David Mantell

The full tape of the broadcast exists Kinescope print actually, 16mm black & white. Tapes were expensive and got reused at that point.

The seconds with the corner bucket were a familiar sight in the old days, usually aspiring wrestlers although Jeannie Clarke did some for her man Chris Adams including one TV bout. One old boy called Arthur was still seconding at Croydon for All Star into the late '90s Currently Rumble Promotions uses female seconds ("corner girls") for Nino Bryant's British Lightweight title defences.

The dancing was a German thing - they thought that a good way to get a babyface over was to make him dance like one of the spare members of a boyband. Alex Wright eventually took it to the States and seriously freaked out the Americans. I don't think the UK style was lost then or now - there are plenty of other clean matches from the modern era that I'm saving for the end but now seems to be a good time to post Johnny Saint vs Naohiro Hoshikawa from 1996 as an example of the UK style spreading around the world:

Something you neglected to mention - the face to face promo at the start where Brody recalls the legit incident where teenage Regal challenged him at Bobby Barron's booth at the Blackpool Horseshoe Showbar (as mentioned in Regal's book). "He had a big mouth at the beginning of his career, but tonight his career is finished."

The name EWF smacks of being Orig's work, a development on BWF as he called his promotion Flesh had - and still has - Wrestling Stars, formerly the IWSF, together with Jacky Richard

Saw the end of this in a shop window while out shopping with my gran while staying at her house in Surrey. Barry Douglas moonlighting as a heel, see also Clay Thompson as the Exorcist. Lost a triple tag to Daddy, Vic Faulkner and John Savage a few weeks later but got away with the mask untouched.

Try this one with Bernie Wright in Morecambe from 1981 (Don't worry, Bernie isn't yet Bearcat despite the video title.)

I was definitely a fan too. He started out as a green kid getting a consolation fall over Jim Breaks and shocking him in his 1983 TV debut. A year later he suddenly had a winning streak over Breaks and clearly had his number, beating him in a tournament then in a challenge where Breaks would pay him £500 pounds for any fall/submission/KO he could get, then winning the British Welterweight title from Breaks at the Royal Albert Hall and holding onto it in the 90 day return match before beating Breaks in a second return bout to put him out of contention. Soon afterwards Steve Grey beat Collins for the belt and a tearful Collins handed it over sportingly nontheless and astonishingly Collins got the win in the return match to get the belt back. Come FA Cup Final Day, in a support bout to the Daddy tag he beat German Jorg "Baron Von" Chenok for the European title and then spent each summer defending the belt for Roger Delaporte in France and North Spain. Sadly no INA footage of this but it's clear that by 1990ish he was VERY over with the French fans. Some good moves including his cartwheel counter to an armbar and a scoot through the legs that was like a train flying under a bridge, it was so swift. There's a win he got on camcorder over Johnny Saint somewhere in the southwest that I wish was up on Youtube.

They have both died in the last few years and the pub last I heard was up for sale. The Red/White/Blue world title belt that Bridges was awarded for beating Jim Harris at Wembley '81, then lost to Kendo in '87 and regained on a DQ in '88 was on display at the pub til it closed. No word on its current wherabouts.

Prince was actually British Welterweight champion by this point, having ended Doc Dean's second reign in 1993. His claim was gradually forgotten about until in 2000 when Scott Conway's TWA set up a new version which Johnny Storm and Jodie Fleisch feuded over. Comedy heel best known for a loaded boot which refs were desperate to catch him and DQ him over, and also losing a hair match to Robbie Brookside. Later on became a ref and quite a good old school one for the early 2010s: Another nice bloke like Kramer who it was good to chat to about old times at shows.

European Heavyweight title, Pat had it (for Orig), Stax took it off him for a while.

Barcud Du was El Diablo Tony Francis. These two bouts plus Orig vs Barcud all made up one episode of Reslo in 1987 Bill "King Kendo" Clarke could be a passable worker, I quite like the draw with Romany Riley and I've heard good things said about his tag team with kayfabe brother Ron Clarke (Dick Harrisson) as the Lincolnshire Poachers in the 70s.

I refer you also to Rocco's "Sensational Second" for his 1991 Paris Eurosport match with Danny Collins.

The Iraq bouts are from 1971. Promotion booked by Saddam Hussein at gunpoint - Andre and Gordienko did the job to Al Qaisi after Saddam threatened to shoot them. Iraqi wreslting was one of two full blown territories in the Middle East along with Rafael Halperin's promotion in Israel in the 60s/70s Probably both deserve their own thread. Don't know if there's any Halperin promotion footage but at least we have some of Saddam's. Continued even after Adnan fled back to the West - PWI had a story about a Baghdad show with Bad News Brown on the bill in December 1990 on the eve of Gulf War I.

He still does announcing for All Star and also did some commenting for a few online Rumble Promotions shows earlier this year. Lee Bamber - then and now:

I like this one because instead of pressing his advantage as a heavyweight, Douglas uses the opportunity to show off his technical prowess with Saint., so you forget it's a catchweight match.

Part of a HEATED feud with Brooks leaning towards heel. Hit its climax in June that year when Collins fell out of the ring during a Croydon title match, hit his head and dazedly attacked the referee, getting himself DQ'd and losing the title to Brooks. Collins was very ashamed afterwards and felt like he'd let his fans down. He got the title back in the 90 days return match.

I think I might have already dealt with this, or at least talked about it. Classic NagasakiSouth London crowd riot (I've spoken to people who think the rioters were hired actors - I could actually have introduced you to some of the rioters personally, back in the day) Nagasaki and Roberts had some good moment at the start till Adonis came in with his forearm smash. I wouldn't say Naggers was old, he was an evergreen like Terry Funk.

Sadly, Karl died late last year in his 50s. A nice bloke who liked to chat to me about the old days.

The match where Kent Walton finally became a fan of Regal. Best bits are between Danny and Robbie. Pete finally found his level as heel Mr Vain Pete Collins in the late 90s/early 00s, including a brother vs brother feud with Danny who had just recently gone back to blue-eye.

All Star never quite went full blown tribute although they put UK Undertaker, Big Red Machine and Legend Of Doom on as headliners a lot. I can tell you a fair bit about storylines - Carl "Karl Kramer" Davies apparently as British Heavyweight champion in 1998, a split between the Superflies with Ocean and the Canary Kid winning the tag belts that the 'flies had to vacate after the split. There are a few camcordings here and there but things pick up with the arrival or cameraphones in the Noughties.

I guess Max Crabtree had a farm. Pete Ross and a couple of others used this nickname to get over as a handsome young country boy. All Star's last ITV match, one of a couple left over from the final Bedworth TV taping where the Kendo Nagasaki hypnosis angle on Robbie Brookside was done. South as the kiddy favourite Legend Of Doom got to unseat heel Jones for his final World Mid Heavyweight Championship reign in April '99 over a decade later. Disqualifications were a bigger deal over here, not just because a title could change on one but because the heel throwing a stroppy over it would get a great pop from the audience, glad to see the villains get blistered like a naughty schoolboy by the headmasterly MC and ref.

Was initially rather cross about this review as there is a Saint win over McCoy on Reslo that I like a lot, but I've since found out that there were two and the one I like was the second match, whereas what you'vr got hold of here is the first match. This is the lacklustre first match: and here is the rather better second match with English commentary by veteran MC Lee Bamber whom you heard earlier as Mick McManus's sidekick on his 1988 videotape.

Clwyd I've already dealt with, Tony Stewart aka Billy Reid was getting quite a push in the early 90s. He had 21 months as British Lightweight Champion with Jimmy Ocean as twice interim heel champion and preceded and succeeded as long term champ by Steve Grey. On the Wrestling Madness videotape he does an interview with an odd quasi shoot interview about his excerise routine (including digging up sand with a plank of wood) conducted by an unusually subdued Princess Paula. He also has a match with Johnny Saint from Leeds, late 1995 but it is rather hard to watch as it was filmed some distance from thje ring.

A good early specimen of the Nagasaki Tag match that would fill the headline spot at many a small town show. The breakout of wild punching violence between StClair and Quinn ended in both DQd and thrown out in disgrace - StClair is actually the blue-eye attacking the referee and he turns even Kent Walton against him and seems fairly shamefaced once he's calmed down.