The wrestling doc so raw, PBS funded it then immediately chickened out.
Friday Night in the Coliseum is a short film featuring wrestling performances recorded at the Sam Houston Coliseum, in Houston, Texas, along with interviews with audience members and wrestling promoter Paul Boesch. The film features many wrestlers who were well-known in Houston, including The Crusher, Nick Kozak, Red Bastien, Dory Funk, Stan Stasiak, Johnny Valentine, Thunderbolt Patterson and Wild Bull Curry. The creation of this film was supported by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, however, the film never aired on television.
Production
CPB grant makes this accidentally the most punk PBS project ever.
Acting
Paul Boesch's promoter interviews are pure sweaty poetry.
Director
Jack York
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This captures territory wrestling's dying days before Vince McMahon's national takeover in 1984. Houston was a crucial feeding ground for what became WWE.
Geoff Winningham was a legit photographer who later became a Guggenheim Fellow—imagine explaining these bloodstained negatives to that committee.
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