For a fee, Packs’ wrestler would drop the belt to a wrestler from another territory. It was a win-win situation, as Packs got cash and the other promoter got a credibility boost among the fans. If worse came to worse, the title could just be stripped from the other guy’s wrestler, since he retained control over the belt (that happened more than once, notably with Steve Casey when he left the country in 1938). Prior to the war, Muchnick had gotten involved in Packs’ office following the newspaper merger. When the war came to a conclusion, Sam returned home and promptly opened an office in opposition to Packs. 

Early on, Packs slaughtered Muchnick. Packs used his connections across the country to prevent any big names from working for Muchnick and to give him as little coverage as possible. Even though Sam was a former reporter, Packs was in tight with the local writers, and it was tough to find a break. Shut out from using the top stars, Muchnick brought in older guys who were past their prime, including Casey (who I’d imagine was not exactly going to be welcomed back by Packs) and Ed Lewis, who had won his first world title twenty-five years earlier. Muchnick’s guys were the old, slow veterans living off their reps, while Packs had the high-flying, brawling stars of the day. It was no contest at the gate; Packs was the king.

But fortunately for Muchnick, he got two lucky breaks. The first was Packs’ personal misfortune, as he went bankrupt in the stock market and was forced to sell his office and control of the World title for $360,000 to an ownership group comprised of Lou Thesz, Eddie Quinn, Frank Tunney, Bobby Managoff, and World champ Bill Longson. The second, though, was the break that not only saved him, but also changed the face of the business forever. Muchnick went to several promoters in the Midwest and shared with them the problems he was having with competition in his own territory (now from the Thesz group as opposed to Packs). He then suggested forming some kind of an alliance to combat this. Five others thought it was a good idea, and on July 14, 1948, the group formed the National Wrestling Alliance in Waterloo, IA. The original six promoters were Muchnick (St. Louis), Al Haft (Columbus, OH, which was a huge money territory at the time), Max Clayton (Omaha, NB), Pinky George (Des Moines, IA), and Orville Brown (Kansas City, KS). Haft and Brown had been having some success with their own Midwest Wrestling Association, of which Brown was the champion. So when the two joined the NWA, Brown became its first World champ. The agreement between the promoters was that they would share talent with each other but not with promoters in competition with an Alliance member, and would also blacklist any wrestler who hurt the business in any way.1 

Once established, The St. Louis Wrestling Club promoted St. Louis, usually twice a month at the Kiel Auditorium (15^th & Market Streets - torn down to make way for the Kiel Center, which itself replaced the old St. Louis Arena).  In addition to the twice-monthly cards at the Kiel, the promotion presented its weekly one-hour TV show (“Wrestling at the Chase”) on KPLR Channel 11 in St. Louis. The show began its life in the 1950s being taped in the Khorassan Room at the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. One of the early announcers was none other than Joe Garigiola. It was quite a spectacle to see the likes of Johnny Valentine and Pat O’Connor wrestling in the midst of people eating dinner in tuxedos and evening wear. In time the TV tapings were moved to a KPLR studio as a once-monthly format. This will be a subject of a future column as I attended several TV tapings in the late 70s and early 80s.  

An interesting tidbit about the weekly Channel 11 show was that it was a runaway winner in its time slot (11:00 am Sunday) for years.  I had read this in the local St. Louis papers growing up - in addition, as a college intern at KPLR in the waning years of the promotion I actually saw the Arbitron “book” - and read irate mail and listened to irate phone calls if anything ever dare happen to pre-empt Wrestling at the Chase.

“Doing Business” in St. Louis

Looking back to the probably 100-odd live cards I attended at Kiel Auditorium from 1974-1986, I am astounded at how simple the product was back them as compared to today. Until the last days  of the promotion (several years after Sam Muchnick had retired), there was no entry music, no talking on the house mic, no fireworks, and no blading (any blood, and occasionally there was some, was hardway).  Or, in Dory Funk Jr’s words:

“In his time, Sam was the greatest wrestling promoter of all. He maintained principles of wrestling promotion that if in use today would give wrestling the element it most hungers for, respect. Sam ran a very tight ship. Sam recognized only one world champion, the NWA world champion. Wrestlers were cautioned before every match to keep it competitive. The match must be kept in the ring, if the competition were not keen, the referee had orders to stop the match, no outside interference was tolerated, The officials carried authority, The object of the game was to win the match. It sounds strange, but this brought consistent sell outs in Kiel Auditorium.

Sam ran a tight ship in St. Louis. No abuse of the officials was allowed, there was a medical examination before participating, no foreign objects in the ring, no two men on the floor at the same time, wrestlers were instructed to keep it a contest and work for the pin fall, and to top that off the ring in St. Louis was one of the hardest in the business. Everyone received a lecture on what was expected of them prior to the show from either Bobby Bruns or Pat O'Connor.” 2

I can vividly remember several sell-outs of the Kiel, particularly in the 1980-1982 timeframe. One cold frigid night in spite of a winter storm, I remember Dick the Bruiser and Crusher Blackwell selling out the building, which if my memory serves me correctly, seated approximately 12,000 for wrestling. I also remember King Kong Brody (AKA Bruiser Brody) and then-NWA champion Ric Flair selling out the Kiel. It was only fitting that Sam’s last card, on January 1, 1982 sold out the St. Louis Arena, a larger venue, which seated approximately 17,500. Suffice to say sensible booking and a first class product drew money and made money for Sam Muchnick and his promotion.

Closing

Sam Muchnick ran the St. Louis NWA promotion until his retirement in 1982. The promotion carried on until 1986 when it shut down for good and closed one of the sport’s most storied franchises. I intend to provide monthly updates to this series on the St. Louis NWA territory, including future topics such as:

 TV Tapings at the KPLR Studio - 1981

 History of the Missouri State Title

 Memorable Matches - 1974 – 1986  

NEXT MONTH:

The Missouri Heavyweight title

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