Wrestling at the Chase

The show was the brainchild of Sam Muchnick, president of the St. Louis Wrestling Club, and Harold Koplar, who owned KPLR and the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

Initially, the matches were broadcast live on Saturday nights and repeated on Sunday mornings.

This production method was later replaced by a live-to-tape system, meaning that while the performances were recorded for later broadcast, they were shot entirely in one take as if airing live, so that no allowances were made for unforeseen or unscripted developments or events.

[3] On a few occasions, for matches that would attract larger crowds, the show would be recorded in the Kiel Auditorium or the St. Louis Arena.

He was joined in 1972 by Larry Matysik, who at the time, was also a part-time police officer in Belleville, Illinois.

The station made a deal by which the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) would produce its wrestling-related programming.

The WWF returned to the Chase Park Plaza for a final taping at 11am on Saturday, September 29, 1984.

[8] In July 2021 National Wrestling Alliance President Billy Corgan announced that the NWA would return to The Chase Park Plaza for a four-night series of events at the end of August 2021.