The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[Herodes]

I think the comparison between British wrestling and RINGS, and the suggestion that it was presented as a 'legit sport' is way off. It was very much centered in the British traditions of pantomime and especially has a huge amount of parallels with the British institution of Music Hall / Variety (most similar to vaudeville in the US) where there were hundreds of shows a week in almost every town featuring comedians, music acts, magic, ventriloquists, animal acts, strongmen etc on bills structured like a wrestling show. When TV kicked in they created 'main event' variety stars like Max Miller and Tommy Cooper who would then appear in the halls all over the country supplemented by the other 'gimmick' acts (e.g. the snake charmers, acrobats etc), many of whom would could TV exposure every now and then.

 

It is important to remember the whole model of the business was completely different, it wasn't a single touring company with a stable of performers - there were literally hundreds of shows per week all over the UK. The purpose of TV was to showcase wrestlers from all over the country (many of whom would only appear once or have years between TV appearances due to the huge number of wrestlers) and create flamboyant 'TV stars' - the likes of Les Kellett, gimmicks like Nagasaki and panto villains like Pallo, McManus and Breaks - to draw on the cards across the country. There was no real model for the TV to be used for any week-to-week narratives or to build to any specific card or super show, they had 45 minutes a week in a very good time slot before the football results (in the era of only 3 TV channels nationally and no cable or other alternatives) to put on 2 matches, show some of the wrestlers from the thousands out there and feature a 'TV star' like a McManus to make nationally-known star performers with the intention of driving the hundreds of weekly live shows.

 

One last thing - while World of Sport was ITV's version of BBC's Grandstand, unlike Grandstand which had a Saturday afternoon of 'proper sport', World of Sport was always the less serious version and mostly featured minority and niche sports they could find like ten pin bowling, darts, stock car racing, show jumping, lacrosse etc so wrestling fit into the spirit of the show. 'The wrestling' was always viewed very much as entertainment not sport with the cheeky panto villains getting attacked by handbag-wielding grannies and the gimmicks like Kendo, Adrian Street, Catweasle, Daddy, Haystacks et al...and those were the most popular wrestlers more comparable to what was shown on ITV's Sunday night at the Palladium than any 'real' sportsmen. It's place in the culture was as very popular light-hearted and affordable weekly live entertainment for the working classes totally in line with the Variety tradition that brought a little glitz and glamour to thousand of halls across the country featuring stars that had been seen on the telly.

[FLIK]

Part of it is atmosphere and has nothing to do with what is happening in the ring. Excited announcers and screaming crowd.

WoS crowds could get quite into it, they'd cheer loudly for a really good fast exchange of high spots and boo the shit out of some of the more hated heels. Watch something like Steve Veidor vs Al Hayes whear the crowd is so pissed at Hayes they're near ready to riot.

 

Are there any bloodbaths?

I generally do like the Jim Breaks and Johnny Saint matches I've seen. I just haven't seen one that I've loved yet.

No true bloodbaths, no. Given how they sold things, if someone donned a Ric Flair lvl crimson mask the match would imediatly be stoped, multiple ambulances called, the heel who busted him open would be murdered by the angry mob of fans and the guy who got busted open would be out for months

 

Have you watched the Breaks vs Saint matches? Those are maybe the closest thing i've seen as the over riding theme of them is "fuck you you prick i'm gonna break your fuckin nose in a really violent manner"

 

 

There were a lot of angles and gimmickry on top involving Big Daddy that nobody watches because Big Daddy sucks.

I like Big Daddy myself, no he's not someone you're gonna recomend in a thread talking about the best of British wrestling and I don't go out of my way to track him down but when I ocasionally run across a match of his I usually think his act is fun and come away entertained. It helps that he's usually teamed up with and or facing a really absurdly weird cast of characters.

 

 

One of the more amusing things i've seen in WoS is Finlay coming down to the ring with a giant picture of Big Daddy. His Indian Princess wife Paula scribbles all over Daddy's face then Finlay dropkicks a giant hole in it

 

 

There was also a bunch of gimmickry with Kendo Nagasaki and workers of his ilk. The heavyweights would occasionally call each other out as well. I've seen Tony St. Clair come to the ring in street clothes on more than one occasion, as well as angles involving Bomber Pat Roach and others. There was the occasional gimmick match too such as the handicap matches or the money per round or fall bouts. There was also the arm wrestling shtick that Myers used to do,

One example I always liked was the Mask vs Undefeated Streak match between Kung Fu vs Mick McManus

 

and of course tag matches were British wrestling's version of a cage match or some other type of rare stipulation bout.

I wouldn't quite say that. Early on they were pretty rare but they became pretty common place after a while with their being tons of regular tag teams by the end.

[Bix]

Part of it is atmosphere and has nothing to do with what is happening in the ring. Excited announcers and screaming crowd.

WoS crowds could get quite into it, they'd cheer loudly for a really good fast exchange of high spots and boo the shit out of some of the more hated heels. Watch something like Steve Veidor vs Al Hayes whear the crowd is so pissed at Hayes they're near ready to riot.

That match has possibly my favorite thing from any available WOS match:

 

- Veidor covers Hayes.

- Ref starts count standing several feed away.

- Hayes screams something like "SURELY YOU CAHN'T SEE MY SHOULDERS FROM THERE!" and the crowds ROARS with boos.

[ohtani's jacket]

That was a hell of a post, Herodes.

[PeteF3]

With the '70s Breaks/Saint match above being a notable exception, you're not going to find much in the way of blood on TV. ITV had strict rules for what was allowed. House shows allowed for more leeway in terms of blood, brawling, and occasional gimmick matches, and their own card-to-card storylines. Of course, there's not much to be done from our end for enjoying any of that. The only bladejob I've seen was by Wayne Bridges in his title match against John Quinn and that resulted in an immediate stoppage.

 

(Quinn wasn't a great worker but he was a heat magnet--one of my favorite WOS spots ever is him charging across the ring at the first round break to clobber Bridges with a big boot, which was totally awesome and unexpected after seeing countless matches with even the heels respecting the bell).

 

In terms of TV storylines there's the Pete Roberts vs. Wayne Bridges feud from the early '80s when Bridges was Joint's "World Heavyweight Champion." Bridges got DQ'd in a non-title match while heeling it up for most of it, then got beat 2-0 in a rematch to set up a title bout at the Royal Albert Hall, with Bridges working heel for probably the only time in his career. The copy of the Albert Hall match that I have is missing the first few rounds (no falls) but would be my #1 if I had to turn in an '80s ballot for Europe tomorrow, and is one of the 3 or 4 best WOS matches I've seen. Roberts was hit or miss in Japan with more misses than hits but I've yet to see a bad performance out of him in England.

 

Steve Veidor vs. Gwyn Davies for the British Heavyweight title from 1976 is still my favorite WOS match that I've seen. No blood but plenty of heel vs. babyface hate, actual near-falls, and neat psychology with finishes and spots building off each other throughout each decision.

[ohtani's jacket]

I was trying to remember if I'd ever seen anyone bleed hardway in WoS.

 

Veidor/Davies is definitely a match that I think Loss would enjoy.

[Al]

Big Daddy's an awful wrestler. But weirdly I can also buy him as credible. A man of his stature would be awfully difficult to tackle in a legitimate wrestling match or fight. Particularly in a style such as WOS that eschews brawling. I mean, Daddy just looks immovable.

[Jingus]

Problem is, he's as immobile as he is immovable. And how can you seriously talk about "credibility" when the majority of his offense was just having the heels bounce themselves off his belly?

[FLIK]

Well, hey, if you ran into a dude that fat you'd be more likely to get knocked down then him

[ohtani's jacket]

Updated my list with some of my recent picks:

 

Steve Grey vs. Keith Haward (2/5/85)

Jon Cortez vs. Keith Haward (1/13/87)

Keith Haward vs. Chic Cullen (3/5/84)

 

I really like Keith Haward. He had no personality whatsoever but he was a wrestling machine. The Cortez bout is the least problematic as the booking holds back the other two matches, but I really liked how Grey was forced to bring the physical side of his game to a catchweight contest with Haward and the Cullen bout was really solid wrestling with a really shitty finish.

 

And one of Flik's picks, which I wrote about at Wrestling KO:

 

Abe Ginsberg vs. Pete Curry (10/23/74)

 

This ruled. It was one of Flik's choices over at PWO for the best WoS bouts. And a good thing he mentioned it too as I would've never watched it on name value alone. Ginsberg seemed like an interesting character. He wore a black leather helmet to the ring and Walton commented about how he often had a go at Kent through the ropes. He was all business here, however. He went up a class to take on a heavyweight in Curry and for a heavyweight match this was peppered with awesome looking holds, stiff moves and smash mouth wrestling. Sadly, as with a couple of other great looking workers this is the only Ginsberg match on tape. Gutted.

 

Speaking of Wrestling KO, here is my monstrous European wrestling thread -- http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/i...c=2555&st=0

[ohtani's jacket]

Added -- Chic Cullen vs. Rocky Moran (5/2/84)

 

One guy who was on TV a lot in the 80s was Chic Cullen. He was an average looking Scottish bloke with a bad hair cut who was a fairly decent worker that they put some stock in. The more I watch of him, the more I'm starting to like him or at least acknowledge him as a mainstay.

 

This was an outstanding title match for Cullen's British Heavy-Middleweight belt. Moran was from the same stable of workers as Finlay and a cheat basically. Usually, the heels shelf that type of work in a title match in similiar fashion to lucha, but not this time. Moran was being badly outwrestled at the beginning of this match (in fact, at first I couldn't figure out why Cullen was getting all the offense) until he finally began a barrage of illegal moves. There was an awesome spot where Moran pleaded with the ref not to give him a public warning and as the ref gave it went straight back to attacking Cullen. Cullen sold all this big time and the crowd was heavily into it. Alan Kilby was sitting at ringside waiting to see who he would challenge for the title and opening rooting for Cullen. Great match.

[FLIK]

11/21/1987 (World Heavyweight Title) Wayne Bridges © vs Kendo Nagasaki

 

I know this is supposed to be a best of thread but this was so bad I had to bring it up. Maybe i've just been lucky but one of the things I like about WoS is that I rarely run into crap matches. Not that all of them are good of course but most will atleast qualify as average, with enough good parts to make them watchable and not a complete waste of time. This, was awful though, scared the crap out of me to know it was scheduled for 15 rounds as I was sick of it by the 3rd and wanting to gouge my eyes out by the 5th or 6th. They're full on 100% into the entertainment era by now and the most amusing highlights of this were Kendo & his manager George Cullen calling out Hulk Hogan in a pre match promo backstage and the match ending in a freakin ref bump (first time i've ever seen one in a WoS match) allowing Kendo to get the win by attacking Bridges from behind as he was helping the ref up.

 

Post match is insane with Kendo, a small kid about 7 or 8 yrs old dressed up like Kendo that he brought to the ring with him, his manager and Kendo's fan club which mainly seemed to consist of dirty hippies and ppl that looked like Manson family rejects all having a giant celebration in the ring while the rest of the crowd pelts them with garbage. All poor Kent Walton can do utter "well that was certainly diffrent" as they go off the air. Top 10 worst WoS match i've seen easy.

 

On a more positive note, the same episode had a Marty Jones vs Cas Martin match from 3/27/1982 that was damn good. It ended way too early when Martin too a sick bump over the top for the KO finish in the 5th or so round but up until then it was great action. Reminds me that I really need to see more Cas Martin matches as he's been really impressive in the few i've seen so far and looked like he was prob one of the better guys of his era.

[Mad Dog]

Problem is, he's as immobile as he is immovable. And how can you seriously talk about "credibility" when the majority of his offense was just having the heels bounce themselves off his belly?

I watched two Big Daddy matches and that was enough for a lifetime.

[ohtani's jacket]

I remember liking that Kendo Nagasaki/Wayne Bridges match and Bridges is one of the WoS guys I dislike the most along with Mal Sanders and John fucking Naylor. I take it you haven't watched the Nagasaki/Myers match or any of the Screen Sport stuff?

[MJH]

I don't remember having seen that Kendo/Bridges match, but the one in which he hypnotises Robbie Brookside is enough to put anyone off the guy for good.

[FLIK]

Fit Finlay vs Chris Adams 10/17/1981

 

Shockingly this ruled

Clean shaven 23 yr old skinny Finlay is still a mean old bastard. Walton says this is his first time making tv and he makes quite the first impression. He cheats his way into having the crowd ready to kill within a few rounds but also wrestles well enough to have Walton marking out, hoping to see more of him and comparing him to a young Dynamite Kid. Adams is right thear along with him going blow for blow. Loved the segment whear they're on their knees just sluging it out.

 

I remember liking that Kendo Nagasaki/Wayne Bridges match and Bridges is one of the WoS guys I dislike the most along with Mal Sanders and John fucking Naylor. I take it you haven't watched the Nagasaki/Myers match or any of the Screen Sport stuff?

Hm, what don't you like about Naylor? I've only seen 3 or 4 matches of his but 2 of them are in my best bouts list to he's OK in my book.

 

Haven't seen Nagasaki/Myers, I think I may have seen some Screen Sport but i'm not 100% on that. Looking it up real quick it seems to be All Star stuff from the late 80's and if that's what you're referring to then yeah i've seen a bit.

 

What are you guys thoughts on Zoltan Boscik? He's one of the guys I took an early liking to and tracked down as much as I could from him which sadly isn't much.

In the early to mid 70's he looks like someone who'd be a GOAT contender if their was more footage available but then once you get into the later parts of his career by the 80's he's reduced to playing gaga heel, with a lot of signature comedy bumps and routine spots.....like a British Ric Flair...

[ohtani's jacket]

Early Finlay is awesome. I mentioned the other day that he was a better Dynamite Kid than Dynamite Kid but perhaps I stole that subconsciously from Walton. Everything about John Naylor annoys me. I can't explain it. Boscik always winds up disappointing me.

 

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.

[ohtani's jacket]

Added -- Steve Grey vs. John Naylor (4/10/75)

 

I'm not sure whether I'm made this clear or not, but I hate John Naylor. This match, however, was too good to leave off as Grey was an excellent catchweight match-up for just about anybody including Naylor. Some really good wrestling in this bout. I'll have to watch their other match again and see if it was my prejudice against Naylor that caused me to dislike it.

 

Didn't like the Naylor/Rickard match, but thought Saint/Hassouni was fun. I'm not a fan of Johnny Saint's style of wrestling but the match had a good Cup Final Day atmosphere.

[ohtani's jacket]

Added -- Jon Cortez vs. Steve Grey (7/27/81)

 

This was awesome. It was everything you'd expect from Grey vs. Cortez with the added bonus of being extremely heated. Grey was British Lightweight champion at the time and Cortez European Lightweight champion, and the winner was due to get a shot at Johnny Saint's World Lightweight title so the bout was super competitive. Cortez wound up playing the subtle heel and Grey got testy as well, particularly when Cortez attacked after the bell. Later on, Grey threw a forearm smash which Cortez was unhappy about and this built until an injury finish that actually worked. Cortez claimed it as a KO victory and got some nice heel heat for doing so (usually the faces turn down the win in this situation and the match is ruled a no contest.) Really great stuff this. One of the best World of Sport matches I've seen

[Big Rob]

Are there any bloodbaths?

No true bloodbaths, no. Given how they sold things, if someone donned a Ric Flair lvl crimson mask the match would imediatly be stoped, multiple ambulances called, the heel who busted him open would be murdered by the angry mob of fans and the guy who got busted open would be out for months

 

Chris Colt got banned from wrestling on British TV after being deemed too violent by ITV. I believe there was meant to have been a fair amount of blood in that match, but it was never broadcast.

[FLIK]

Out of curiosity, anyone have any info on Jumping Jim Hussey?

Google search doesn't really tell me much except that he's Roller Ball Rocco's dad and that he was Kendo Nagasaki's opponent in his first match.

 

* EDIT *

 

And this awesome pic

 

http://www.britishwrestlersreunion.com/app...hotoid=12266488

[ohtani's jacket]

Watched one of Flik's choices:

 

John Naylor vs. Zoltan Boscik (8/15/74)

 

This was really good for two guys who always annoy the shit out of me. Probably the first time Boscik has looked like the European mat wizard he's meant to be. His work wasn't completely smooth, nor completely original for that matter, but it was tricked out in the way only lovers of World of Sport will ever truly appreciate and I probably would've added this to my list if Naylor hadn't won so easily against the run of play.

[JerryvonKramer]

Just a heads up to UK posters, just stumbled on this browsing BBC iplayer:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p9...s_and_Grannies/

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p96ly

 

I haven't watched it yet but looks like it will chiefly be about World of Sport and McManus is named alongside Big Daddy, Adrian Street and Giant Haystacks as some of the guys they'll be looking at.

 

Will see about trying to find this for our State-side brethren to watch. Not too many documentaries abut British wrestling.

[JNLister]

It's on Youtube (without regional restrictions) now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nar7mAkZL0Q. Highly recommended.

[ohtani's jacket]

The doco was fairly good. There wasn't much in it for the hardcores aside from the new footage, but I liked the women's reactions to Klyondyke Kate, the weird medium/adviser/spokeswoman for Kendo Nagasaki and the Johnny Kincaid poem. I also want to see Steve Logan vs. Masambula as much as Pallo/McManus.