In something that everyone knew was inevitable at some point, just not this soon, the WWE informed most of its U.K. contracted wrestlers that they would be getting raises in their contracts but would no longer be allowed to wrestle for any outside promotions except partner groups, which would be ICW, Progress and wXw that are known about along with a few others that have been reported.
The wrestlers were under annual contracts in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $25,000 per year, but they were told they would be allowed to continue working their regular schedules for the most part, as some companies like ROH, Impact and others were always banned, and more recently Revolution Pro, with its ties to New Japan, was banned from using the talent. More recently WWE insisted that talent couldn’t work anywhere within a week of television tapings since in the past they had to rewrite television if there were injuries over the last week.
With the passing of former St. Louis booker, author, and announcer Larry Matysik this weekend, we wanted to post a list of links to his various appearances on Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez.
Note the following doesn’t include any of his appearances on Eyada with Dave and Bryan, but we’re working on moving those shows over to our archives at some point in the future.
February 2010: Larry came on to discuss the then-passing of former NWA star Jack Brisco. Click here to listen.
September 2010: In a short appearance, Larry discussed the 2010 Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame class. Click here to listen.
January 2011: Larry came on to discuss a book project he was working on listing the top 50 wrestlers of all time. Note the interview starts later in the podcast. Click here to listen.
May 2011: Larry discussed the news of the passing of Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Click here to listen.
August 2011: Larry joined the show to discuss a lower than expected buyrate for WWE Money In The Bank. Click here to listen.
August 2012: Larry returned after a year’s absence to discuss the 2012 Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Click here to listen.
March 2013: Larry returned to discuss his book, ‘The 50 Greatest Professional Wrestlers of All Time’. Click here to listen.
July 2013: Larry came on to discuss the Brian McGhee incident and to give his thoughts on the current day product. Click here to listen.
October 2014: Larry discussed the year’s HOF candidates from the St. Louis area. Click here to listen.
August 2016: In what would be his final WOR appearance, Larry gave some health updates and his thoughts on the past, present, and future of pro wrestling. Click here to listen.
Obviously Larry Matysik was a very important person in my life. I probably learned more about pro wrestling from him than perhaps any other individual and without a doubt my life would be in a very different place had I not known him and become close friends with him.
I would have first known of him from the early 70s when he would sometimes go on the road for NWA business and while I never met him then and he never came to this area, he was far more approachable to fans than almost any wrestling personality of that era, and was very open about the business. While others came from the carny world of wrestling, he was taught by Sam Muchnick, whose background was as a sportswriter in St. Louis and was one of the most respected people in the St. Louis sports community. So they promoted wrestling very differently, but per capita, St. Louis was on a consistent basis one of the most successful cities for wrestling going back as far as anyone could remember.
We met in 1983. He had quit the St. Louis Wrestling Club, where he was General Manager, because he couldn’t handle the differences between an operation run by Muchnick to one run by Bob Geigel, and saw it going down. He attempted to start his own promotion and build around Bruiser Brody and Dick Murdoch, who both went with him even after the NWA made implied threats that it would hamper their careers.
But the business was rapidly changing and he had issues with his original backers. He ended up working for Vince McMahon as his local market rep in St. Louis, although it was uneasy at times as local attendance plummeted after a hot start. Things got so bad that at one point they asked him how to help with the city, and he arranged a Sam Muchnick tournament, and the very next show sold out. But they were running a national business and ultimately you couldn’t have a local guy booking market specific, even though they did that to a degree for Montreal.
He had remained around wrestling for decades. He was one of the most popular guests we had when we started our audio shows with Eyada, always ranked in the top five by listeners. He loved booking and announcing wrestling for Herb Simmons and his Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling, and telling stories to the young talent. He was the key person in organizing the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame, which is really the most legitimate single market wrestling Hall of Fame in the world, and rightly, the others behind it surprised him with an induction very early on.
He could talk endlessly about Lou Thesz vs. Pat O’Connor, meeting Martin Thesz, Lou’s father, who was so excited to be there for Thesz vs. Karl Gotch, saying that was real wrestling, as well as the Jack Brisco vs Dory Funk Jr. program, which was the 70s version of Okada-Tanahashi as a multi-year feud that produced the best in-ring wrestling as well as consistently strong box office.
The first Brisco-Funk match in St. Louis, which sold out Kiel Auditorium and led to a near riot from people turned away and not being able to get in, solidified Brisco as the heir apparent to the World title.
Larry’s father was actually in attendance at the Strangler Lewis vs. Joe Stecher match in St. Louis in 1928 that was the biggest match in some ways of that era, as it matched up the two warring World Champions.
As a fan, Larry dated back to the 50s, and compiled records of St. Louis wrestling from 1959 on which he compiled into a record book. His knowledge of St. Louis wrestling was amazing, which made him such a strong wrestling announcer, and later helped book perhaps the most successful period in the history of the city from 1979 until 1982 through protecting legends and mixing in young stars.
While Ric Flair would have been World Champion at some point either way, both because he was that great of a talent and also because Jim Crockett Jr. had the most successful NWA promotion, but it was Matysik pushing to bring him in and to have him beat Dory Funk Jr. immediately that led to him becoming an instant star in the city, and from that point on, worldwide, it was known he was a potential World Champion. Matysik also put together the famous “Fire and Ice” music video of Flair that aired in virtually every NWA promotion building up his appearances as champion.
In those days, you couldn’t be World Champion unless you established yourself with credibility in the St. Louis market, and even more than New York or anywhere else, if you were a main eventer in St. Louis, you were a main eventer everywhere because of the competition and money that went with the top positions in that city.
His close friend Herb Simmons noted that no matter what health issues he had in recent years, stemming from his spine collapsing after battling spinal stenosis, his memory and intellect were always there. From his learning under Muchnick, he had an innate ability to understand wrestling politics and few people were as spot-on in predicting what angles would draw, and what talent would draw and what angles or characters that may have gotten a lot of attention would mean little at the box office.
As many know, my parents fondest memory of me with this industry, the Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame induction, came specifically due to Matysik, who, due to health problems, was unable to attend his induction, but pushed to everyone that I should be inducted.
Thankfully a lot of his knowledge and understanding of the business was passed on to others, as well as in his many books, and his appearance on the Highspots documentary on Bruiser Brody.
Larry Matysik, 72, who promoted, booked, and announced wrestling and wrote a number of books including “Wrestling at the Chase,” is now in hospice care.
Herb Simmons, his close friend, said that Matysik is suffering from pneumonia and his condition is deteriorating quickly.
Matysik was the right-hand man for Sam Muchnick, the longtime president of the National Wrestling Alliance, and the St. Louis Wrestling Club during the 70s and early 80s when St. Louis was considered by many as the key city for pro wrestling in North America. Matysik started out writing for wrestling magazines in the 60s and eventually landed a job with Muchnick, and became the television announcer for “Wrestling at the Chase,” which routinely drew an average of 200,000 viewers per week on KPLR-TV, Ch. 11, making it among the highest rated pro wrestling shows in the country. He also on occasion would fill in and do the AWA television show.
Matysik was considered in the 70s along with Lance Russell and Gordon Solie as one of the top three pro wrestling announcers in the country. But he also worked behind-the-scenes at all facets of the business. He was co-booker with Pat O’Connor and was responsible for a major upswing in the business in the late 70s with the introduction of people like Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody, Ted DiBiase, and the Von Erich Brothers, to go along with longtime area legends like Harley Race and Dick the Bruiser.
The climax of the Muchnick era was the final show on January 1, 1982, at the Arena, which drew 19,819 fans and sold out well in advance. Matysik put together a show that brought out major political leaders as well as Muchnick’s first lead announcer, Joe Garagiola, who had become a major name on NBC television with baseball, game shows, and as a regular sub for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
St. Louis deteriorated quickly with Muchnick gone, as Matysik had major issues with how the new head of the business, Bob Geigel, would do things. He quit once, but Muchnick put them back together. In 1983, Matysik put together a storyline to lead to a Flair vs. Brody match, a two-of-three falls match that went to a 60-minute draw and set the city’s all-time gate record. But when Geigel shorted both Flair and Brody on what had been the usual St. Louis percentage for a world title match, although still giving them what would have been the largest payoff at the time anyone would get in the U.S. at the time, he quit once again.
Matysik was close friends with Brody and they started up an opposition promotion and did well at the box office, but there were issues behind the scenes that led to problems with the financiers. Later in 1983, when KPLR made the decision to get rid of Geigel’s group due to declining ratings and the weak quality of the television, both Matysik and Vince McMahon pitched for the Chase time slot. A meeting was held where the owner of the station, Ted Kopplar, suggested both work together as partners, which was agreed to, but quickly Jim Barnett told Matysik that they could not be partners after all, and Matysik worked for McMahon through 1991 before he was let go.
Matysik was also talked with in 1988 by Jim Herd to come in and work for WCW shortly before the Turner Broadcasting purchase came through. Herd, who had worked for KLPR, produced Wrestling at the Chase and thus was friends with Muchnick and Matysik. But that fell through as Barnett talked Herd out of that decision and Matysik also refused to move from St. Louis to Atlanta, where WCW was to be based.
Matysik remained associated with local wrestling, and until recently, would announce and book matches with partner Simmons and their Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling promotion.
Matysik wrote a series of books including “Drawing Heat the Hard Way” about the realities of pro wrestling, “The Greatest Wrestlers of All-Time,” “Wrestling at the Chase,” and “Brody,” with Barbara Goodish about the life of Bruiser Brody. He also published a 1959-83 record book of St. Louis matches which included comments on booking which is one of the greatest guides to understanding that style of wrestling booking and politics and how Muchnick ran area wrestling.
He was working on a book that would compare and contrast the wrestling and working for McMahon and Muchnick before his health deteriorated.
Matysik had suffered at least three strokes in recent years, although at the time they were diagnosed differently. Simmons noted that at times he would slur his speech, but to the end, his memory was impeccable.
Matysik is a member of the Tragos/Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Greater St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame.
On a personal note, I first started subscribing to the St. Louis programs at the age of 12 and have been close friends with Matysik since college. As far as getting an education in pro wrestling, there has been nobody more valuable in my life. He knew wrestling from a very different manner than almost anyone because of how Muchnick worked with all the different promoters, and learned under Muchnick, one of the greatest promoters of all-time.
He had an innate understanding of wrestling and so often when people would see an angle that looked big, he was almost always on target as to whether it would truly draw or not, as well as what wrestlers were and weren’t going to be breakout stars.
Larry Matysik, 71, the host of Wrestling at the Chase and former booker and right-hand man of Sam Muchnick was hospitalized tonight.
Details are unavailable past a Facebook post from his good friend, Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling promoter Herb Simmons, who wrote: “Not the way I wanted to start off 2018. Please keep our friend LarryMatysik in you prayers. He has been admitted to the hospital this evening. I will keep everyone updated on his condition.”
Matysik was considered along with Lance Russell and Gordon Solie as one of the three best announcers of the 1970s and early 1980s. He worked with Muchnick starting in the 60s doing jobs like calling in the results to the local newspapers, and started as television announcer in 1970.
After Muchnick retired at the end of 1981, Matysik was General Manager of the St. Louis promotion working for Bob Geigel, Harley Race, Pat O’Connor, and Verne Gagne, who were the owners. He left the promotion in 1983 after booking the Ric Flair vs, Bruiser Brody match that set the city’s all-time gate record at the time. Matysik was tight with Brody and felt that Brody and Flair should have both been paid $1,300 more based on the usual percentages, but Geigel refused to authorize paying them more than $6,000.
Matysik quit the promotion, and Brody went with him and they formed a rival group that drew very well. Later in 1983, after a meeting with Ted Kopplar, who ran KPLR-TV, with Matysik and Vince McMahon, about getting the Wrestling at the Chase time slot that Kopplar had decided to pull from Geigel due to poor ratings and complaints, he pushed that the two should work together and the two agreed to be partners.
The partnership was changed after the deal, but Matysik did work for McMahon through 1991 helping promote shows in St. Louis.
In recent years, Matysik has written several books about pro wrestling, but due to spinal issues and horrible back problems, he had been forced into assisted living. He was still booking and doing television announcing for SICW as late as last year.
Matysik was one of the most popular guests of the various shows we’ve done dating back to the Eyada days.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today with special guest Larry Matysik to talk more of the historical candidates for this year’s Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame! All of that plus a quick look at the death of WCW as well! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today with special guest Larry Matysik to talk all sorts of issues including the tragedy involving Brian McGhee, who Larry knew from his St. Louis wrestling days, the G-1 tournament and running nine shows in 11 days, WWE and TNA programming, WWE developmental and so much more. A fun show as always with Larry so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today with Larry Matysik to talk his newest book, the 50 Greatest Professional Wrestlers of All Time, available now in bookstores and the source of much controversy here on the site and elsewhere. Larry will address a bunch of different topics including who got chosen and who didn’t, rankings, St. Louis history and history around the world, plus take your calls on those same subjects. Over 90 minutes of historical pro wrestling discussion, so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today with a Hall of Fame special featuring Larry Matysik, author of a number of different books including a new one on the top 50 wrestlers of all time coming out in January! Tons of talk on the Hall of Fame, biggest stars in history, who went in and who didn’t, plus Jerry Lawler Monday and why Steve Austin should never wrestle again. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez is back today with a packed show. We’ll open with the news of the day including several WWE cuts, the return of Mistico next week, or at least the Mistico character, WWE financials and more. Then we’re joined by Larry Matysik to talk the Money in the Bank buyrate, since he predicted it wouldn’t be in the 150,000 domestic range as Dave and I had predicted, why he thought so, the strengths and weaknesses of the Punk angle, and more. And finally, Mike Coughlin joins us to preview UFC 133 tomorrow night with Rashad and Tito headlining, plus Coughlin’s thoughts on Fedor. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez is back today with a breaking news audio on the death of one of the biggest wrestling stars of all time, “Macho Man” Randy Savage. We talk the circumstances of his death, his life and times, and then famed St. Louis booker Larry Matysik joins us to give some exclusive insight into his early career.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez returns tonight with a packed show! We’ll talk the latest news in wrestling and MMA including the New Japan Tokyo Dome show, Paul Orndorff’s cancer announcement, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tourney and what we know about it so far, and more.
Then we’re joined by St. Louis booker Larry Matysik to talk about a book project he’s working on where he attempts to, yes, rank the top wrestlers of all time. How do you do it? Who ranks top three? Where do modern and historical figures rank.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez returns tonight to talk the 2010 Hall of Fame! For the first 25 minutes we’ll be joined by Larry Matysik for a fun discussion on various candidates, pros and cons, surprises, etc.
Then we’ll take your calls with your thoughts on different aspects of the voting. It’s a fun and informative show, so check it out and make sure to check out the issue as well!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez returns tonight with a packed show.
First, we’re joined by former St. Louis booker and Sam Muchnick’s right-hand man Larry Matysik to talk the death of one of the great NWA champions of all time, Jack Brisco. Larry talks tons of stories from his career, thoughts on his background and what made him so unique, and more.
Then, Dave and I talk last night’s Raw with a tremendous Bret Hart/Vince McMahon angle, plus the build to Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania.
