WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.839 Imagine it is the 1930s. You are sitting in a 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:08.820 smoky, dimly lit, completely packed arena. The 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.640 noise is just deafening. Oh, the atmosphere would 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:13.980 have been incredibly intense. Right. And in the 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:17.920 center of the room, a 240 pound man grabs his 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.940 opponent, lifts him entirely off his feet, turns 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.019 him completely upside down and seemingly drops 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:26.879 him directly onto a skull. Which is just horrifying 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.699 to watch. Exactly. The entire crowd gasps. I 00:00:29.699 --> 00:00:31.839 mean, people are literally out of their seats. 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:33.759 They think they have just witnessed a murder. 00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:35.640 Yeah, you would think the guy is dead. But what 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:37.700 they actually witnessed right there in that ring 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:40.719 was the invention of modern entertainment architecture. 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:43.840 It really is the exact moment. that visceral 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:46.340 shock was, you know, weaponized for a narrative 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.799 purpose. Yeah. And it completely changed the 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:50.740 trajectory of how we tell stories about good 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:53.179 and evil in a physical space. Exactly. Because 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:55.960 when you watch a classic thriller today or, say, 00:00:56.060 --> 00:00:58.780 a superhero movie, you have an inherent expectation 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:00.560 of the villain. Right. You want the bad guy to 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.380 be formidable. You expect a certain swagger, 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:07.099 a sneer, and crucially, a devastating weapon 00:01:07.099 --> 00:01:09.219 that makes them a legitimate, terrifying threat 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:12.409 to the hero. So today we are doing a deep dive 00:01:12.409 --> 00:01:15.530 into a Wikipedia article about the man who essentially 00:01:15.530 --> 00:01:17.969 drafted the blueprint for that exact type of 00:01:17.969 --> 00:01:20.450 bad guy. And it is such a fascinating blueprint. 00:01:20.790 --> 00:01:23.489 It really is. His name was Willard Roe Longson. 00:01:24.009 --> 00:01:26.650 But to history and to the thousands of people 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:28.849 who paid good money specifically to boo him, 00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:32.650 he was known as Wild Bill Longson or sometimes 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.030 the Purple Shadow. Which is such a fantastic, 00:01:35.069 --> 00:01:37.310 evocative name for the era. The Purple Shadow. 00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:39.890 I love it. Right. And the mission for our deep 00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:42.469 dive today is really to unpack how this one specific 00:01:42.469 --> 00:01:45.189 guy, a six foot two man born in Salt Lake City 00:01:45.189 --> 00:01:48.590 in 1906, helped invent the foundational architecture 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:50.629 of professional wrestling. Yeah. And we're not 00:01:50.629 --> 00:01:52.489 just talking about what happens inside the ropes 00:01:52.489 --> 00:01:55.510 here. at everything, from the invention of in 00:01:55.510 --> 00:01:58.489 -ring physical mechanics to massive behind -the 00:01:58.489 --> 00:02:00.469 -scenes corporate consolidation that essentially 00:02:00.469 --> 00:02:02.870 built the industry as we know it today. And I 00:02:02.870 --> 00:02:04.629 want to emphasize this for you listening right 00:02:04.629 --> 00:02:07.390 now, even if you are not a wrestling fan, even 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:10.189 if you have never watched a single match in your 00:02:10.189 --> 00:02:13.650 life, Longson's story is a master class in several 00:02:13.650 --> 00:02:15.750 different disciplines. It really is. It is a 00:02:15.750 --> 00:02:18.389 case study in character creation, the psychology 00:02:18.389 --> 00:02:22.090 of physical storytelling, and maybe most surprisingly, 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:25.969 The retroactive writing of history by powerful 00:02:25.969 --> 00:02:28.669 institutions. Oh, the retroactive history part 00:02:28.669 --> 00:02:30.849 of this story is absolutely wild. We are definitely 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:33.550 going to get into how an entire industry just 00:02:33.550 --> 00:02:35.710 forged its own history books. I can't wait for 00:02:35.710 --> 00:02:38.289 that part. But let's set the stage first. Longson 00:02:38.289 --> 00:02:41.960 makes his professional debut in April 1931. To 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:44.180 understand his impact, we have to understand 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:46.400 what the wrestling landscape looked like before 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:48.699 he debuted. It was a very, very different world, 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:50.979 wasn't it? Oh, completely different. In the early 00:02:50.979 --> 00:02:54.759 1930s, professional wrestling was still transitioning 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:58.280 out of its roots as a pure, grueling, grappling 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.159 exhibition. Unlike actual amateur wrestling. 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:02.319 Yeah, exactly. You had a lot of legitimately 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:05.280 tough men twisting each other into pretzels for 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.939 hours, which, I mean... While athletically impressive, 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:11.639 could be incredibly tedious for a mass audience 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:14.300 to watch. I can imagine. Just two guys rolling 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:17.080 around on a mat for an hour. Right. The industry 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:19.939 was figuring out that to sell tickets consistently, 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:21.939 you needed larger -than -life personalities. 00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:24.560 You needed drama. Right. Because every great 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.099 story needs a villain. And the source material 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:29.680 highlights that Longson perfected the role of 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.300 the arrogant heel. He really did. For those who 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:35.020 might not know the terminology, a heel is the 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.830 wrestling term for the bad guy. But Longston 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:40.110 wasn't just a generic rule breaker. He built 00:03:40.110 --> 00:03:43.569 a persona around absolute suffocating arrogance. 00:03:43.789 --> 00:03:45.689 What's fascinating here is how he understood 00:03:45.689 --> 00:03:48.590 the assignment. Arrogance is easy to act out, 00:03:48.750 --> 00:03:51.569 but in a highly physical combative medium, you 00:03:51.569 --> 00:03:53.490 have to back it up. You can't just talk a big 00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:56.250 game. Exactly. If you strut around the ring claiming 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:58.289 to be untouchable, the audience is just waiting 00:03:58.289 --> 00:04:00.610 for the hero to punch you in the mouth. To maintain 00:04:00.610 --> 00:04:03.229 the heat, the anger of the crowd, you need a 00:04:03.229 --> 00:04:06.009 trump card. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:09.650 inventing a trump card in the 1930s is just fascinating. 00:04:10.169 --> 00:04:13.250 Longson is credited with inventing and popularizing 00:04:13.250 --> 00:04:16.569 one of the most famous devastating moves in all 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:18.850 of professional wrestling. The Piledriver. The 00:04:18.850 --> 00:04:20.949 Piledriver. This is the move I described at the 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:23.209 very beginning of the deep dive. And looking 00:04:23.209 --> 00:04:25.990 at it from a creative standpoint, inventing the 00:04:25.990 --> 00:04:28.670 Piledriver back then is like horror director 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:30.689 inventing the jump scare. Oh, that's a great 00:04:30.689 --> 00:04:33.029 comparison. Right. Before that, you had tension. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.019 you had dread, you had basic holds, but suddenly 00:04:36.019 --> 00:04:40.279 there was this specific repeatable physical mechanism 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:44.199 designed to rip a visceral involuntary gasp out 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.540 of an audience every single time. That is the 00:04:46.540 --> 00:04:48.699 perfect way to look at it. It is an engineered 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:51.579 psychological tool. If your entire persona is 00:04:51.579 --> 00:04:54.319 an arrogant heel, you need a crescendo that visually 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:56.620 communicates, I am dangerous and I can end this 00:04:56.620 --> 00:04:58.579 whenever I want. But wait, hold on. This is where 00:04:58.579 --> 00:05:00.579 I have to ask about the reality of what he was 00:05:00.579 --> 00:05:03.470 doing, because turning a grown man upside down 00:05:03.470 --> 00:05:05.870 and dropping his full body weight onto his own 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:09.170 neck? How does he not paralyze everyone he wrestles? 00:05:09.230 --> 00:05:11.430 It looks like a felony, right? It really does. 00:05:11.649 --> 00:05:14.290 How do you invent something that looks like attempted 00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:17.569 murder, but is actually functional? That is the 00:05:17.569 --> 00:05:20.730 genius of the physical engineering. To understand 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:22.769 the pile driver, you have to look at the physics 00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:25.769 of the illusion. When Longson set an opponent 00:05:25.769 --> 00:05:28.069 up for the move, he wasn't actually dropping 00:05:28.069 --> 00:05:30.410 them on their skull. Okay, so what was he doing? 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:32.889 He would carefully position his opponent upside 00:05:32.889 --> 00:05:35.230 down, tucking their heads safely between his 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:38.129 own thighs. Got it. Then, when Longson dropped 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:40.949 to a seated position, his own legs and tailbone 00:05:40.949 --> 00:05:44.410 hit the canvas. They absorbed the entire impact 00:05:44.410 --> 00:05:47.430 of the fall. The opponent's head never actually 00:05:47.430 --> 00:05:50.170 touched the mat. It was safely suspended inches 00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:53.389 above it by Longson's thighs. Oh wow, so it is 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.120 Quite literally, an engineering marvel disguised 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.139 as a murder attempt. Exactly. He engineered a 00:05:59.139 --> 00:06:00.980 move that looked catastrophic to the people in 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:03.680 the back row, but was meticulously safe when 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.519 executed perfectly. It required absolute trust 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:09.220 from his opponents and incredible physical precision 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:11.920 from Longson. That is incredible. And having 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.120 that kind of devastating finching move isn't 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.040 just about getting boos from the crowd, it's 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:19.189 about leverage. Business leverage. Yeah. And 00:06:19.189 --> 00:06:22.269 in the 1940s, Longson used that exact leverage 00:06:22.269 --> 00:06:25.329 to utterly dominate the championship scene. But 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:27.910 before we get into his title runs, we need to 00:06:27.910 --> 00:06:29.970 level with the listener here about what winning 00:06:29.970 --> 00:06:33.050 a championship in this era actually meant. Yeah, 00:06:33.089 --> 00:06:34.769 that's an important distinction. Because we are 00:06:34.769 --> 00:06:37.689 talking about a scripted sport. Right. We have 00:06:37.689 --> 00:06:40.740 to clarify the concept of kayfabe. K -Fabe. Yeah, 00:06:40.819 --> 00:06:43.699 K -Fabe is the portrayal of staged events as 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:46.240 genuine competition. It's the tension between 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.939 the scripted nature of the sport and the very 00:06:48.939 --> 00:06:51.779 real physical toll it takes. Exactly. Because 00:06:51.779 --> 00:06:53.980 when we say Longston won a championship, it wasn't 00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:55.839 like winning the Super Bowl where you just score 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.240 more points. The outcomes of these matches were 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:01.120 decided in a boardroom by promoters and bookers. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:04.149 The bosses. Right. But the athleticism required 00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:06.769 to execute those outcomes, the grueling travel, 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:09.410 the physical punishment of getting slammed into 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:12.370 a mat night after night, that was completely 00:07:12.370 --> 00:07:15.290 undeniably real. Oh, the physical toll was massive. 00:07:15.370 --> 00:07:17.050 Yeah. The boardroom decided who the champion 00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:19.009 was, but the performer had to be tough enough 00:07:19.009 --> 00:07:21.589 and charismatic enough to carry the physical 00:07:21.589 --> 00:07:23.730 burden of that decision. They had to be able 00:07:23.730 --> 00:07:26.689 to actually do the job. Exactly. The promoters 00:07:26.689 --> 00:07:29.290 put the belt on Longston because he drew money. 00:07:29.980 --> 00:07:32.800 His arrogant character, combined with the threat 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.720 of the pile driver, made people buy tickets in 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.920 hopes of seeing him finally lose. And that dynamic 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:42.220 turned the 1940s into his era. He spent the vast 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:44.379 majority of his career anchored in St. Louis, 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:47.639 Missouri, but his influence dictated the national 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:50.149 scene. He was everywhere. During this decade, 00:07:50.230 --> 00:07:53.470 he became a three -time National Wrestling Association 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:56.069 World Heavyweight Champion. And he was trading 00:07:56.069 --> 00:07:59.370 this title with an absolute rogue's gallery of 00:07:59.370 --> 00:08:01.709 classic grappling legends. The lineage during 00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:03.850 this time is a constant push and pull. It really 00:08:03.850 --> 00:08:06.310 is. Yeah. He wins his first title from wrestler 00:08:06.310 --> 00:08:09.589 named Sandor Sabo. Then the boardroom decides 00:08:09.589 --> 00:08:11.610 it's time for the bad guy to fall, so he loses 00:08:11.610 --> 00:08:14.089 it to Yvonne Robert. The crowd finally gets what 00:08:14.089 --> 00:08:16.509 they want. Right. But the money is in the chase. 00:08:16.750 --> 00:08:19.240 So he comes back. wins his second title from 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:21.620 Bobby Manigoff before eventually dropping that 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:24.199 one to whipper Billy Watson. Which creates a 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:26.939 continuous narrative loop. The villain gets the 00:08:26.939 --> 00:08:30.000 gold, the hero vanquishes the villain to relieve 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.419 the tension, and then the villain claws his way 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:34.740 back to the top to start the anxiety all over 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:37.500 again. It's soap opera booking. Exactly. Yeah. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:39.580 Keeps the audience emotionally invested in buying 00:08:39.580 --> 00:08:42.970 tickets for years. But the absolute peak of this 00:08:42.970 --> 00:08:46.009 narrative loop, the cinematic climax of Longston's 00:08:46.009 --> 00:08:48.950 championship run, revolves around his third and 00:08:48.950 --> 00:08:52.230 final title. He wins it from a legendary foundational 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:55.350 figure in wrestling named Luthez. Luthez is a 00:08:55.350 --> 00:08:57.629 massive name in this era. Massive. And this brings 00:08:57.629 --> 00:09:00.909 us to July 20, 1948. This is the date Longston 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:03.289 loses the title for the final time back to Thez. 00:09:03.629 --> 00:09:05.730 And the choreography of this finish, how they 00:09:05.730 --> 00:09:08.570 physically told the story of his defeat, is something 00:09:08.570 --> 00:09:10.769 we have to break down because it is brilliant. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:13.379 It is a master class in how to end a multi -year 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:15.519 story arc. So picture this. It's the climax of 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:17.559 the match. Longston is going for the kill. He 00:09:17.559 --> 00:09:19.740 has Lou Thes right where he wants him. He sets 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:21.899 Thes up for the pile driver. Ultimate weapon. 00:09:22.259 --> 00:09:25.059 Right. He is about to execute the very move he 00:09:25.059 --> 00:09:27.039 invented, the weapon that brought him all this 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:29.799 glory, all these championships, and fueled his 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.860 incredible arrogance. But Fez is ready for it. 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:36.759 He scouts it. He does. From that exact vulnerable 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:40.059 upside down pile driver position, Fez elevates 00:09:40.059 --> 00:09:42.740 himself onto Longston's shoulders, shifts his 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:45.500 body weight in midair, and falls forward directly 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:47.960 into a pinning combination called the Fez Press. 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:51.440 One, two, three. The match is over. Longston 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:53.860 loses the world championship. In literature, 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.320 we call that being horsted by your own petard. 00:09:56.899 --> 00:09:59.279 Yes. The villain's greatest strength, his signature 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.179 invention, becomes the exact mechanism of his 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:04.870 downfall. It is incredible poetic justice. He 00:10:04.870 --> 00:10:07.129 attempts the move he brought into the world and 00:10:07.129 --> 00:10:09.970 his opponent uses that specific positioning against 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:12.509 him to take his crown. Thes didn't just beat 00:10:12.509 --> 00:10:15.190 Longston by being stronger or by hitting a random 00:10:15.190 --> 00:10:18.049 lucky punch. He used Longston's own arrogance, 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:20.429 his absolute reliance on the pile driver, to 00:10:20.429 --> 00:10:23.269 trap him. It's so smart. That kind of in -ring 00:10:23.269 --> 00:10:26.299 storytelling. is incredibly sophisticated for 00:10:26.299 --> 00:10:30.139 the 1940s. It gives the audience a sense of thematic 00:10:30.139 --> 00:10:33.580 closure that is deeply, deeply satisfying. It's 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:35.980 not just a physical defeat. It's an ideological 00:10:35.980 --> 00:10:38.279 defeat. You lived by the sword. You die by the 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.039 sword. It's perfect. But here is where the story 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.399 shifts gears completely, because that match on 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.019 July 20, 1948, wasn't just a great piece of theater. 00:10:47.139 --> 00:10:49.759 No, it wasn't. It accidentally set off a corporate 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:52.220 earthquake in the wrestling business. It triggered 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:55.159 a massive offscreen ripple effect that completely 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:57.559 altered how the history of the industry was recorded. 00:10:57.740 --> 00:10:59.940 Yes, this is where we transition from the scripted 00:10:59.940 --> 00:11:04.000 narrative inside the ring to the very real, very 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.220 cutthroat reality of the corporate boardroom. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.279 Up until now, we've been talking about the National 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:11.179 Wrestling Association. But in the late 1940s, 00:11:11.179 --> 00:11:14.440 there is a rival governing body trying to take 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:16.480 control of the industry. The National Wrestling 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.519 Alliance. Right. The Alliance. And in 1949, the 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:23.100 year after Longston loses his association title 00:11:23.100 --> 00:11:26.379 to Thez, the Alliance has a real world crisis 00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:29.679 on its hands. Their champion, a man named Orville 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:33.080 Brown, is tragically involved in a severe automobile 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.159 accident. Man, it is a sudden, unscripted disaster. 00:11:37.659 --> 00:11:41.019 You have a champion who physically cannot perform, 00:11:41.419 --> 00:11:44.139 cannot defend the title, and is forced into immediate 00:11:44.139 --> 00:11:45.919 retirement. Exactly. The script just goes right 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:47.539 out the window. So what does the Alliance do? 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:50.019 They need a champion to keep the business running. 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:51.980 You can't just operate without a top guy. You 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:54.100 can't. So they look over at Luthes, who holds 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:56.460 the rival association title, and they simply 00:11:56.460 --> 00:11:58.519 award their Alliance World Championship to him 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:00.740 by default. Just hand it over. Just hand it over. 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:02.940 But they don't stop there. The Alliance decides 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.440 this is the perfect moment to consolidate corporate 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.789 power. They want one. undisputed lineage for 00:12:08.789 --> 00:12:10.490 the American World Championship. They want a 00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:12.789 monopoly on the history. Exactly. So they make 00:12:12.789 --> 00:12:15.409 a staggering decision. They completely withdraw 00:12:15.409 --> 00:12:17.809 their recognition of Orville Brown's championship 00:12:17.809 --> 00:12:20.690 reign. They literally erase their own injured 00:12:20.690 --> 00:12:23.289 champion from their official continuity. Yes. 00:12:23.690 --> 00:12:26.100 And instead of their own history, They officially 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.879 adopt the association's lineage, the exact lineage 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:31.799 that Thes had just won from Wild Bill Longston. 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.019 Unbelievable. And they trace that newly adopted 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:36.759 history all the way back to a pioneer champion 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:41.600 named George Hackenschmidt in 1905. Now. Hold 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.539 on. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.460 and I have to push back on this because it sounds 00:12:45.460 --> 00:12:48.419 insane. It is insane. You're telling me an entire 00:12:48.419 --> 00:12:50.860 industry just essentially forged their own history 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:52.960 books. They just have raced a guy who is in a 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:55.419 car crash, adopted a rival's timeline, and said, 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:59.080 this is reality now. Did the fans just accept 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:01.799 that? How do you get away with that? If we connect 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:03.519 this to the bigger picture, you have to remember 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:06.779 the context of 1949, there is no internet. There 00:13:06.779 --> 00:13:10.659 are no centralized, easily accessible fan databases. 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:12.820 Right. Nobody's checking Wikipedia back then. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:16.059 Exactly. Information is regional and highly controlled 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.440 by the promoters. The fans only know what the 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:20.779 local promoter tells them in the arena or prints 00:13:20.779 --> 00:13:22.980 in the local program. So they essentially control 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:26.360 the media apparatus. Precisely. History, as it 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:29.639 actually happens, is almost always messy, decentralized, 00:13:30.019 --> 00:13:32.240 and full of inconvenient interruptions like car 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:35.690 accidents. But massive industries, whether it's 00:13:35.690 --> 00:13:39.009 territorial wrestling syndicates in 1949 or traditional 00:13:39.009 --> 00:13:41.730 corporate conglomerates today, they absolutely 00:13:41.730 --> 00:13:44.850 crave a clean, unified, unbroken narrative. They 00:13:44.850 --> 00:13:47.330 need it to look official. They need that lineage 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:50.509 to create an aura of absolute legitimacy. Even 00:13:50.509 --> 00:13:52.090 if they have to trace a line all the way back 00:13:52.090 --> 00:13:54.909 to George Hackenschmidt in 1905 and erase their 00:13:54.909 --> 00:13:57.389 own guy to do it, they will. They engineer a 00:13:57.389 --> 00:13:59.929 pristine pass to validate their current monopoly 00:13:59.929 --> 00:14:02.690 on power. It's like a corporate hostile takeover 00:14:02.690 --> 00:14:04.730 disguised as an athletic tournament. Or like 00:14:04.730 --> 00:14:07.769 when a comic book company does a massive multiverse 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:09.990 reboot and just announces to the readers, OK, 00:14:10.309 --> 00:14:12.389 ignore those last 50 issues we sold you. This 00:14:12.389 --> 00:14:14.730 is the official timeline now. That is exactly 00:14:14.730 --> 00:14:17.429 what it was. A retroactive continuity fix applied 00:14:17.429 --> 00:14:20.470 to real life. And the craziest part is the collateral 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:23.250 effect this paperwork shuffle had on Wild Bill 00:14:23.250 --> 00:14:26.429 Longson. Because the Alliance adopted that specific 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:29.990 association lineage, Willard Longson is retroactively 00:14:29.990 --> 00:14:32.490 recognized by the Alliance as a three time world 00:14:32.490 --> 00:14:36.070 champion. Wow. His historical record, his literal 00:14:36.070 --> 00:14:38.830 legacy in the record books was officially altered 00:14:38.830 --> 00:14:41.429 and expanded after the fact just to clean up 00:14:41.429 --> 00:14:44.090 an industry's administrative mess. He gained 00:14:44.090 --> 00:14:47.230 prestige purely as a byproduct of corporate consolidation. 00:14:47.610 --> 00:14:50.289 We've always been the definitive authority. Just 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:52.429 look at this perfectly straight line drawn in 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:54.909 pencil. It is absolutely fascinating. But while 00:14:54.909 --> 00:14:57.610 the boardroom was busy literally rewriting reality 00:14:57.610 --> 00:15:00.429 with an eraser and a pencil, Longston was still 00:15:00.429 --> 00:15:02.889 living in the actual physical world. Right, the 00:15:02.889 --> 00:15:05.809 real world. Which brings us to the final wildly 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:08.470 ironic chapter of his career. The transition 00:15:08.470 --> 00:15:11.769 back to the messy, unavoidable reality of a physical 00:15:11.769 --> 00:15:13.919 performer's life. You can write all the scripts 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.399 you want, but the body keeps the score. Exactly. 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:18.740 So Longston officially retires from in -ring 00:15:18.740 --> 00:15:21.320 professional wrestling in 1960. Think about that 00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:24.679 timeline. He debuted in 1931. That is nearly 00:15:24.679 --> 00:15:28.100 30 years. Three decades of taking bumps. Three 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:30.559 decades. Getting dropped on the hard canvas, 00:15:30.779 --> 00:15:32.940 executing pile drivers, wrestling men who weighed 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:36.559 300 pounds, and absorbing an unbelievable amount 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:39.259 of bodily trauma. It's a miracle he could still 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:41.820 walk. It really is. But what actually forces 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.539 him into retirement It wasn't a younger, faster 00:15:44.539 --> 00:15:47.799 wrestler. It wasn't a catastrophic maneuver gone 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:51.399 wrong in the ring. He sustains a broken pelvis 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:54.909 while riding an unbroken horse. Wow. an incredibly 00:15:54.909 --> 00:15:58.330 severe debilitating injury resulting from a completely 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:01.649 non theatrical real world event. So what does 00:16:01.649 --> 00:16:03.230 this all mean? Let's just sit with this for a 00:16:03.230 --> 00:16:05.470 second because the profound irony here stops 00:16:05.470 --> 00:16:09.149 me in my tracks. Why is a guy in his 50s who 00:16:09.149 --> 00:16:11.549 has spent three decades getting slammed into 00:16:11.549 --> 00:16:14.269 a mat for a living getting on a wild animal? 00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:16.330 That's a great question. You spend your entire 00:16:16.330 --> 00:16:19.230 adult life as the wild arrogant heel surviving 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:22.809 a violent highly choreographed combat sport only 00:16:22.809 --> 00:16:26.090 to have your career definitively ended by a literal 00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:28.590 wild animal. It's almost too symbolic to be true. 00:16:28.970 --> 00:16:31.129 This raises an important question about the blur 00:16:31.129 --> 00:16:33.490 between the performer and the reality they inhabit. 00:16:33.789 --> 00:16:36.250 Yeah, how much of it was really an act. Right. 00:16:36.669 --> 00:16:39.549 We analyze wild Bill Longson as a character, 00:16:39.889 --> 00:16:42.809 an arrogant heel who invented a vicious theatrical 00:16:42.809 --> 00:16:45.690 move. But these early pioneers, they weren't 00:16:45.690 --> 00:16:48.389 just actors putting on a costume, doing a scene, 00:16:48.450 --> 00:16:51.169 and then going home to a quiet predictable suburb. 00:16:51.210 --> 00:16:53.960 Right. The psychological profile of a man who 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:57.120 chooses this life is unique. They lived physically 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:00.559 extreme lives that often matched or even exceeded 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.399 their larger than life personas. They were adrenaline 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.220 junkies. Exactly. You do not voluntarily get 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:09.359 on an unbroken horse in your mid 50s with a body 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:11.539 already battered by 30 years of professional 00:17:11.539 --> 00:17:13.680 wrestling if you aren't fundamentally a little 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:16.579 bit wild yourself. At a certain point, the character 00:17:16.579 --> 00:17:19.279 is just an amplification of the man. The line 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:21.579 between Willard Longston and Wild Bill didn't 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:23.819 really exist. That is such a great point. The 00:17:23.819 --> 00:17:26.400 persona overtakes the person. Yeah. And impressively, 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:28.400 he didn't leave the business after the horse 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:30.980 incident shattered his pelvis. He pivoted. Kept 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:35.539 going. From 1960 until 1977, he continued to 00:17:35.539 --> 00:17:38.099 work behind the scenes in the industry as a booker 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:41.319 and a promoter in St. Louis. He was still shaping 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:43.819 the stories, still deciding who won and who lost, 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.849 just from the other side of the curtain. He transitioned 00:17:46.849 --> 00:17:49.930 from executing the blueprint in the ring to drawing 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:52.029 it up in the boardroom for the next generation 00:17:52.029 --> 00:17:54.769 of performers. He lived a few more years after 00:17:54.769 --> 00:17:57.329 stepping away fully, passing away in St. Louis 00:17:57.329 --> 00:18:01.869 in 1982, and his legacy was absolutely unequivocally 00:18:01.869 --> 00:18:04.660 cemented. He was inducted into the Wrestling 00:18:04.660 --> 00:18:06.799 Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in its class 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.220 of 2000, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame 00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:12.200 in 2006, and the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:15.059 Fame in 2007. Becoming a multi -time Hall of 00:18:15.059 --> 00:18:17.160 Famer across several different independent judging 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.099 bodies speaks to a universal recognition of his 00:18:20.099 --> 00:18:22.200 foundational impact. You really can't tell the 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:23.920 history of the sport without him. You really 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:25.940 can, although I do have to point out one funny 00:18:25.940 --> 00:18:28.000 little detail in the Wikipedia source material 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:29.460 itself regarding his death. Oh, what's that? 00:18:29.579 --> 00:18:32.220 So the info box at the very top of the page lists 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:36.119 his date of death as December 12th, 1982. But 00:18:36.119 --> 00:18:38.440 if you scroll down and read the actual text of 00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:41.099 the article, it says he died on December 10th, 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:43.579 just a little two -day discrepancy. That is wonderfully 00:18:43.579 --> 00:18:45.859 ironic. Right. We just spent all this time discussing 00:18:45.859 --> 00:18:47.799 how meticulously the wrestling industry tried 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.359 to clean up its own history, forging perfect 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:54.460 lineages in 1949. And yet the modern crowd -sourced 00:18:54.460 --> 00:18:56.700 historical record keeping of the historical record 00:18:56.700 --> 00:18:59.039 keepers is still a little bit messy. You just 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:01.200 can't escape the messiness of human documentation. 00:19:01.130 --> 00:19:03.809 It is a perfect reminder that history is always 00:19:03.809 --> 00:19:06.430 a draft. It really is. But looking back at this 00:19:06.430 --> 00:19:08.369 entire journey we've taken today, it is just 00:19:08.369 --> 00:19:11.210 a remarkable arc. We start with a guy from Utah 00:19:11.210 --> 00:19:14.869 in the 1930s, a 240 -pounder who realizes that 00:19:14.869 --> 00:19:17.650 to make a physical story work, to truly sell 00:19:17.650 --> 00:19:20.029 tickets, the villain needs to be arrogant. And 00:19:20.029 --> 00:19:22.990 that arrogance needs a physical, terrifying manifestation. 00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:27.579 Yes. So he engineers the Piledriver, a move that 00:19:27.579 --> 00:19:30.039 looks like murder, but is actually a masterpiece 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:33.500 of physical safety. He uses that invention to 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:35.380 dominate the championship scene throughout the 00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:38.400 1940s, engaging in this incredible narrative 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.420 loop of trading titles before suffering the ultimate 00:19:41.420 --> 00:19:44.400 cinematic defeat by having his own move countered 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:47.299 by Luthez. A theatrical defeat that inadvertently 00:19:47.299 --> 00:19:49.119 triggered the corporate consolidation of the 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:51.339 entire American wrestling championship lineage. 00:19:51.619 --> 00:19:54.519 Exactly. He inadvertently becomes a retroactive 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:57.420 three -time alliance champion, just so a boardroom 00:19:57.420 --> 00:19:59.420 can have a clean timeline after a car crash. 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:02.039 And then after surviving all of that fake violence, 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:05.059 he goes out in the most unscripted way possible, 00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:07.740 breaking his pelvis on an unbroken horse because 00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:09.519 he couldn't turn off the wild part of his brain. 00:20:09.619 --> 00:20:11.519 Is it a legendary life? It is a legendary life. 00:20:11.579 --> 00:20:13.140 And I think the big takeaway for you listening 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:16.369 is this. The next time you are watching TV or 00:20:16.369 --> 00:20:18.970 a movie and you see that classic bad guy step 00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:20.990 onto the screen with that perfectly calibrated 00:20:20.990 --> 00:20:23.250 arrogance, remember that you are looking at the 00:20:23.250 --> 00:20:25.849 echoes of Willard Rolongson's work. He really 00:20:25.849 --> 00:20:28.349 did draft the architecture of the modern antagonist. 00:20:28.829 --> 00:20:31.069 But before we wrap up today, there is a concept 00:20:31.069 --> 00:20:33.369 here I want to leave you with, building on that 00:20:33.369 --> 00:20:37.089 massive 1949 consolidation of the wrestling championships. 00:20:37.309 --> 00:20:40.390 Okay. What is it? Well, we saw how easily and 00:20:40.390 --> 00:20:44.009 how ruthlessly an entire industry retroactively 00:20:44.009 --> 00:20:46.950 merged its history, erased a champion and altered 00:20:46.950 --> 00:20:50.289 a man's legacy just to create a clean, unbroken 00:20:50.289 --> 00:20:53.190 narrative of one true champion. It really makes 00:20:53.190 --> 00:20:57.049 you wonder what other historical truths or official 00:20:57.049 --> 00:20:59.109 lineages in the serious traditional institutions 00:20:59.109 --> 00:21:02.069 we trust today were retroactively stitched together 00:21:02.069 --> 00:21:04.289 in a boardroom just to make the story sound better. 00:21:04.569 --> 00:21:07.680 A perfectly straight line drawn in tensile. That 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:09.339 is definitely something to keep in mind the next 00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:10.859 time you read an official history, no matter 00:21:10.859 --> 00:21:12.700 who published it. Thanks so much for joining 00:21:12.700 --> 00:21:14.279 us on this deep dive. We'll catch you next time.