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Pat O'Connor


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Pat O'Connor was born in Raetihi, a small town in the central North Island of New Zealand which I doubt any of you have heard of. Since I was born a ways up the road, I've taken it as my moral duty to chronicle the exploits of New Zealand's greatest pro-wrestler this side of Tony Garea, Rip Morgan and the Kiwi guy in the Sheepherders.

 

Pat O'Connor vs. Dick Murdoch (12/15/75)

 

O'Connor looked every bit the maestro here when he actually wrestled. Unfortunately, they spent forever in a headlock spot that was neither sold well from the top nor the bottom. Bloody awful thing it was. Every now and then you'd get glimpses of O'Connor's technical skill, but it wasn't until the stretch run that there was a fun combo of comedy and holds. And just when I was getting the taste of all that time killing shit out of my mouth it ended. Would rather had half the length, no headlocks and a finish, but O'Connor ruled in the maestro bits.

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Pat O'Connor vs. Bob Orton Sr.

 

This was rad. Orton was this big, ornery dude who really looked to over power O'Connor with his strength. Our boy Pat would have loved to have stayed in a headlock all day long, but he took exception to Orton's roughhousing and every now and again tempers would flare. When they did get done some serious holds, as O'Connor matches seem to do in the latter half of his bouts, the wrestling was the type of matwork you crave for. The finish was an interesting idea, but O'Connor kind of fluffed the final pin.

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I'm saving that for the main course.

 

Pat O'Connor vs. Ric Flair (St. Louis)

 

Ted Dibiase was on commentary for this studio match and you don't get any prizes for guessing what happens. I don't know if this is available in full, but the clip I watched showed about two or three minutes of a ten minute studio match that looked to be the usual awesome Flair studio match. O'Connor was even more of a veteran here than in the Murdoch match and they were basically putting over his toughness at this point as not being a guy who quits, but he got a few licks in before the angle and again looked like a lucha or British maestro.

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That Parente match is a lot of fun. The commentator sounds like he's DJ'ing at a club, which I guess was what he was doing essentially. You could tell it was the 50s with all the talk of Cape Canaveral, astronauts and test patterns from Mars, not to mention the commercialism of reading out an advert for Bavarian beer. The post-match was fun too with O'Connor's Americanised Kiwi accent.

 

Pat O'Connor vs Killer Kowalski (Montreal 7/22/54)

 

Hard to tell for sure because it was only reel footage, but this looked like a great match. One of the things I've enjoyed about O'Connor so far is that aside from being a great technical worker he's also a fairly decent brawler. Plus he looks like he could've stepped straight off the farm and played rugby for New Zealand alongside Collin Meads, Don Clarke and all the other great players of the 50s. Kowalski looks good here too and does an excellent job working from the top. The ref bump in the third fall is one of the nastiest looking ref bumps I've seen. The dude gets steamrolled.

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Clicked on the link for the match against Jack Wilson just to check out the video quality and ended up sucked into the atmosphere of the era. First fall had an interesting finish and the second fall based around Wilson's attempts to reach into his tights while keeping O'Connor in a headlock was very good. Glad I watched this, will have to watch more from this thread.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I wish wrestlers still wore capes like in that Wilson match.

 

Saw a clip of old man O'Connor challenging Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title and still looking pretty good, though Bockwinkel gave him too much of the finishing stretch before retaining his championship for mine. Also saw brief clips of O'Connor against Shohei Baba, which looked like a treasure trove if it were in full.

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One of my favorite matches of all-time. A tremendous babyface against an awesome heel. I really wish there was more footage of O'Connor as NWA Champion but this showcases him as one of the better babyfaces and workers I have seen.

 

 

Buddy Rogers vs Pat O'Connor

I watched this for the first time yesterday, because I never thought to look for it for whatever reason.

 

Great match. I know this is a POC thread, but it lead me into a Rogers wormhole, and he's a lot better than people over the years had led me to believe.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pat O'Connor vs Lorenzo Parente from St. Louis 1962

 

Part 1:

 

Part 2:

 

This is some great technical wrestling. After the match O'Connor does a demonstration of holds with Joe Garagiola that is hilarious.

 

We just discussed this match for a future episode of The Titans Of Wrestling. O'Connor on the mat was a real treat. Everything he did was fluid.

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  • 10 months later...

Pat O'Connor vs Bob Orton Sr, in three parts...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA--kPCfKu0

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOYVO66oKw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOYVO66oKw

 

The worst part about this match is that between the black and white footage and overall video quality, it's sometimes hard to tell the two apart. (The second worst is Russ Davis. I am anti-Davis, which sucks considering how much I love this era.) We think of O'Connor as primarily a technical wrestler, which he is, but I thought he was also effective here as a reluctant brawler. Orton's also very good here. I love the little touches like breaking the head scissors to use the knee, and then going back to the hold. I further appreciate the referee getting in to make one- and two-counts when the wrestlers are on the mat in holds and shoulders hit the mat. Helps give the whole thing more of a sense of legitimacy alongside the struggling for holds and counterwrestling I really enjoy.

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  • 11 months later...

Buddy Rogers vs. Pat O'Connor (6/30/61)

 

Finally got around to watching this nearly two years after I started the thread. This had a heck of a lot more action than I was expecting. The first fall in particular was frenetic by the standards I was expecting. I loved the psychology of Rogers taking the first fall completely against the run of play. I would have liked to have seen him press his advantage a bit more during the second fall, but I'm not that familiar with him as a worker and don't know how much offence he had. O'Connor completely dominated the bout offensively .I'm not sure if that's because Rogers was going over, or because Rogers was the bumping, stooging type with little in the way of serious offence, but it as notable that he took the title on another mistake from O'Connor. I'm guessing that was Rogers' style and that dominant babyface champions were common back then. There was too much dissonance between the psychology in the first fall and the rest of the bout for me to view it as an all-time classic, and I would have liked to have seen a proper heat segment on O'Connor instead of Rogers backpedaling the entire match, but there was never a dull moment and it was a thoroughly entertaining bout in terms of the pace they set and the action that was delivered. Great promo by Rogers afterward.

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