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Pro Wrestling Tribute Could Be A Slam-Bang Affair

Posted: Jan 13th 2011 By: CMBurnham

The Fabulous Fargo Brothers had already reached the pinnacle of pro wrestling when they arrived in Nashville in 1957 to fulfill a four-week contract with local promoter Nick Gulas.

Neither Jackie nor Don Fargo had ever been to Nashville and had no idea what to expect from the wrestling community. They didn't even know if a wrestling community existed.

"All we knew about Nashville was that's where all the hillbilly singers were,'' said 82-year-old Don Fargo, who'll return to the area Saturday for a tribute to Gulas.

Gulas died at age 76 on Jan. 21, 1991. His son George, who teamed with Jackie Fargo after Don left Nashville, organized the event.

Fans can meet the Fargos along with other past local stars, including Gypsy Joe (Gilberto Melendez), Bobby Eaton and Al Greene, during a reception (4-6 p.m.) preceding the Nick Gulas Memorial Show at HWA Arena in La Vergne. They'll also be guests at the wrestling show (7:57 p.m.), which is to feature regional wrestlers in 13-16 matches. Admission to both the reception and show is $13.

While in Nashville, the flamboyant brothers quickly learned that in that era, local pro wrestling was colossal. Fans were passionate, energetic and knowledgeable, well aware of the good guys and the villains, the rising stars and the veterans.

The Fargos, who retired in the late 1980s, found that out the first time they stepped into the ring before a raucous crowd at the old Hippodrome Coliseum on West End Avenue. A packed house that did not approve of their flowing blonde hair, glittering singlets and most of all their cocky, bodacious posture was not shy about expressing its emotion.

"I really, really had not planned on staying there but four or five weeks," said Jackie Fargo, 80. "We were headed for Texas after those four weeks were up, and Mr. Gulas talked us out of it. We ended up staying for 30 years. The fans didn't like us and we loved that."

Local wrestling's popularity was enhanced by television in the 1950s when the medium was new to the region. Fans watched it on Saturday and went to wrestling cards at the Hippodrome weekly as well as infrequent stops throughout the region at high school gymnasiums and National Guard armories.

"I always went with my dad back in the '60s to the Hippodrome or Municipal Auditorium for the live events and WSIX's studios for the taping of the Saturday TV events," said Ricky Harris, 53. "I don't know who was the rowdiest, the wrestlers or the fans. People would get up like they were going to charge the ring, they would scream at the wrestlers and the wrestlers would scream back at them. It was wild."

The Fargos had just wrestled at Madison Square Garden before coming to Nashville. They were making big money and enjoying international fame when they decided to make Nashville their new home.

"Back in the day when they went to certain areas they got a reception that left them wondering, 'Am I wanted here, are there enough fans here?' '' George Gulas said. "My dad had open arms for them and for Tojo Yamamoto and they realized they could make money and live here indefinitely. Jackie, Don and Tojo became the building blocks for wrestling in Nashville."
Yamamoto (Harold Watanabe), who became one of wrestling's best-known villains, died at age 65 in 1992 of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Nashville was devoid of NFL and NHL franchises when pro wrestling was wildly popular. The matches Gulas promoted not only were wrestled before packed houses at the Hippodrome and later at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, but also broadcast on local television until the mid-1980s.

"My dad was the first to actually put local studio wrestling on TV in the early 60s," George said. "Up until then it was all Hollywood wrestling that was syndicated."

Nick Gulas approached WSIX-TV Channel 8 confident pro wrestling would be as popular on the black-and-white screen as it was in person. Station officials weren't so sure.

"Louie Draughon was operating Channel 8 and he told my dad, 'I just don't think wrestling is going to last. We'll go for 30 minutes and see how it does for 13 weeks, but I don't have a lot of confidence in it,' '' George Gulas said.

After 13 weeks Gulas' productions had secured so many commercial sponsors that Draughon extended the broadcasts to an hour and they became a Saturday ritual for many for the next 25 years.

"Wrestling was huge. I cannot remember going one day without being recognized out on the street, in a restaurant, at the movies, whatever during the whole time I was there," Jackie Fargo said. "Everybody in the country wanted me and Don at the time, and Nick Gulas put the dollar bills out there and that's what kept us."

Jackie Fargo said he routinely made $250,000 per year in the 1970s and for three years approached $500,000.

"I don't ever remember us wrestling when the place wasn't packed," Don Fargo said.
"We came in there in the 1950s with long blonde hair. I was wearing an earring, which was unheard of back then. At first people didn't like us, but they came to see us wrestle and that's all we cared about."

Even the local sports media could not ignore wrestling when it was so popular.
"There were the staples we covered back then. Vanderbilt football and basketball, Tennessee and stock car racing," WTVF-5 sports director Hope Hines said.

"We didn't have the pro sports we have now. Wrestling was kind of that undercurrent sport with some people wondering is it real and others convinced it was very real. It didn't matter. It was a spectacle in its own right ? when there was a big match and the Gulas' were involved and the Fargos and those names we jumped on it and got on top of it."