Wrestling World October 1974

  I dusted off my scanner today (Literally, there was about 2mm of dust on it. I should hoover more) to bring you some more select pics from a vintage wrestling magazine.

 This time around we're looking at Wrestling World  from October 1974

 First up some pics of the Valiant Brothers, recently crowned WWWF tag team champions. 

  They look like nice lads.  Although they're definitely starting to pick up some battle-scars

  Dick The Bruiser was already a grizzled veteran by 1974. He was still wrestling well into the 1980s.  

Meanwhile Johnny was Rookie Of the Year in 1969

 Poor Johnny is looking a bit battered. 

I'd also want to have a word with whoever dressed that head wound. 

 Were they drunk at the time?  

Shit.. I hope that isn't a bit of his face hanging off. 

Next up, a couple more nice young men.

  Maaaaayyyybe not. 

Maybe their mothers shouldn't have named them "Brute" and "Skull"

Brute and new partner Bulldog Brower deploy a bit of charm here.

Take a moment to note how close the audience are to the ring. 

No barrier either. 

This is why 1970s "Heels" frequently had to fight their way back to the dressing room. 

One of the things I find fascinating about these old mags is reading the profiles of guys I've never heard of.

Like this cheerful chappie.

Naturally I googled him and Ron Martinell seems like an interesting guy.

Served in Vietnam in the Army, Navy and Marines then became a wrestler.

Crippled in an auto-accident that doctors thought would leave him in a wheelchair forever...

but returned to the ring to become Continental Champion in 1980. 

He has a book on sale Heaven, Iron and I.

Skipping ahead a bit, Andre The Giant battles Japanese legend Antonio Inoki. 

  Then scares the crap out of some other grapplers. 

Inoki, Kowlaski and Vachon are all pretty big blokes and Andre makes them look like kids playing with daddy. 

There's a piece next about whether Kung Fu should be allowed in wrestling.

(This was during the 1970s Kung Fu craze, remember.) 

Mad Dog Vachon clearly fancies his chances. 

Following by the near obligatory "Lady Wrestlers " piece.

Daisy Mae and Joyce Grable wait for the bell to ring. 

Female Hillbilly gimmicks are surprisingly rare. 

When I say "Surprisingly" I am of course being very sarcastic.  

  Veteran Belle Starr tries to roll Vicki Williams over into a Boston Crab. 

This is going to hurt a lot so Vicki is reluctant to let this happen. 

The British Wrestling scene was clearly big enough to be of interest to American readers.

  The scary looking Ken Davies tries to strangle Mel Cartwright with his own elbows.

Johnny Czeslaw was a refugee from Communist Poland who became a popular star 

in British rings. Later on, Czeslaw did some acting before losing his eyesight to a brain tumour.

He died in 2014.

Lastly, Betty Nicoli looking sweet and innocent in a glamour headshot.

What's that?

"Didn't the cover say something about mud wrestling?"  I hear you ask.

Oh alright then.

Here's actual pro wrestlers War Star and Jackie West ruining their hair in a mud puddle that looks a wee bit chilly to me.. 

That's all folks. 

DVD Review: Deathgasm (2015)

  

  Teenage metalhead Brodie is a black-wearing outcast in a small New Zealand town and not enjoying the experience.   His Christian uncle hates metal and keeps trying to baptise him in his sleep, while cousin David is a bullying douchebag who has somehow managed to get Medina, the hottest girl in school as his girlfriend. 

  Things start to look up when Brodie meets fellow metalhead and all-round bad-boy Zakk. As well as forming their own band with fellow outcasts Dion and Giles, the two headbangers start doing all kinds of naughty stuff. But when they break into the house of infamous metalhead, occultist and crazy person Rikki Daggers, Brodie ends up in possession of some old sheet music with spooky shit drawn all over it. 

  Naturally they play it.  

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, turning the entire town into demon-possessed zombies and a definite chance of unleashing a Demon King on the earth, for starters. 

  Considering Heavy Metal's long-standing love of the occult, gore and all things family unfriendly, there's a surprising lack of Metal-themed horror films. Besides 80s classic "Trick Or Treat" I can think of only "Hard Rock Zombies" and "Rock n Roll Nightmare" and those two are terrible.  Music's not that great either. 

  

  Luckily Deathgasm was put together by somebody who knows their metal, which means a thrashy soundtrack, some understanding of why people like this stuff and some metal stereotypes getting an affectionate slap across the back of the head.  

 If you've ever seen the "Call Of the Wintermoon" vid or flipped through a rack of Death Metal CDs thinking "Brutal cover, dude" I think you'll get this movie. 

 It seems to be a trademark of Kiwi horror that they mix up gore by the gallon, graphic bodily harm and humour and I'm pleased to say that Deathgasm keeps up that proud tradition. 

 One particular scene manages to include spilled entrails and some unusual improvised weaponry and the end result is hilarious and wince-inducing at the same time.  

 The story isn't that innovative - it's actually not far off the same plot as "Trick or Treat" and "Hard Rock Zombies" -  but is done reasonably well, if a little simply. There's no real surprises but I didn't mind. 

  I definitely give high marks to the FX team. Between the bloody carnage, the creature makeup and some chilling visuals  Deathgasm delivers as a horror movie. 

  Brodie is a lot more likeable than he should be, Zakk is the kind of sociopathic dick every metalhead has run into at some point and class cutie Medina gets more and more Metal as the film goes on.   

 As a final note the soundtrack is great and features a good mix of metal styles from the likes of Emperor, Skull Fist, Midnight and Elm Street.

To sum up: Deathgasm is an entertaining horror film that you can watch even if you're not a headbanger. But if you are, I reckon you're really going to dig this.

That's all folks.