St. Louis, Missouri:  Friday, July 15, 1955
(Kiel Auditorium) ... NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz vs. Leo Nomellini ...
Bill Longson, Bobby Managoff and Pat O'Connor vs. Ike Eakins, Hard Boiled Haggerty
and Don Leo Jonathan ... Bobo Brazil vs. Jim "Black Panther" Mitchell ... Bobby Bruns vs.
Ray Villmer ... "Silent" George Hubert vs. Joe Millich ... (promoter:  Sam Muchnick)
Notes:  In the publicity, Thesz was billed as the defending champion.  Nomellini's victory
over Thesz on March 22, 1955 in San Francisco was mentioned in Muchnick's program,
"In the Ring and Sports Pointers," having won by disqualification.  "Since then, Nomellini
has been claiming the title, but the National Wrestling Alliance has refused to recognize
his claims since it has a rule that a championship cannot change hands on a foul."
Muchnick was promoting the show in conjunction with the Mississippi Valley Sports Club
and "had to outbid promoters from several cities and then had to receive the approval of
the NWA's Heavyweight Championship Committee to land the match for St. Louis."
Muchnick announced:  "I believe this will be the greatest match of our time.  I won't try to
predict the outcome, but Thesz is not getting any younger and his seven-year hold on
the title may be near the end." This match was not billed as a title unification match.  
Nomellini, in fact, was billed as the number on contender in St. Louis.  It was also noted
that Thesz and Nomellini had great success in terms of drawing in San Francisco.  The
question was, would the same be said for their St. Louis match after four months of
controversy and build-up?  To help with the publicity, Ed "Strangler" Lewis was arriving in
St. Louis on July 1 and was going to be heard almost daily in various media forms.  Public
workouts of Thesz and Nomellini were staged at the St. Louis House on July 2 and July 9
at 1:30 p.m., and broadcast on KSD-TV.  Thesz was going to take half of the time,
working with Lewis and Nomellini the other half, training with Joe Malcewicz.







Research by Tim Hornbaker
December 23, 2010
St. Louis Wrestling Results - 1955