Help IDing Menko Japanese cards of LOU THESZ Wrestling

wrestlingcardking

Here are the front, and I imagine they were right after the match with Rikidozan.





Any help is appreciated as I would love to get these in PSA slabs and into my Lou Thesz registry.

Thanks,
Rob

llafoe

Not sure who they are... but they all seem to wear the same shade of lipstick!

SumoMenkoMan

I'll do a little research when I get back home. I haven't seen the upper left three, but I have seen the bottom right one.

The 1950 George Mikan menko has an awesome shade of lipstick which is common for most early 1950s menko.

wrestlingcardking

Thanks any help is appreciated.

SumoMenkoMan

No luck on the manufacturer. Comparing it to the sumo menko that I have I am estimating between 1954-1956 is when they were produced. The bottom, left menko features Primo Carnera which might be able to help date it. The bottom right features Rikidozan as you can probably tell. I've seen the bottom right menko back design somewhere, but I can't remember where.

wrestlingcardking

Just keep your eye out and maybe there will be a date on these eventually......

wrestlingcardking

I imagine that the date would have been perhaps just after this match.........

Rikidôzan gained worldwide renown when he defeated Lou Thesz for the NWA International Heavyweight Championship on August 27, 1958 in Japan. In another match, Thesz willingly agreed to put over Rikidôzan at the expense of his own reputation. This built up mutual respect between the two wrestlers, and Rikidôzan never forgot what Thesz did. He would go on to capture several NWA titles in matches both in Japan and overseas. Rikidôzan also trained professional wrestling students, including soon-to-be wrestling legends Kanji "Antonio" Inoki, Ooki Kintaro, and Shohei "Giant" Baba.

How else does one find what set this belongs to?

SumoMenkoMan

I've cataloged hundreds of sets. The best way to tell is to get more cards from the same set so you can narrow down a year. Likely this set contained only wrestlers as was common in the 1950s. Unless we find an unopened box somewhere the manufacture will be hard to determine.

wrestlingcardking

No luck with the identification of the japanese cards but happy to have this one in a slab. I intend to get the other Al Haft card of Lou Thesz in the coming months into a slab......