Golden Gate Wrestling: A History

1960

The Northern California Bay Area was a hotbed for pro wrestling in the 1930s as promoter Will Janakowski put on weekly shows in the area, drawing red hot crowd.  But as old age got to him so did a lack of desire to innovate, to strive for greatness, to do anything more than maintain the status quo.

Enter Davis Prince.  Prince had been a top star throughout the Northeast during the 40s and early 50s.  With age catching up to him, his in-ring days were coming to an end in the late 50s when he decided to move to the West Coast.  Prince worked for Janakowski for a few years before deciding to call it a career as 1960 began.  With a career’s worth of savings, Prince made Janakowski an offer to take over his fledgling territory but Janakowski had no interest.  He was ingrained as the Bay Area promoter and in those days, if someone didn’t want to step aside, they would remain the promoter for that territory.

But Prince had other ideas and set out to start up what would be considered an “outlaw” promotion – Golden Gate Wrestling.  Janakowski was livid at this blatant breaking of pro wrestling protocol and when GGW launched in June of 1960, the Polish promoter did everything in his power to bankrupt Prince before he could get off the ground.  He overpaid wrestlers, offering bonuses to no show bookings for Prince.  He threatened to blackball anyone who worked for Prince from the business.  He even hired a gang of local thugs to intimidate any business offering to sell tickets to the GGW event.

GGW’s debut show was a bust… a big one.  Janakowski’s tactics had resulted in a horrible house and a financial bloodbath for Prince.  Despite pleadings from his family, Prince refused to back down and promoted a second show on the 4th of July.  Janakowski used the same tactics, convinced he could drive Prince out of business with one more bad showing.

It was another bad house… but on the spur of the moment, a pair of Japanese wrestlers came to Prince and asked if they could work the show.  They had relocated from Hawaii in 1959 but were unable to get a booking with Janakowski.  They offered to work for free and prove their value.  Prince, in typical promoter fashion, sent the Japanese duo out to the ring waving a flag of Japan and being as dastardly as they can be.  On that night, Hiroshi Goto and Kenji Kitao defeated a pair of hapless babyfaces, tormenting them and playing up the stereotypical behaviors that was sure to drive the fans crazy with rage.

Prince had a surprise up his sleeve as well.  After the Main Event, Goto and Kitao assaulted “Golden Boy” Grant Walker, bloodying him up in the process and burying him underneath the Japanese flag as the small crowd was whipped into a near riotous state.  In the front row happened to be a young man with a camera who snapped a photo of the horrific scene… and then sold it to the San Francisco Chronicle who ran it on the front of the sports page, decrying the actions of the evil foreign duo.

The photo sparked incredible interest in the duo and Prince raced to book a third show – right at the end of July to strike while the iron was hot.  He promoted the Japanese duo taking on Grant Walker and a young man returning from military service, Sgt. Steven Storm.  The hype for the show was through the roof and when Kitao and Goto told a local sports reporter that they planned to burn an American flag in the ring after they won their match.

Advanced ticket sales were through the roof resulting in Prince moving to a bigger venue.  There was blood in the water and Prince was moving in for the kill.  The big show arrived and when Storm came to the ring waving an American flag with the Marine Corps anthem blasting over the PA system, the crowd was ready for a big nationalistic showdown.

The match went a hair over ten minutes but all four men were busted open in the process.  It was a wild brawl that ended with Storm hitting a running clothesline, scoring victory for his team.  The Japanese duo bailed out as Storm and Walker celebrated…

…only to be assaulted after the match by Kitao and Goto, brutalized with the flagpole and left laying as the crowd begged for the Japanese duo’s blood.

The return match was set for Labor Day weekend… running directly against Janakowski’s annual Battle Royal event – a yearly supercard that saw wrestlers come in from all over the world for a Battle Royal with a huge cash prize.  It was a bold stroke by Prince but a calculated one.  No one would expect him to win this promotional showdown so he couldn’t lose… but if he could strike a significant blow towards Janakowski’s attendance on a night when he was outlaying so much money, Janakowski might be in financial trouble.

Labor Day arrived and Prince’s house was slightly down from the previous month due to the direct competition but it wasn’t down much.  Janakowski, on the other hand, ran his show in front of a half house and had serious promoter problems when he was unable (or unwilling) to pay many of the top stars who had come to San Francisco for his show.  The resulting flood of talent leaving Janakowski for Prince was a major shift in the Bay Area wrestling promotional wars and by the end of 1950, Janakowski had sold his right to promote in Northern California to Prince for a tidy sum.

The Labor Day show saw the Japanese duo win by the skin of their teeth but their attempt to burn the flag was interrupted by Storm wielding a wooden chair.  He chased them off, saving the American flag from desecration, and made a challenge for a flag match for October.

October’s show was another sold out event, bolstered by new talent coming over from Janakowski’s dying promotion.  The Americans won the flag match but as they were leading the SF crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, they were again assaulted by the Japanese duo, left a bloody mess as Kitao and Goto were rushed from the ring by a police escort.

In November of 1960, Prince was approached by an investment group from the Midwest who wanted to sink some money into the upstart territory.  He agreed and used the cash to bring in some new talent from Southern California as well as to sign an agreement for monthly shows at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

Prince showed his sharp promotional instincts yet again when he booked a show for Pearl Harbor Day – a show headlined by Storm and Walker against the foreign rule breakers in a Loser Leaves Town match.  The Japanese duo again made headlines when they swore to burn the flag upon winning the match.  The match was set.  The Cow Palace was sold out for this big year end event.

With an undercard featuring the debut of “The Strangler” Karl O’Connor from the St. Louis area and a pair of dazzling youngsters from Southern California in Kevin Cain and Willie Orr, the Cow Palace crowd was primed to see what they hoped would be the triumph of American justice and the fall of the evil Japanese duo.

It was a war.  A bloody, violent war that came to an end when Goto threw salt into the eyes of Carter, allowing Kitao to score a victory.  The Cow Palace crowd was stunned by the decision as Carter and Storm would now be forced to “leave town.”  The triumphant rule breaker duo taunted the crowd over the mic, whipping them into a frenzy and when they finally lived up to their promise and lit the American flag on fire, the building erupted into a full scale riot.  Kitao and Goto ended up fighting their way from the ring, assaulting several fans before escaping the building where they were rushed away in police cars to safety.

The first year of Golden Gate Wrestling was in the books and all anyone in the Bay Area could wonder is… how in the world do you top that?

1961

In January of ’61, Prince surprised many by announcing that the first championship in GGW would not be a singles title but a tag team title instead.  An 8 team tournament was scheduled for the first part of the year with matches on the first three shows culminating in a tournament final in March pitting Kitao and Goto, the hottest heels in the country at this point, being accompanied by armed police to the ring for their showdown with Karl O’Connor and local favorite Michael Moon.  Everyone was ready to see the Japanese duo finally get their comeuppance… but again, Prince shocked the fans by having Kitao cleanly pin Karl O’Connor – a big deal at the time when O’Connor was defeating everyone he faced – to win the title.  Kitao and Goto were the champions and immediately challenged any “dirty, sneaky, yellow Americans” to come and take their titles.

The summer of ’61 saw the Japanese duo turn back challenge after challenge.  Kevin Cain and Willie Orr almost won the titles in June but a over the top rope disqualification saved the titles for the rule breakers.  A rematch in July did big business but Kitao and Goto again emerged victorious.  As the summer came to an end, Kitao and Goto’s act was wearing thin on the Cow Palace crowd who were desperate to see a hero emerge.

In September, Prince took on the responsibility of running the annual Battle Royal show.  He brought in a third competitor from Japan – a former sumo named Akira Sato – who helped Kitao and Goto dominate the Battle Royal.  However, a group of fan favorites worked together to eliminate Sato and at the end, the Battle Royal was down to Kitao, Goto, and a young blonde-haired rookie Jimmy Willis.  Willis took a beating at the hands of the duo, being tortured and tormented by their tactics.  But just when things looked their bleakest, a stars and stripes mask wearing man came out at the top of the aisle.  The distraction was enough for Willis to shockingly toss both Japanese competitors to win the big cash prize.

The October show saw Goto and Kitao demand that the masked man come out to face them.  He did… and challenged them to defend their titles against he and GGW’s new babyface superstar, Jimmy Willis.  Kitao and Goto insisted the masked man was Sgt. Storm who was failing to live up to the Loser Leaves Town agreement.  He denied the charge, saying he was simply a proud American who had seen enough and that the fans could call him The American Soldier.

The match was booked for Pearl Harbor Day again – one year from the Loser Leaves Town match.  Again, it was bloody and brutal but this time, in the end, the makeshift duo of the American Solider and Jimmy Willis were victorious.  The crowd was ecstatic, roaring their support for the new champions as Goto and Kitao slinked off into the night.

1962

The start of ’62 saw several bloody rematches between the Japanese duo and the new champions but the Soldier and Willis just kept on winning.  In April, Goto and Kitao made a final challenge for a steel cage match.  If they lost, they would leave the United States forever.

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