1973 Wrestling Annual Cards, COMPLETE, 40 year mystery solved!?!

wrestlingcardking

I picked some up and they seem to present pretty well in the PSA slab. I may end up getting myself a 36 card set after all. I think the potential in these are a bit limited, but since there is such a large gap from the Parkhurst sets from 1954 and 1955 to the 1982 Wrestling All Stars, these do fill a gap and are not way oversized like the 1978 and 1981 handcut wrestling items......

1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Bruiser PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Dory Funk Jr. PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Ray Stevens PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Chief Jay Strongbow PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Ernie Ladd PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - The Sheik PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Manny Soto PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Verne Gagne PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Victor Rivera PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Bill Robinson PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Raymond Rougeau PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - "Andre the Giant" Jean Ferre PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Dom Denucci PSA 8
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Chief Wahoo McDaniel PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Joe Leduc PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Rene Goulet PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Don Leo Jonathon PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - The Great Mephisto PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Mil Mascaras PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Crusher PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Pedro Morales PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Mighty Igor PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Paul Jones PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Bobo Brazil PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Red Bastien PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Lars Anderson PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Haystacks Calhoun PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Bull Bullinski PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Jack Brisco PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Pampero Firpo PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - The Destroyer PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Fred Curry PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Killer Kowalski PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Rickey Romero PSA 10
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Cowboy Bob Ellis PSA 9
1973 - Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual for 1973 #6 Wallet Sized Photos - Edouard Carpentier PSA 9

llafoe

Half-naked men photos.. now my life is complete!

scashaggy

3/4 naked.

WalterSobchak

I always kind of figured that one day you'd come around on wrestling cards.

wrestlingcardking

It was only a matter of time before I started collecting a different wrestling card set. I haven't went all in on this one but it looks like I may........

wrestlingcardking

Since there was a discussion on another thread I thought I would make a comment on these. I have added twelve more of these including a few PSA 10s. I do like the look of these "cards" in a PSA slab.

wrestlingcardking

PSA just created a registry of these cards and I added mine. I have 17 of the 36 and need the key one, Andre the Giant but it will get done! Here I go!!!!!

wrestlingcardking

wrestlingcardking

deleted

wrestlingcardking

Here is a pic of the Ray Stevens from the set, I am still amazed by the size of Dick the Bruiser.

wrestlingcardking

I get to pickup many of these tomorrow from the mailman but I did it and all the cards are 8 or above except for Andre the Giant and Raymond Rougeau. I'll sub those cards and hope for a higher grade here soon! Another wrestling set is complete! I'll keep improving here but focus on a new project!

Dpeck100

Nice work Rob!

elronmckenzie

Nice job! When the cards are cut right and have the proper amount of border they look fantastic, in my opinion. Can't wait to get my Funk. Good luck on the Rougeau too.

wrestlingcardking

They do look great in a holder and they are some early cards of some great names like Andre the Giant, Dory Funk, Mil Mascaras, one of the only items ever of Haystacks Calhoun, etc...

wrestlingcardking

One of my highlights is that I pulled a PSA 10 of The Sheik!!!! Can't wait to see it!

thenavarro

Rob,

A "real" wrestlingcardking would have an autographed set!!! LOL











just kidding my friend, neat stuff

SumoMenkoMan

Great job!

Dboneesq

<< <i>One of my highlights is that I pulled a PSA 10 of The Sheik!!!! Can't wait to see it! >>


Real nice Rob ... show us DA SHEIK when you get it back.

wrestlingcardking

Mike an old guy like you may have been able to get a signed set of these but a young buck like me can't find these signed unless I do it myself and wrestlers seem to die a little earlier than those that play those ball sports.

My Wrestling All Stars are King!

Thanks for the compliments.......

Rob

eagles33

Nice set. It's amazing how much nicer these are in slabs.

Dougnddeb

Congrats Rob!

wrestlingcardking

Here is The Sheik

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Big80s

That is an outstanding card! Anything from the 70s (or earlier) with a black border is brutal in high grade.

On a side note, have you ever read The Iron Sheik's twitter feed? It's dirty, but pretty entertaining.

wrestlingcardking

Yes I am very happy to have a PSA 10, here is the wiki of the Original Sheik

Edward George "Ed" Farhat (June 9, 1924 - January 18, 2003) was an American professional wrestler best known as by his ring name The Sheik (or The Original Sheik to distinguish him from The Iron Sheik, a wrestler from the 1980s). He is also one of the originators of what became the hardcore wrestling style, and the uncle of ECW legend Sabu.

Early life and career[edit]

He started out wrestling in the Midwest and later in Texas but his biggest match was one he didn't wrestle in. He was set to face NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz in Chicago for his title but Thesz had a reputation for embarrassing "gimmick" wrestlers so The Sheik bailed from the ring and hid under a bus. The publicity from the event helped push the Sheik character to a more prominent level. He went to New York for Vincent J. McMahon where he teamed with Johnny Valentine and Bull Curry in feuds against Mark Lewin and Don Curtis as well as the team of Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez in Madison Square Garden. He returned when McMahon formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation to feud with Bruno Sammartino in the WWF's major markets in the late 1960s.

The Sheik's gimmick[edit]

The Sheik's wrestling was centered around his character of a rich wild man from Syria. He locked on normally mundane holds and refuse to break them, leading to submission. He used hidden pencils to cut open his opponent's faces. Often, the tactic backfired and the opponent got The Sheik's pencil, leading to the extensive scarring on Farhat's forehead. The other illegal move was his fireball that he threw into his opponents' faces, sometimes burning their face severely. He didn't speak on camera, apart from the incomprehensible, oft-uttered phrase "aloo, aloo!" which he repeated in the ring. He had two different managers during his career to cut promos on his behalf. His first manager was Abdullah Farouk but when he managed full-time in WWF, Eddy Creatchman became his manager.

Noteworthy feuds and matches[edit]

His biggest feud was his seemingly career-long feud with Bobo Brazil in Detroit, the Sheik's main territory, The two feuded over Sheik's version of the United States Championship, frequently selling out the Cobo Arena. This is seen briefly on the "documentary" movie, I Like to Hurt People. The two took the feud to several markets, most notably Memphis, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California. His other major opponent in Los Angeles was Fred Blassie. Sheik and Blassie faced off several times, including cage matches in the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

In 1968, he was brought in to the WWWF for title matches with champion Bruno Sammartino. They met three times in Madison Square Garden -- Sheik won the first via count out; was disqualified in the second; lost to Bruno in a Texas Death Match via submission when Bruno grabbed a foreign object (pen) and hammered Sheik's arm to a bloody pulp. Sammartino and Sheik also had a series of matches in Boston, including one sell out the day after a crippling snow storm, and public transportation not yet restored.

Starting in 1969, he also wrestled regularly in Toronto, where he was undefeated for 127 matches at Maple Leaf Gardens. He defeated the likes of Whipper Billy Watson, Lou Thesz, Gene Kiniski, Bruno Sammartino, Édouard Carpentier, Ernie Ladd, Jay Strongbow and even André the Giant during Andre's first extensive tour of North America in 1974. It was Andre who put an end to the Sheik's Toronto winning streak in August 1974. Sheik continued to headline most shows in Toronto until 1977, but business dropped off significantly over the last three years.

Later he went to Japan. His run was successful but management squandered all the money so when the company went bankrupt, Sheik jumped to Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling. He jumped a year later to Inoki's New Japan Pro Wrestling but had a falling out and left Japan to wrestle full time in Detroit. He returned in 1977 for All Japan, teaming and feuding with Abdullah the Butcher. His match with Abdullah the Butcher against Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk where Terry fought off Butcher and Sheik with his arm in a sling is credited for turning the foreign Funks into faces in Japan.

Later career[edit]

In 1980, he wrestled for various independent promotions throughout the United States and Japan through the 1980s.

During the 1990s, he mainly wrestled in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and had various dangerous death matches. On May 6, 1992, The Sheik had a "fire deathmatch" with Sabu against Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto, where the ring ropes were replaced with flaming barbed wire and he got third-degree burns and went into a coma.

In 1994, he had a brief run in Extreme Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Pat Tanaka against Kevin Sullivan and Tazz. He wrestled his last match in Japan in 1998.

When Sabu joined WCW in 1995, Farhat joined him as his manager. During a match with Jerry Lynn, who was wrestling as "Mr. JL" at the time, Farhat had his leg accidentally broken by Sabu and Lynn during a spot no one told Farhat about.

Retirement and legacy[edit]

Sheik retired to his estate and he died on January 18, 2003 of heart failure. In his later years, Sheik provided extensive interviews to his biographer with the intent of publishing a book on his life. These interviews provided a highly explosive look into the world of wrestling, especially on the early days of the WWE and Japanese wrestling organizations. As a result, the interviews and draft book were sealed at the time of his death. Despite large offers for movie rights to this book, it is unknown when or if the Sheik's family will release the book.

He was one of professional wrestling's biggest box office attractions and he is seen as a pioneer of "hardcore wrestling" which became a major part of professional wrestling in the 1990s. On March 31, 2007, The Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his nephew Sabu and Rob Van Dam.

wrestlingcardking

A bunch of these hit ebay a few days ago and initially I thought there were too many listed and the prices would be depressed because of that. Needless to say I think my initial reaction is going to be very wrong and my prediction of these now is that the prices realized will be very strong. I have a set of these logged at PSA now and will have two complete sets after that batch is graded. I am curious to see the final prices. I would like for these to be in SMR but I have no idea on pricing them at this moment as I am unsure that PSA would have a clue at this moment either. Should be fun to follow.....

PS- I had all but one of the PSA 10s but did sell one of my extra Sheiks. The only 10 to date that I do not have is the Mil Mascaras.

Bosox1976

Fine work! Congratulations are in order

eagles33

Indeed. Great score. The slab adds a ton to these cards

wrestlingcardking

I'll have many 10s to add when I get these back from PSA, very happy to pull an Andre the Giant PSA 9 too! I have another one that is in similar grade

wrestlingcardking

I must say after having such good poppage on the 1973 Annual cards, I was thinking of making a run at this set in PSA 10 across the board. I had no idea if it was possible but something was a bit disturbing in that the biography back was off center on a handful of the wrestlers. After pulling a good percentage of PSA 10s on my last sub I learn that a certain nine wrestlers are on a page and not one have a got a Gem Mint grade.

The wrestlers on the sheet are:
Jack Brisco
Bull Bullinski
Haystacks Calhoun
Pampero Firpo
The Destroyer
Fred Curry
Killer Kowalski
Cowboy Bob Ellis
Edouard Carpentier

All these wrestlers have serious issues with their biography on back not matching the front (always off center). I don't think that PSA will completely disregard the back and assign a Gem Mint grade to that card although my theory is that the alignment of pages when the magazine went to print were set off unlike the other three pages. I am dealing with a small sample size of three magazines but all these cards show this characteristic and my magazines came from all over the US. This is my theory and I will be curiously watching the pop report of these nine wrestlers and if there ever is a gem mint from these nine wrestlers I will be sure to ask for a back scan.

I'll post some pics to this thread so people can understand what exactly I am talking about. The good news is that Andre the Giant is not one of them!

SumoMenkoMan

Interesting. So I wonder if PSA would start granting some leniency to these if that is in fact the case for all the sheets. Like the OPC rough-cut cards.

wrestlingcardking

The collector who is chasing DPeck on his all stars and in particular chasing him on his 1983 all stars rather closely has decided to come after me on my 1973s. He is a collector to reckon with, and it will be fun to see how this competition goes...... God bless the collector who decides to chase the two of us though simultaneously!

SumoMenkoMan

Yeah, I see that: brokensoul6900. I think he/she has a ways to go though. Maybe only a few hits away on the 83 however.

I think your 73 set is safe.

wrestlingcardking

Yeah after this last bunch he will have a hell of a time catching me. My theory is still proving accurate with none of the nine wrestlers achieving a PSA 10 grade from the one sheet. This may mean that only 27 of the 36 will be possible in a PSA 10 grade with the others able to get PSA 9 grades. Will be fun to watch the pop reports. A few other collectors have said they plan on subbing some 1973s to PSA. I'll be curious to how they do and how the elusive 9 wrestlers grade. I am looking to get 7 wrestlers in a PSA 10 grade from this point forward because I do not see the elusive 9 grading gem mint.

wrestlingcardking

I got a PSA 10 on the wrestler that was on the nine card sheet for the first time. Killer Kowalski was the wrestler and I have to say that I did a great job with the cut and thought it had a chance. I will have to put a scan of the back when I get it. If my memory serves me correct, I lost the card next to it in attempts of getting this one in a PSA 10 and it worked out. I am so excited as I wasn't sure this was a possibility.