyclone Negro, and Pepper Gomez were all in the ring going at each other, while Paul Boesch was trying to figure out what was going on. Over in the corner stood Johnny Valentine, combing his golden locks, aloof from this squalid melee. I'm not sure what the referee was doing at this time, not much I guess. I remember always being amazed that the referee happened to be looking in the other direction when the likes of Bull Curry took a folding chair to some else’s head.
I'm not sure if the tag team event ever took place, but I'm pretty sure that I have remembered this event fairly accurately. And anyway, if I have taken some liberties with my memories, so what. It was Friday night wrestling in the Houston Coliseum, and even if it did not happen this way, it could have. How could anyone think this stuff was not real?
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