1000 Hour is my continuing podcast series about the pioneer era of pro wrestling. The pioneer era is the time before Frank Gotch, roughly 1850 to 1900. It was an era of wild showmen and tough real wrestlers. This episode continues our chronological
My podcast today takes a detailed look back at June 1985 in pro wrestling history. The text is taken from my book DragonKingKarl’s 1984-1985 Pro Wrestling Omnibus. In June 1985 pro wrestling’s first action figures become available, a set of AWA action figures
I have a tremendous show for you today on our 1000 Hours series, which is all about the pioneer era of pro wrestling (pre-1900). For some time, we have been focusing on the era of Col. James H. McLaughlin, John McMahon and his
I am back with a new DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling podcast today and I talk about the upcoming finals to the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament, including why it is so Japanese heavy and the quality difference between Japanese and US wrestling. Is there really a
Karl Stern returns with another classic magazine review. Just in time for the release of my new book, DragonKingKarl’s 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus, let’s review the Fall 1983 issue of the Apter magazines’ quarterly special: Wrestling Superstars. This issue focused heavily on Georgia Championship Wrestling who
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, we travel back in time to the pioneer era of wrestling — 1877 — to see the first actual non-tournament pro wrestling cards at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. At this point, MSG was still
Dave Meltzer’s Giant Baba obituary from the February 8th, 1999, Wrestling Observer Newsletter may be one of his most massive obituaries in his history. The size of a small book, the story of Baba is woven into many of the most important stories of pro
Welcome to the first of a three-part series focused on Mr. Wrestling 2 as part of my true crime stories from the world of professional wrestling — a series that is not for the kids or faint-of-heart as we will be discussing some very
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I present to you another, hopefully laugh-filled, retro wrestling review. This week, we travel back to May 1994 when the then-WWE was really struggling to come up with something. Scandal had eroded public popularity and troubles
Round two of our GKT Greatest Kayfabe Tournament continues, pitting Chris Jericho against Jushin Thunder Liger. Though these two are contemporaries, they have actually wrestled far fewer times than you might imagine and only once in a singles match. Liger has been a
