- Mike DuPree

One of the true unsung legends of pro wrestling from the "modern" era has to be Wilbur Snyder. In the 50’s thru to the mid 60’s,Wilbur was one of professional wrestling’s biggest draw cards, and helped pioneer the wrestling style of ringwork by doing elaborate high spots (for the time), ropework, and unorthodox bumps over the top rope and bumps taken on the floor. While he wasn’t by any means the first to do any of these moves, he did raise the use of them to a fine art. If you delighted to any of the Randy Savage/Ricky Steamboat matches from the late 80’s,then you basically saw a sped up version of Snyder’s ring work (usually with Savage’s dad, Angelo Poffo). Snyder was one of the few guys EVER to go over cleanly against Verne Gagne, taking the US TV title from him in the 50’s,and was highly respected by his peers in the grappling game. If Lou Thesz was the link from the old carnival shooter/hooker to the modern day "worker", and Gagne the representative of the grappling art from the olympic mats to the pros, then Snyder was the prototype babyface wrestling performer; a tall,muscular, highflying matinee idol, who clicked at the turnstiles with fans all over the world, looking the part and convincing his audience he was the real mccoy, even though his legit wrestling background was very limited. Snyder was dubbed the California Comet early in his career, and later, "The World’s Most Scientific Wrestler".