WWE/WWF/WWWF First recorded match?

[Sir Smurf]

What was it?


If not first, earliest.

[nerdinitupagain]

Which would lead me to wonder what the first match of Capitol Wrestling.. which would be the where the WWWF sprang from.

[FCVDave]

I'm guessing its that match from the beginning of the WWE intro but I have no idea what it is.

[imnotbooked]

It may be Bruno/Rodgers. I could of swore I've seen a clip of it.

[Tyfo]

The first match of Raw last week. Nothing happened before that!

[nerdinitupagain]

imnotbooked said:

It may be Bruno/Rodgers. I could of swore I've seen a clip of it.

I read the WWE wiki the other day and they said that Buddy Rodgers was the first champ, but was given that Title via a winning a tournament that never took place. They said his first title defense was against Bruno... but that still leaves a huge gap of a month or two between getting the title and defending it. Plus, there would've been other matches on that card.

And if the WWWF ran shows before that card..

I think for all intensive purposes WWE says Rodgers/Bruno.. but no idea really.

[Mister Yummy]

Here's a list of WWWF House Show results from 1963, including a few Buddy Rodgers title defenses.

www.angelfire.com/wrestling/cawthon777/63.htm

As to how many of these matches were filmed or taped, probably not many. Of those, how many survive today? Probably fewer still. Very sad.

[I Graduated Warrior University]

Not sure of the first recorded match, but the first recorded title switch was Pedro Morales vs Ivan Koloff.
I knew that the WWE "Complete History of Champions" mag special would come handy some time...

[Midnight Rider]

stephsdemonchild said:

Not sure of the first recorded match, but the first recorded title switch was Pedro Morales vs Ivan Koloff.
I knew that the WWE "Complete History of Champions" mag special would come handy some time...

I THINK the first recorded match is Bruno beating Rogers for the Title in 48 seconds.

Ivan/Pedro as the first recognized switch can't be right;Rogers was awarded the Title,Bruno won it from him and held it for 7 years before losing it to Ivan Koloff,Pedro def. Koloff for it,then a few months later lost to Stan"The Man" Stasiask,who in turn was defeated by Bruno, who held it 4 more years before losing it Superstar Graham,who held the title for 1 year before losing to Bob Backlund,who would hold the title off and on for 6 years before losing to The Iron Shiek,who was in turn defeated by Hulk Hogan.Therefore,the first recorded switch would have to be either Rogers/Sammartino or Sammartino/Koloff,my guess is that since Bruno pretty much told Vince where to get off,he decided to convienently forget his title reigns.

[I Graduated Warrior University]

midnightrider said:

stephsdemonchild said:

Not sure of the first recorded match, but the first recorded title switch was Pedro Morales vs Ivan Koloff.
I knew that the WWE "Complete History of Champions" mag special would come handy some time...

I THINK the first recorded match is Bruno beating Rogers for the Title in 48 seconds.

Ivan/Pedro as the first recognized switch can't be right;Rogers was awarded the Title,Bruno won it from him and held it for 7 years before losing it to Ivan Koloff,Pedro def. Koloff for it,then a few months later lost to Stan"The Man" Stasiask,who in turn was defeated by Bruno, who held it 4 more years before losing it Superstar Graham,who held the title for 1 year before losing to Bob Backlund,who would hold the title off and on for 6 years before losing to The Iron Shiek,who was in turn defeated by Hulk Hogan.Therefore,the first recorded switch would have to be either Rogers/Sammartino or Sammartino/Koloff,my guess is that since Bruno pretty much told Vince where to get off,he decided to convienently forget his title reigns.

According to the magazine I have here in my hands (again) Morales defeated Koloff 02/08/71 and dropped it Stasiak 12/01/73. We're talking 35 years ago. My theory is that due to the expense of tape at the time, whatever TV networks had earlier recorded switches, they merely taped over them. Same reason a lot of the original Dr Who episodes are currently unavailable. (Damn, for knowing that I have to change my "how big of a geek are you?" rating from the OTD thread that appeared last week).
Also, if it was another case of "WWFE burying Bruno" as you kind of put it, they would have buried his title reign in the mag, regardless of whether it was a record setting title run or not...
-EDIT- I'm talking about title switches filmed for TV or whatever...
-ANOTHER EDIT- According to the same mag I have here in my hands, Rogers wasn't "awarded" the belt, apparently he defeated Antonino Rocca for the strap in a tournament that happened in Brazil.

[Midnight Rider]

Your theory is pretty sound;much of the classic wrestling footage was lost due to the fact that promoters generally put no value on old footage and often re-used tapes;in fact Ole Anderson pretty much destroyed the entire GCW library when he threw out almost all the master GCW tapes while cleaning out his garage one day because "they were taking up space"(shame about Dr.Who as well,I kind of enjoy the existing Hartnell/Troughton episodes).Koloff/Morales definitely exists so may be right,still I could swear I have seen footage of the Sammartino/Rogers match.

As for Rogers winning a tournament in brazil,I am almost 100% positive that was a "phantom" tournament(i.e.never took place) to give the brand new WWWF title a sense of legitimacy and prestige,rather than just saying "We just opened for business and decided this guy should be Champion",which by the rules of kayfabe in those days,would have been a major no-no.

[dsriggs]

stephsdemonchild said:

-ANOTHER EDIT- According to the same mag I have here in my hands, Rogers wasn't "awarded" the belt, apparently he defeated Antonino Rocca for the strap in a tournament that happened in Brazil.

...wait, they used that story TWICE?!?!? Couldn't they just say it was... I dunno... Moose Jaw, Saskachewan or something??

[I Graduated Warrior University]

midnightrider said:

As for Rogers winning a tournament in brazil,I am almost 100% positive that was a "phantom" tournament(i.e.never took place) to give the brand new WWWF title a sense of legitimacy and prestige,rather than just saying "We just opened for business and decided this guy should be Champion",which by the rules of kayfabe in those days,would have been a major no-no.

As I said, I'm quoting WWE magazine here, so you're probably right. Then again, they gave Bruno's first title reign the same amount of space as Hogan's, so yeah...I'm conflicted.

[imnotbooked]

dsriggs said:

stephsdemonchild said:

-ANOTHER EDIT- According to the same mag I have here in my hands, Rogers wasn't "awarded" the belt, apparently he defeated Antonino Rocca for the strap in a tournament that happened in Brazil.

...wait, they used that story TWICE?!?!? Couldn't they just say it was... I dunno... Moose Jaw, Saskachewan or something??

Exactly, outta' all the places in the world, Rio hosts two tournaments?!?!

[Cheeba]

Chris Sabin vs. Jesus, year 26 A.D.

[Midnight Rider]

stephsdemonchild said:

midnightrider said:

As for Rogers winning a tournament in brazil,I am almost 100% positive that was a "phantom" tournament(i.e.never took place) to give the brand new WWWF title a sense of legitimacy and prestige,rather than just saying "We just opened for business and decided this guy should be Champion",which by the rules of kayfabe in those days,would have been a major no-no.

As I said, I'm quoting WWE magazine here, so you're probably right. Then again, they gave Bruno's first title reign the same amount of space as Hogan's, so yeah...I'm conflicted.

Please don't get me wrong,my intention is not to go after you or anyone else's opinions personally;I know you are qouting it straight from the a WWE Publication, as an amatuer wrestling historian I kinda enjoy using that knowledge to knock over the Vince McMahon's carefully constructed little house of cards(at least as far as it concerns the WWF/WWE Title).

[Cranjis McBasketball]

dsriggs said:

stephsdemonchild said:

-ANOTHER EDIT- According to the same mag I have here in my hands, Rogers wasn't "awarded" the belt, apparently he defeated Antonino Rocca for the strap in a tournament that happened in Brazil.

...wait, they used that story TWICE?!?!? Couldn't they just say it was... I dunno... Moose Jaw, Saskachewan or something??

Because no one would ever believe anything ever happened in Moose Jaw.

Hey, speaking of Moose Jaw, do you know where Moose Jaw is?

[Deleted]

cdr said:

dsriggs said:

...wait, they used that story TWICE?!?!? Couldn't they just say it was... I dunno... Moose Jaw, Saskachewan or something??

Because no one would ever believe anything ever happened in Moose Jaw.

Hey, speaking of Moose Jaw, do you know where Moose Jaw is?

Yeah, it's between Moose Mustache and Moose Neck.

The story of Buddy Rogers winning the tournament goes like this. Buddy Rogers was awarded the title by promoters after breaking with the NWA, because the NWA didn't recognize Rogers' one fall loss of the NWA World title to Lou Thesz on January 24, 1963. According to other records, Rogers defeated Antonio Rocca in a fictious tournament in Rio De Janerio, Brazil for the title.

The "Capitol Wrestling" group didn't want Thesz as champion because,
a) he wasn't much of a draw in the Northeast, and,
b) the NWA would have him in other territories anyway.

So, the group splintered off, and slapped a title belt on Rogers - a guy they know would be around wrestling the New England circuit. (He was a huge draw in the Toronto area.) They created a fictitious tournament and said Buddy was the kingpin.

Story about his reign goes like this: he was injured a lot. You had to be medically cleared by a doctor from the Athletic Commission. A couple of guys beat him up one night and broke his arm. He missed a few reigns.
Then, there's the infamous story about the heart attack he had 3 days prior to his title loss to Bruno.
That's all true. But, he was cleared to wrestle Bruno and was expecting to win. Bruno did a "shoot" on Buddy and won the belt handily. (Bruno picked him up, executed a few bodyslams then locked in the bear hug to win. There was no help by Buddy, as Bruno was insanely strong.)
(Facts found in the book on the NWA.)

[soultsukino]

The earliest tape I've heard about was in a tape reveiw I read a little while back of someone getting their hands on Capitol Wrestling shows from the mid 60's. The reveiwer mentioned that he thought bassically any film before the Bruno loss was lost to history.


As for the Buddy/Heart attack story. I've heard two different tales of it. One was that it was ledit, and the other was that it was all made up to keep from Buddy having his carear destroyed by losing in such a quick manor.

[Midnight Rider]

That's pretty much how I heard it;Buddy Rogers was well known in the NWA and one of the premier wrestlers of the time(though he was starting to wind down by this point),so he had name value and was declared champ via a ficticious tournament in Brazil(in those days you didn't have near the coverage of U.S. Wrestling as we do now,much less wrestling from other countries,so it was a safe enough story).Only difference in the way I heard the story,the 48 second Bruno win was worked(due to Rogers being injured/recent heart attack as was stated);I could have sworn I remember reading somewhere about how the promoter,Bruno,and some of the other wrestlers were worried to death that it would flop since up to then World Title changes had almost always come after very long and grueling matches(this was still the era where 2 out of 3 Falls Main Events that lasted for hours were not uncommon,in fact the "curfew finish" was still very used.).