Our love of baseball cards and wrestling goes all the way back to the early mid-80’s when my older bro and I were growing up in San Diego. Our parents are from Southern Illinois but they relocated to San DIego once my Dad’s Navy duties brought him here. While most of you would probably think that it was our father that was the diehard sports fan but he was more on the creative side with his artwork. But our Mom? 100% sports all day long.
Growing up in Southern Illinois, our mother started getting into wrestling (bka wrasslin!), baseball, and baseball cards as a little kid in the early 1950’s. She would sit by the radio and listen to all of the sports she could with her friend Maryanne’s father. Her parents, John and Frances, weren’t really into sports and either was her younger sister Cherie. But my mom was all about it! She loved baseball, basketball, and wrestling. In Southern Illinois, you had options as to what team(s) you would support. You could go north up to Chicago or you could go south down to Missouri. She opted to go down to Missouri with her favorite baseball team which was the St. Louis Cardinals led by Stan “The Man” Musial and Fred "Red" Schoendienst. She would listen to her Cards on the radio and frequent Tubbs Market on Oglesby St. right across from the high school. At Tubbs Market, she would take the few coins she had and spend them on the soda fountain, popsicles, candy, sandwiches, or even a packs of Topps Baseball Cards! Candy was a penny each and a pack of baseball cards was a nickel. Here is some old Cardinals footage of Stan “The Man” that’ll take you back to the time when my mom first started getting into baseball.
On the wrestling side of things, my mom was a big fan of Verne Gagne, Pat O’Connor, and Gorgeous George. She liked wrestling because it brought out a piece of her imagination and being the creative that she was, this entertainment really spoke to her.
Verne Gagne is a legend in the wrestling industry. He founded the Minnesota based AWA (American Wrestling Association) in 1960 that really started taking regional wrestling and expanding it to something much more than that here in the States. Gagne retired in 1981 from the AWA but passed the reigns to Nick Bockwinkel who then really pushed wrestling forward. It was in the AWA where future superstars like Hulk Hogan, Rick “The Model” Martel, Curt Hennig (aka Mr. Perfect), Jerry “The King” Lawler, and more got their start before going over to the WWF / WWE to become eventual global superstars.
As kids in the 1980’s, Todd and I would watching WWF wrestling and practice moves anywhere we could. I was much younger and smaller so I only had clothelines and figure-four leg locks to work with but my brother could piledrive and DDT me. We would throw each other off of the imaginary ropes and play out whole matches in tiny spaces in our childhood home. We would shut the door and plot out elaborate storylines and start brawling. My favorite story from back then when Todd threw me a little bit too hard into the ropes and I went face first into his dresser. He knew I was hurt and consoled me but at the same time told me he would give me $1 if I didn’t tell mom and dad. While I considered the offer, my swelling eye told me I should tell mom and dad. Sorry Todd! I didn’t mean to snitch you out but I had to consult with the refs to see if I could continue the match. And when we did, I was probably Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and you were the “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
Todd and I were big collectors of sports cards so when we saw those Topps Pro Wrestling Sports Cards in 1985 we begged our parents to buy us some wax packs. Could you imagine if we pulled a Hillbilly Jim in a pack?!?!?!?
We don’t know where all of our wrestling cards are but we have some here with me at my apartment. To bring back those 1985 vibes I decided to buy an unopened 1985 wax pack of these cards off of eBay.
Next I kept it in the original padded envelope it was shipped in and dropped it off at my brother’s house. He had no idea what was inside but he did have an AMAZING knowledge base and memory back to pull from. Would Todd pull a Hogan? Would he pull a JYD? I know the type of reaction Todd would have so that’s why we’re choosing this little adventure. And without further adieu, here’s Todd aka lunchmade with Lunchmade’s Scoop opening a pack of 1985 Topps Pro Wrestling Cards. If you enjoy, drop us a comment below! Let us know who your favorite old scool World Wrestling Federation wrestler was!