WATERLOO, Iowa — Just after 8 pm on Friday night, July 19, Coach Jim Miller stood at the podium in a second floor ballroom of the Waterloo Convention Center, in Waterloo, Iowa. Miller’s background is in college wrestling, not pro, and his resume is staggering. Yet the coach expressed nothing but love and appreciation for everyone attending the 25th annual George Tragos/ Lou Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“We love hosting this event. We love it because of the friendships and family that brings together.”
The family had its largest growth ever in 2024. After drawing a record 140 fans in 2023, more than 200 attended this summer. Miller gave credit to museum manager Becca Roper for much of that growth. Roper drove the push for lifetime memberships and built on board member Gerry Brisco’s call to “bring a friend.” But the museum family is clearly growing in the right direction because the family keeps attracting like-minded members committed to preserving the story of wrestling.
The true story of wrestling.
I sat near the back of the room this year, choosing a seat next to historian Tim Corvin, author of Pioneers of Professional Wrestling: 1860-1899. Tim and I first met in 2018, the first time either of us attended the Waterloo event. His expertise is in pro wrestling of the late 1800s, and his funky, throwback fashion reflects that interest. Corvin’s a man of many talents and interests, but when it comes to wrestling, nothing energizes him like hearing the name Farmer Burns spoken.
And we did discuss Farmer Burns at our table. Seated beside Tim were Moose Monson and Danny Dodge from the Nebraska Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. Unlike the Tragos/Thesz Hall, which sits nestled in a back corner of the Dan Gable Museum down the street, the Nebraska Hall of Fame has no physical location.
“Most of the time, it’s in my house,” said Danny Dodge. “But we take it out an show it every chance we get.”
Dodge and Monson brought their traveling exhibit to Waterloo for the weekend, taking over one of the central walkways in the museum. The phenomenal exhibit includes Joe Pesek, Baron Von Raschke, Helen Hild, and a man they recently honored in their own induction ceremony, Bearkat Wright.
“Bearkat’s son came to the ceremony,” said Dodge. “He was thrilled we honored his dad. When the WWE ‘honored’ him, they never even reached out to the family. They found out watching on television.”
It’s a story I’ve heard many times from the families of legacy inductees. Wahoo McDaniel’s widow Karen. Bruiser Brody’s widow Barbara Goodish. June Byers’s granddaughters. And the family of Ethel Johnson. History matters to the families. Goodish is always in attendance in Waterloo, and the Byers granddaughters went all the way to New York last summer when the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame honored June to accept on her behalf.
“JBL used to make references to historical wrestlers like Joe Pesek when he did commentary,” said Dodge. “He said on his podcast that any time he did, a producer would scream over the headsets, ‘Nobody cares!!’ JBL had enough smoke, he ignored them and did it anyway.”
Dodge praised JBL — one of the evening’s highlight speakers — for his commitment to learning and sharing the history of the business. He and Monson are likewise committed to telling the whole story of professional wrestling. They live for those moments when you discover a game changing fact. They’re not afraid of finding, and sharing, something that changes the narrative.
Chris Owens is also in attendance this weekend. Normally, he brings a traveling display of his own. Owens is an Andre the Giant fan, and he’s amassed and incredible collection of items related to the Eighth Wonder of the World. He left his display at home this weekend, but he’s had an eye out for anything and everything Andre.
“You never know when you’re going to see something you’ve never seen before,” Owens said.
Justin Crockett has a unique collection as well, one he shared with me earlier in the day. He collects music, specifically, vinyl records featuring music by wrestlers. He’s got close to 200 singles and LPs on vinyl so far, and he’s always on the lookout for more. He also posts about his collection on Instagram.
“Jumping Jim Brunzell released a picture LP,” Justin Crockett said. “I spoke to him earlier in the day and asked if he had any copies he could sell. He has one, and his wife won’t let him sell it.”
There are plenty of straight up historians in attendance. Greg “Count Grog” Mosorjak brought copies of his Wahoo McDaniel Records Book. Steven Johnson, a past Jim Melby Award winner at the museum, shared a table with Grog and had books as well. Fellow Melby Award winner Tom Burke hasn’t written any books of his own, but there are few who call themselves wrestling historians Tom has not helped in one way or another.
“Cory Santos is working on a book about Jack Pfefer!” he told me excitedly.
That’s one of the hallmarks of the wrestling history community. Everyone’s willing to answer questions and share information. Everyone recognizes they hold a few pieces in a much larger jigsaw puzzle, and the picture only becomes more clear when they share and share alike.
Then there’s Al Getz, this year’s winner of the Jim Melby Award. Al’s work includes creating the first metrics for measuring a professional wrestler’s career. He shares his work both on a podcast and in a series of books titled Charting the Territories. Fans lined up at his table all day long, snatching up copies of his books.
“I was worried I overestimated for this year,” he said, taking inventory as the museum prepared to close. “I guessed wrong.”
Stuart Kemp brought a tradition from Cauliflower Alley Club to Waterloo for the first time: a cribbage tournament. “Cribbage was popular with wrestlers because it was easy to pick up a game if you had to rush off and do a match,” he explained. “With poker, you have to remember what you were doing. With cribbage, you just look at the board.”
While the tournament pays homage to a popular locker room past time, it also affords fans and wrestlers a more intimate opportunity to sit and talk. “You get to know someone. You get to hear their stories, to learn a few things you might not have known.”
His words echo the sentiments spoken by Al Getz during the more serious part of his award speech. “If you take the time to talk to a wrestler who came here, you might find you have more in common than you think.”
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Filsinger Games. A fixture at the museum the last several years, Filsinger produces a popular wrestling card game called Legends of Wrestling. The company features wrestlers from all eras and all levels of the business. Cards are sold in packs, and each pack is curated carefully with big names and lesser known names.
They do this, in part, with the hope of sparking curiosity. Fans who buy the game because they love Wahoo, Randy Savage, or Haku, will race to Google to look up names they don’t know like Steven Regal… or Joe Pesek.
Just like JBL’s commentary, it’s another way to spread the story.
Filsinger also uses the game to support the museum’s mission financially. The company presented the board with a check for $20,000 at the conclusion of tonight’s awards ceremony.
It takes all kinds of people to spread the story of pro wrestling. It takes people who burn the midnight oil, pouring through newspaper archives for long lost tales. It takes archivists who give stray collectibles and give them a safe home. It takes photographers like the great Joyce Paustian, the official photographer for the museum, whose keen eyes have captured so many incredible moments.
It takes people like Herb Simmons, a beloved and legendary promoter from East Caroldelet, Illinois, who told me he’s started working on his own memoir.
“I told my wife, it’s the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life,” Simmons said with a smile.
Even the city of Waterloo, the birthplace of the National Wrestling Alliance, plays its part. Museum board member and master of ceremonies Chad Olsen informed the crowd that the Waterloo City Council would be on hand Saturday night for the Impact Pro Wrestling show for two reasons.
“They’re presenting the key to the city to WWE Hall of Famer Thunderbolt Patterson,” he said. “And, they’ll be honoring Baron von Raschke by declaring tomorrow, August 20, to be Claw Day in Waterloo.”
The Baron stood, posed, and growled. His wrestling family roared in approval.
Tracy Smothers used to say, “Family ain’t always blood, and blood ain’t always family.” The community that gathers and grows with every passing summer here in Waterloo is bound by something thicker than blood. They love the story of pro wrestling. They love it so much, two of them drove all the way from Minneapolis to Waterloo to take a selfie in an empty parking lot in the summer of 2020, when COVID-19 forced the event to cancel.
They love to listen to the legends like Sgt. Slaughter, Rock Riddle, Thunderbolt Patterson, and Greg Gagne tell their stories. They love to see photos and artifacts that once belonged to Joe Pesek, Strangler Lewis, Helen Hild, and June Byers.
They love to hear the familiar stories over and over.
They love to hear the long-forgotten tales that change everything.
More than anything, they just love pro wrestling.
Arn Anderson put it best near the end of the awards ceremony. “Pro wrestling will never die, because the people in this room won’t let it.”
Pro wrestling lives here in Waterloo, a quiet little town with a delightful little museum preserving the history of the business.
The George Tragos/ Lou Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame is located at the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. You can learn more about the museum here at https://nwhof.org/national-wrestling-hall-of-fame-dan-gable-museum
For more information on the Nebraska Hall of Fame, visit https://www.prowrestling-nebraska.com/
Check out Al Getz’s work at https://chartingtheterritories.com/
And do check out Justin Crockett’s Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/rockinrasslin
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