Nick Gulas Wrestling Autographs

by Patricia
(Carthage, TN)

I obtained the autographs of Tojo Yamamoto, Freddie Blassie, Roy Welch, and Herb Welch in the mid 1950s when wrestling was popular in Nashville, TN at the Hippodrome. I was a young girl about age 10 and let them sign the same autograph book that my friends at grammar school signed. This was the time during which Nick Gulas was doing the promoting. I would go up to the ring when the match was over and obtain the signatures. I would like to know what these might be worth.

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Nick Gulas Wrestling Autographs

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Feb 17, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Tennessee Wrestling
by: Bill

Those were certainly four of the top wrestlers in the south during that era. You probably continued attending wrestling cards into the early 1960s. Tojo Yamamoto didn't begin working for Nick Gulas until then.

A top tier wrestler as far back as the 1930s, Roy Welch was also a promoter. He and Gulas operated the biggest wrestling promotion in the South in the 1950s and 1960s.

Herb Welch was Roy's brother and a main event caliber wrestler.

Of the four autographs that you have, Freddie Blassie was the most well known wrestler nationwide. He was a star from the 1940s to his last run as a manager in the WWF in the late 1980s.

There aren't many collectors of vintage wrestling, but those who do collect are serious about the hobby. I have found that eBay is the best place to find these collectors. They might find a buyer at $25 - $50 for the lot.



Feb 18, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Tojo Yamamoto
by: Patricia

It couldn't have been in the early 1960s. It had to have been no later than 1957 as it was just a brief time that my mother took me. I suppose Tojo Yamamoto could have had a wrestling match there before he started working directly for Nick Gulas.

It's odd that a writer said that Freddie Blassie was one of the bad guys. The short time that I attended, he appeared to be the crowd favorite and one of the good guys. This is from the perspective of a 10 year old.
Feb 19, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Tojo and Blassie
by: Bill

Very little is known about Tojo pre-early 1960s. He was not "from Japan" as billed. He was an American, born in Hawaii, real name Harold Watanabe. The first record that I have seen of him as a wrestler was Florida, 1961-1962. Then he went to Tennessee to work for Gulas, where he spent the majority of his career. He wrestled for short periods in the Carolinas and Texas under other names.

Freddie Blassie spent the majority of his career as a heel but in the 1950s when he first came to the South from the West Coast, he worked as a babyface. When he turned heel, he was probably the number one heel working the South.

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