The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[David Mantell]

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On 4/6/2012 at 4:21 AM,  @ohtani's jacket said:

I watched a Rocco/Cullen match from Screen Sport yesterday that was completely different from the traditional WoS freestyle style and it sucked like the majority of Rocco's work. All that Screen Sport/ASW stuff is an abomination.

Well this wasn't it. This is from Reslo 1982.

Cullen isn't Chic yet, he's Dynamite Frankie Cullen.  Rocco has only just recently defected from ITV/Joint to Orig's BWF and would soon expand to Brian Dixon's Wrestling Enterprises.  I think Max Crabtree was quietly happy to see him go. Whereas Dixon was a big Rocco friend, Max saw him as a silly nutcase who smashed things up and kept getting banned from TV by the IBA.

It starts out as a similar faster paced version of clean British wrestling, like Round 1 of the Rocco Vs Dynamite Kid World Heavy Middleweight title match mere months earlier.  Rocco rolls out of wrist levers and unpicks them with a foot. Cullen snaps out of a side headlock and quickly convert it into an arm scissor.  Rocco gets a snap suplex and switches to a side headlock. Then the brawling breaks out. Rocco kicks the fallen Cullen in the head and drops an elbow.  A concealed punch, more kicks and a kneedrop follow.  Rocco gets a side chancery, snapmare and chinlock. Rocco does a lot of attacking of his floored opponent and the crowd do not like it. This may be odd to Americans as this is perfectly legal in America but it would get amazing heat not just in Britain but across Europe (see Judd Harris Vs Rolo Brasil on the German thread and several French bouts).  Rocco chinlocks Cullen then reels him in for a bodycheck that gets a 5 count. He stomps on Cullen's throat as the bell goes.

Rocco carries on in the same way for round 2 but Cullen surprises him with a sunset flip for a 2 count.  Cullen tries for Rocco's legs but Rocco knees him down.Rocco monkey climbs Cullen but he lands on his feet and dropkicks Cullen out of the ring. Rocco uppercuts Cullen from the apron and climbs the post but Cullen throws him off. He posts and atomic drops Rocco but Rocco gets the upper hand with the brawl. He throws Cullen out and obstructs his return so Cullen drags him out and stomps him at ringside, right in front of the town Mayor (his chain of office clearly visible onscreen)  Rocco slams Cullen at ringside and kicks him around. It's more ringside action than ITV would ever allow although nothing like as violent as French TV brawls going back to the late 70s.  Finally Rooco flips Cullen back in and paces about like a caged animal as the ref counts Cullen.  He goes for a slam but Cullen turns it into a small package getting a couple of 2 counts.  They brawl out the rest of the round.  During the interval, the commentator says something in Welsh about Canada - Cullen wrestled for Stampede a fair bit as Robbie Stewart.  

Round 3 and Cullen gets a waistlock rear suplex for a 2 count. Rocco works on weakening Cullen's leg.  He takes a bodycheck but comes back to backdrop Cullen to ringside.  An old lady (not a fan) wipes Cullen down with her towel. Rocco tries to intervene in Cullen's return but gets a public warning. He grabs Cullen off the corner for a slam and gets a rope assisted slingshot suplex then a regular one and cross press for the opening pin.

Rocco's attacks on the fallen Cullen gets too much and he gets his second and final Public Warning.  He argued with the ref and the crowd, giving Cullen plenty of time to recover and strike a chin kick on a charging Rocco.  cCullen slams and guillotine elbows Rocco - a bit late but the ref lets it go and he gets a 2 count on the pin. He tries typing up Cullen head in the ropes. Fans are chanting "Out! Out! Out!" for Rocco to be DQ'd. He bashed Cullen 's head in the corner but Cullen reverses a posting attempt, sending Rocco flopping to ringside selling an injury.  He reenters via the corner post but Cullen catches him with a top rope superplex that would have made the young Barry Windham around this time round, then turns into a pin cover for the 3 and the equaliser . 

Round 5 and Cullen jumps all over Rocco with stomps til he quits the ring, pointing in complaint. The ref agrees and gives Cullen a public warning. Rocco tries Cullen in the ropes and charges but Cullen dodges and  Roco sells an injury.  Cullen pulls Rocco off the ropes by both legs with a bump, headbutts Rocco's stomach a la Mr Fuji and double leg slingshot for a 2. Rocco, is then slingshot in to top turnbuckle. Rocco Tree of Woes Cullen but the ref will have none of it and unhooks Cullen's legs. He snapmares Frankie and they continue to brawl Cullen. chinlocks Rocco who slips out of the ring and wanders around a lot, soaking up the heat until the bell rings.

Round 6 and Cullen catches Rocco with a fine dropkick. Rocco snapmares Cullen and gets a 2 count.  Ditto a cross buttock and press. He gets a string of tombstone piledrivers on Cullen but keeps on pulling him up before finally holding him for 3 to win the match.

Wild Brawl with a technical bit at the start and occasionally therin.  Very like thOJ will like it. I'm rather keen to see this Screensport fight.

Cullen had a number of runs with the British Heavyweight Middle weight title until 1987 as well as a short world title run in the mid 80s.  He had another run later, from beating Robbie Brookside in 1992 and held it for a decade until his 2002 retirement. The following year 2903, it was Rocco and Cullen who curated the tournament for a new champion, won by one Brian Danielson in Croydon.

 

I assume this is the one @ohtani's jacket didn't like:

Cullen is British champion. Rocco is still World champion and has been spending a lot of his time making life miserable for two idiot presenters.  Good man.  He's been off ITV some years by now and has fully developed his Maniac persona in silver jacket, headband and Road Warrior/Demolition spiked gauntlet.  This is at Victoria Hall Hanley, we had a bit of an in depth look at this venue a page or so back. Referee is Frank Casey who also wrestled as the British Bushwhacker (see video 1993 Vs Spinner McKensie and finally ended up doing triple tags alongside the real Luke and Butch.  This is a trophy tournament final. No rounds just one fall to a finish.

No technical bit at the start, Rocco and Cullen brawl like on the first match, but like they are both on speed. Snapmares. Snap suplexes. Kip ups. Kick downs.  Sunset flip.  Cullen also has a Jim Breaks special, a hammerlock with bar and a French Catch style headscissors takedown. Screensport was very liberal about out of the ring brawls and the stage makes a good place to have them. At this point audiences are allowed to sit onstage (this was later banned by Health and Safety by the time of Dean Allmark Vs Mikey Whiplash 2003 as seen on here previously. Like a TV taping studio audience the crowd. One brawl near the end sees equipment from a "hospital radio table" (file under "Spanish announcer's table") and the live camera which still catches Rocco being thrown back in the ring.  

Cullen on the stage leaps over the ropes and catches Rocco with a missile dropkick that sends him tumbling to the theatre pit, in amongst the old grannies! This bit is surprisingly well shot from the back of the hall.   We get another excellent top rope superplex and a not so well filmed splash off the ropes by Cullen.  When Cullen is trapped in the ropes, the camera zooms in on him suffering and choking, tongue flapping out. The two fight in the theatre pit.m  A cardboard sign for the Screensport show gets used as a weapon.

When Cullen kicks Rocco in the head, one of the Chuckle Brothers makes a dreadful joke about using Rocco's head to score a goal for Liverpool FC and that Rocco's new song will  be "I ain't got no Body".  These two are like a working class version of the snooty French commentators.  

On a more positive note, Cullen neatly handstands his way out of a Frank Gotch toehold.

After a series of near knockouts. Rocco gets the winning pinfall with a Tombstone piledriver.  The trophy is presented by former world boxing champion Jon Conteh. Afterwards one of the Chuckle Brothers, Max Beesley, buttonholes Rocco about his rule bending ways and is beaten down.  Cullen, interviewed backstage, vows retribution on Rocco.  Roddy Piper,,if you can get Internet in the Afterlife, THIS IS HOW YOU DO A SCOTS ACCENT.

A lot of violent action, much of it utterly unsuitable for ITV. Fortunately ITV were happy to arrange compromises to edit the All Star style into sometwhich spiced up the ITV shows rather than demolished them. As for Rocco and Cullen, they appeared in that first All Star show on ITV. I think next I shall review that match.

All Star are returning to Victoria Hall Hanley next month. Buy your tickets now

[David Mantell]

So here is what ITV finally made of this matchup. Same referee too, Frank Casey.  Filmed at the London Hippodrome nightclub. with the bar in the background and thereby hangs an exasperating tale! Nice lightbulb tree either side of it though.  (In actual fact another show at the Lewisham Theatre Watford had already been filmed by this point.)

As with Reslo, they start off technical, using not just rolls but double handed backflips to untwist each others' wristlocks. Rocco gets a Full Nelson. but Cullen rears into him then comes off the ropes for a sunset flip 2 count.  Rocco gets in a few smashes to the back of Cullen's neck but he scientific wrestling resumes. Rocco considers an underarm suplex before going for a front chancery takedown. Cullen gets a hammerlock and Gotch toehold but Rocco powers up. Cullen bodychecks Rocco and gets a side headlock, then an "inner arm" blow off the ropes.  After the bell goes Rocco gets a headbutt in and it earns him a public warning.  

Cut to Round 3, Rocco gets a front facing piledriver in early.  He misses a knee off the corner for a seven count then Cullen headbutts him.  A second piledriver, somersault splash and a slingshot suplex get him the opening pin. Round 4 and Cullen breaks open a Rocco chinlock to gets an arm lever. A posting and then a dropkick.  Rocco goes over nicely on two hands from a whip for a feet first landing only to get another dropkick.  Rocco bodychecks Cullen but Cullen comes back with a cross buttock and press off the ropes for the equalising fall .

Round 5, Cullen slams and splashes Rocco, gets in some uppercuts, finally a brawl breaks out although not as wild as the Screeport one. Rocco soon gets a Second And Final Public Warning.  Cullen gets a suplex for a 2 count.  Cullen goes for the top turnbuckle but Rocco German suplexes him down by the legs. He gets a piledriver, a top rope guillotine (no public warning much to some consternation among the audience) and then a sidewards folding press (an American style Small Package) for the deciding pin.

Far more my sort of match than the Victoria Hall bout and an example of how All Star had to refine it's product to get mainstream respectability.

[David Mantell]

Sunlounge Death Match or Cheap location?

Jim Breaks, mid 80s, fell out of contention again for the British Welterweight Championship after losing to Danny Collins one too many times as we saw a few pages back but soon got himself a new title, the European Lightweight Championship from Jackie Robinson.  He also took the World title from Johnny Saint for a while in 1985. Today he faces Max Hunter, no relation to Rick nor Rebel Ray, at the Stoke Garden Festival in what can only be described at a spare hothouse for plants.  There is a visible audience on one side of the ring. perhaps 100 people.

Good technical start, Hunter wedges out of side headlock, Breaks spins horizontally on his backside out of a wristlever. Breaks starts work on Hunters arm, putting it in a hammerlock and getting in a stomp. Hunter levers and bridges out of a chinlock. He snapmares Breaks but the champion rolls through.  Figure four armscissor on Breaks.  Breaks working on Hunter's nose a lot.Hunter makes pin attempts using leverage out Breaks pushes out.Breaks continues work on Hunter's arm. Max gets a double arm on Breaks. Hunter goes to work on a Breaks leg.  Breaks attacks the eyes of Hunter and gets told off by  zFrank Casey.. Hunter gets a full Nelson but Breaks back kicks to foul his way out. He gets on a chinlock but Hunter double ankles smashes him. Breaks throws Hunter around but he takes it well and finally bounces off the ropes to spring power a headbutt.  Armdrags Breaks and gets a two. Hunter tries a reverse snapmares but Breaks drops Hunter, hammerlocked arm first.  He then kicks the arm which finally gets him a public warning.  A couple of postings where the arm takes the brunt, some stomps on the folded arm and finally a Breaks special and Breaks has the one submission required.

Probably the eyepokes would not have been acceptable for ITV but otherwise if British wrestling had TV squash matches Vs enhancement talent, this is what Jim Breaks' ones would look like. Only in a better venue than a greenhouse.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Cooper stays technical for a lot longer than you would expect in this bout but that doesn't make the crowd like him although Kent Walton takes a glass half full attitude, wishing that Cooper could stay technical for longer before the heeling kicks in.  I'm like that about Kendo Nagasaki's 1970s bouts. 

Pete Ross does several toupees (Gilbert LeDuc style inverted cross scissor throws, for those unfamiliar with French Catch) on Cooper and it gets his goat. He eventually gets a DQ after first accidentally then deliberately attacking the referee.  I feel sorry for Cooper here, he tries to be a good boy but the people won't have it and it all goes to pieces in the end.  A lot of good solid technical wrestling but I fear certain folk on here will find the ending unforgivable.