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Principal_Raditch
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Was reading Greg Oliver's interview with Angelo Mosca jr re: his father's passing. Didn't realize he'd also played college football at Concordia University in Montreal, and was actually a co-captain of the team a few years before he started his short wrestling career. Found this archived photo of him and the other captains from 1980
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GregOliver
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What a great photo!
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The Ultimate Sin
HALL OF FAMER
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I realize he was pretty bland, and correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't seen much of his work, but he was an average at best worker, but why was his career so short?
Those aspects never stopped guys from having long careers during the territory days. Especially with Vince grabbing talent you'd think promotors would grab him for name recognition. I read a lot about him in the Apter mags, and as a kid I assumed he was really good.
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One Fan Gang
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You can see based on the territories both Angelo Jr. and Senior worked together that it was really a family affair, and with Angelo's name value the promoters could produce some angles that might draw money. They liked traveling together and in essence, King Kong was for the first time playing on the offensive line, opening holes for Junior to make his modest gains. After the Florida, Mid-Atlantic and WWF runs, when opportunities were drying up, Angelo Jr. moved on to his next line of work. Giving him a brief career push was worth a try.
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Spatulapup
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The Ultimate Sin wrote: I realize he was pretty bland, and correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't seen much of his work, but he was an average at best worker, but why was his career so short?
Those aspects never stopped guys from having long careers during the territory days. Especially with Vince grabbing talent you'd think promotors would grab him for name recognition. I read a lot about him in the Apter mags, and as a kid I assumed he was really good.
If only he was average at best. He was bad. His promos were even worse.
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Blazer
Head Auditor, CPA
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Spatulapup wrote: The Ultimate Sin wrote: I realize he was pretty bland, and correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't seen much of his work, but he was an average at best worker, but why was his career so short?
Those aspects never stopped guys from having long careers during the territory days. Especially with Vince grabbing talent you'd think promotors would grab him for name recognition. I read a lot about him in the Apter mags, and as a kid I assumed he was really good.
If only he was average at best. He was bad. His promos were even worse.
Mosca Jr probably falls somewhere between Erik Watts and post-stroke Mike Von Erich on the scale of most-over-pushed wrestling kids in history.
That's not to say he may not have grown into a better worker at some point, but seeing him beat Ivan Koloff for the Mid-Atlantic belt when he was green as a cucumber was just really bad. He needed to be working in a small territory for a couple of years before going to Crockett.
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Blazer
Head Auditor, CPA
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That's probably kinda harsh, I just think he got pushed into a bad situation too early. I think a year or two in Calgary would have been helpful.
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Spatulapup
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He won the Mid Atlantic belt about 5 months into his pro career. That was fast. lol whoever was booking whether it was Dory Funk, Ernie Ladd, Gary Hart, pushed him hard as a favor to Mosca Sr maybe. There is a match against Ivan Koloff and Mosca Jr is trying to put the figure four on him and he does not know how to do it. Ivan sells it anyway and even tries to help him. Poor Ivan. I hope he got a bonus for having to wrestle him for months. But he was only in wrestling for about a year and a half if that. He should not have been pushed that hard so fast. He may have improved if he stuck around.
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Angelic Assassin
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Blazer wrote: Spatulapup wrote: The Ultimate Sin wrote: I realize he was pretty bland, and correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't seen much of his work, but he was an average at best worker, but why was his career so short?
Those aspects never stopped guys from having long careers during the territory days. Especially with Vince grabbing talent you'd think promotors would grab him for name recognition. I read a lot about him in the Apter mags, and as a kid I assumed he was really good.
If only he was average at best. He was bad. His promos were even worse.
Mosca Jr probably falls somewhere between Erik Watts and post-stroke Mike Von Erich on the scale of most-over-pushed wrestling kids in history.
That's not to say he may not have grown into a better worker at some point, but seeing him beat Ivan Koloff for the Mid-Atlantic belt when he was green as a cucumber was just really bad. He needed to be working in a small territory for a couple of years before going to Crockett.
Watched that match on YT earlier to refresh my memory. Just terrible. Ivan should have just pinned himself. Would have been more interesting.
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Franchise
Low key big hog
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In my limited exposure to him he was the complete package; boring in the ring, boring interview and bad look.
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GregOliver
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In my interview with him
https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2021/11/08/angelo-mosca-jr-shares-laughs-and-lessons-from-his-father/
he admits he wasn't cut out for the wrestling business and just wasn't comfortable out there.
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Spatulapup
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I was watching a promo of him talking about Assassin 1 and Mosca Jr calls him Jody. His real name. Pretty bad. Lol
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Blazer
Head Auditor, CPA
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That botched figure-four….I just watched that earlier this summer.
Just awful. WrestleCrap bad.
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KGB
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Blazer wrote: That botched figure-four….I just watched that earlier this summer.
Just awful. WrestleCrap bad.
I just watched it...ouch.
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Spatulapup
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He started in Florida in 1983. Had some matches in Kansas City/St.Louis, Went to Mid Atlantic until September 1984. Went back to Florida for a bit and then had around 4 or 5 matches in the WWf into 1985.
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Blazer
Head Auditor, CPA
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I started buying wrestling magazines in '84. At the time in Chicago, we were only getting AWA, WWF and World Class on tv. So, there was an entire universe of wrestling that I had no idea about. Reading the Apter mags at the time, I thought Mosca Jr was bigger than life, and then they just suddenly stopped talking about him. He didn't quite get the Luger or Bigelow push, but it was pretty epic.
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Spatulapup
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The magic of those wrestling magazines back then. They built them up so well you looked forward to seeing them in person if you hadn't.
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The Ultimate Sin
HALL OF FAMER
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Spatulapup wrote: The magic of those wrestling magazines back then. They built them up so well you looked forward to seeing them in person if you hadn't.
100% I thought Mosca Jr. was great because the Apter mags made it seem that way & he was a champion, so he must be great, right?
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One Fan Gang
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Big Ang and his PWI t-shirt at the first Starrcade is a long-standing memory. All the undercard guys seemed to be dressing formally after their matches, but that burnt orange color on a 4XL frame leaves a burn mark on the brain.
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