Today in DMV Wrestling History
On September 30, 1947 there was a “wrestling event” at the Baltimore Coliseum. The Coliseum was at 2201 N. Monroe St on the corner of Monroe and Windsor Ave. The Bullets played there from 1944-1954. The building closed not long after the Baltimore Arena opened in 1961 and was unused until it was demolished in 2008.
On that night, June Byers pinned Juanita Mendes in a 22-minute match that ended after a Byers body slammed Mendes. Babe Sharkey defeated George Ryan in 31 minutes to earn a match with Gino Garibaldi the next week. Big Ben Morgan defeated Benny Rosen while Henry Kulkovich got the win over Steve Gob.
The main event that night included Tuffy Truesdell, whose only two opponents in his entire career were Rodney the Alligator and Victor the Bear. Tuffy got the win over Rodney in 15 minutes.
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) held a show in the Washington Coliseum (where The Beatles later made their first U.S. appearance) on September 30 1963. The WWWF had originally been known as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation and left the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in January of 1963.
In the District of Columbia that night, Brute Bernard faced Gino Britto and Tim Woods squared off against Tony Manousos. Arnold Skaaland was defeated by Skull Murphy and Lucas Pestana defeated Boris Malenko. In tag team action, Pedro Morales and Vittorio Apollo went over against Fuzzy Cupid and Vito Gonzalez.
Also that night, there was a six-man tag team match. WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino teamed up with Bobo Brazil and Dory Dixon. They defeated Gorilla Monsoon, the Shadow, and Hans Mortier.