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High on a long list of recent foreign importations is Russia's Sergei Kalmikoff, who weighs 235 lb., sports a straw-colored beard, a closely-cropped skull. Out of the ring, his .favorite pastime is to parade down Broadway, dressed in a gold-braided Cossack tunic with cartridge belt, boots, an astrakhan hat. In the ring, his customary procedure is to stroke his beard pensively, glower at spectators. His favorite hold is the Russian Bear Hug, nothing more than an earnest attempt to squeeze the living daylights out of his opponent. Last week Wrestler Kalmikoff, an ardent Communist, took his $25,000 earnings, shaved his beard, sailed back to Russia.
Chief Little Wolf (né Tenario), a Navajo tribesman who started as a welterweight (145 lb.) and worked up to heavyweight, is the current red-skinned attraction. The Chief trains on raw meat, spends his spare time weaving blankets, fashioning bracelets and necklaces. Considered the Beau Brummell of the wrestling world, he sports huge sombreros, checked suits, fancy vests, embroidered boots. If his specialty, the Navajo war whoop, fails to prostrate his opponent, he employs the Indian Death Lock, a crushing leg hold.
Another in the new crop of Western sensations is beautifully built Dean Detton, better known as the Mormon Flash, who attributes his success to religious adherence to the tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Inexplicable to many is the ability of wrestlers night after night to heave each other around, bounce outside the ring onto concrete floors, go through seeming agonies. Rough & tough anyway and reinforced by several layers of fat, wrestlers have learned how to fall, when to fall, how to fake, when to call quits. Consequently they escape with few injuries beyond strains & bruises.
Responsible for most physical pain and damage have been the four famed Dusek brothers, who have meticulously adhered to their slogan, "Never a Dull Bout with a Dusek." Last week in Manhattan the four Duseks appeared on the same card, made themselves thoroughly unpopular by savagely thumping & kicking their way to victories in three out of four matches. Only 215-lb. Emil, lightest and mildest of the four, was unable to win.