I’m an avid history and tv archivist and I live for this sort of stuff, anyone else the same? I believe this is from the Capital Wrestling era of the 50s and most likely Madison Square Garden, at least from my bit of research.
It’s actually a surprisingly great and fast paced match and pretty decent quality, too. I love finding pre 70s matches on Youtube, so this was a pretty great find.
There’s also a version here that’s not as clear but it’s got some really good pre match promos, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYXwFO73ms
Anyone else love finding these types of matches?
Are you thinking of Ricky Starr?
There’s a really good match between him and Karl Von Hess on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUAtQXnRtUE (p1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-FhNcp8B4 (p2)
(Btw, yt-dlp is a really good Youtube downloader for archival purposes :))
That’s him! I only had time to watch the first video (for now) and holy crap, talk about a gimmick that would be super over in this era.
You can see the inspiration to Ricky in early Goldust or Johnny B. Badd, too!
Or even a slightly more camp Jack Gallagher. You’re right though, definitely would have success today.
There’s a good write-up here but sadly I can’t find too much written about him: https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/ricky-starr