The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[David Mantell]

On 7/23/2014 at 2:43 PM, JNLister said:

"Big Daddy/Ritchie Brooks/Roy Regal vs. Giant Haystacks/Sid Cooper/Charlie McGhee (11/13/86)"

 

Fair bit of significance to this one, even if it's via hindsight. It was the last match aired by Joint while they still had exclusive coverage. The following week you had All Star's debut with Liger, the returns of Rocco & Nagasaki to TV, and the lunacy of the disco ladder match. Two weeks after that you had the first WWF show with Hogan-Savage from MSG. In both cases viewers must have seen a major contrast.

 

It's also the match that convinced Regal to become one of the few to jump from Joint to All Star, reasoning he'd never improve while working with Daddy & Co.

Ah I see you already covered some of the points I made in my post above.

I still think it was a little unfair of you to write the whole edition off as "truly atrocious" in your history of British wrestling  - as I said the support bouts are both  actually pretty solid.

 

[David Mantell]

On 8/26/2014 at 12:43 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Young David (Davey Boy Smith) vs. Bernie Wright (8/2/78)

This was billed as a special "teenage match." You can imagine the response I'd get if I posted it on YouTube. Davey Boy was 15 here and Wright 17. It was possibly the skinniest pro-wrestling match I've ever seen. It's weird seeing Davey Boy as a skinny 15 year old without a hint of a single anabolic steroid. You wonder what was going through his mind at the time. Also knowing the type of person he became, you begin to wonder whether the child was father to the man. At any rate, neither kid knew many holds so this was largely bumping and throwing. Bernie Wright had a neat little stomach throw that Walton was fascinated with. No real surprises here.

Ah well, I'm feeling dangerous ...

Davey was more of the apprentice than Bernie, although Bernie really comes of age with his match with Naylor.  It looks quite a fast flashy bout- I imagine they had a lot of experience with each other in Ted Betley's gym with Ted getting them to master every spot.  Bernie maintained the family tradition by being billed as a Wonderboy in TVTimes.  He matured even more than Smith, into the grizzled hard case we see against Rasputin and Ray Robinson in the late 80s while Davey was with Dynamite in the WWF.

Five years later they would meet again as described above - with Davey looking more like his later self but acting the whiny heel.

[ohtani's jacket]

3 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Interesting that they were still making kinescopes as late as the Rocco/Jones match - I guess that was a colour kinescope?

There could well be quite a lot of these bouts in all sorts of overseas locations.  I wonder if Phillip Morris's Television International Enterprises keeps an eye out for matches.  Then again, a lot of this could be preserved and under lock and key at LWT and Granada already.

I ended up obtaining both matches, and they were in colour. 

[David Mantell]

On 9/3/2014 at 4:05 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Colin Bennett vs. Tony Caine (11/7/74)

Bennett would take his fireman background to ridiculous extremes with a gimmick straight out of Postman Pat.

.. including the buildup bout for The Masked Marauders's 1983 FA Cup Final Big Daddy match.

His brother Mike Bennett (no relation to late 80s WWEer Mike Kanelis) had something of a push in the mid 80s as a heel feuding with Danny Collins.  Bennett had a wedding ring  that he was unable to remove due to the finger swelling (it happens! )  This he frequently used as a foreign object in a territory not noted for such things (heel-era Alan Dennison's notorious leather wristbands being another rare example.)  

Marvellous Mike beat Danny Boy early in 1985 by submission in a one fall bout, then challenged Collins for his British Welterweight Champion (there was a challenge ceremony a few weeks beforehand that involved them high fiving each other).  The title match ended in Bennett DQ'd controversially, with all sorts of repercussions including referee Jeff Kaye coming out of retirement to take on Bennett (and lose 2-1), the two of them co-win a battle royal which somehow ended in a time limit draw (!)  and even Big Daddy getting involved with Collins and Bennett on opposite sides of the big Christmas Daddy tag match with Bully Boy Ian Muir on Bennett's side  which again ended in DQ when Bennett struck Collins with the ring leaving him in agony on the mat and Daddy up on the corner post screaming abuse at Bennett.

Just to top things off, the following year, Bennett won the annual Grand Prix Belt, beating the Birmingham Steve Logan in the final:

 

[David Mantell]

On 8/22/2014 at 4:11 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Steve Veidor vs. Gordon Corbett (11/16/76)

 

I was excited to see a nice face on the small screen only to discover that Corbett only appeared once (at least as himself; he appeared a couple of times under a mask doing a heel exorcist gimmick.) Veidor worked this one as though Corbett was a handful and did this really cool extended arm leveler attack. Good bout.

The Exorcist on TV was Clay Thomson moonlighting as a heel as I think we already discussed.  Godon Corbett did another Exorcist later in the 70s on the indie circuit with a female manger Miss Jamie Barrington.

[David Mantell]

On 9/7/2014 at 12:16 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Pete Roberts vs. Dave Bond (5/2/84)

 

This was a nice bout between two guys I really like, but unfortunately it only lasted two and a half rounds. Since it was a one fall bout that's a realistic amount of time for one wrestler to score a fall, but I would have liked at four rounds. What we did get was enjoyable with Bond shelving the heel tactics and bringing his working boots. The body checks were solid, that's for sure.

This bout also took place on the other side of the channel:

 

[David Mantell]

On 9/7/2014 at 5:56 PM, Sidebottom said:

Wasn't even aware there were any 16mm prints of British footage post 1960's...

Well, more indeed came to light (Faulkner vs McMichael from 1972 as already posted on this thread.)

[David Mantell]

On 10/12/2014 at 10:49 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Wayne Bridges vs. John Quinn (4/21/80)

This was a great run from Quinn, who really upset the locals with his comments about England. Of course Daddy showed up to set up a tag match and steal the heat, but wow, as a spectacle that left me breathless.

 

The one year off from the Cup Final that Daddy got between 1978 and 1986 and he STILL shows up!

A rare UK example of the standard American practice of using a TV match to build up an untelevised arena main event.

[David Mantell]

On 10/30/2014 at 6:37 PM, GSR said:

The main thing that stood out about that Royals vs Black Knights tag I watched was that it was structurally all over the place. Seems like it's a common theme for them!

On 10/30/2014 at 9:53 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

That's the Royals for you. I hold them more or less responsible for British tag wrestling being the shambles that it was.

Pehaps that's expecting tag wrestling to conform to a structure when there's the Atlantic Ocean in the way of where that structure was embedded.  I feel like cautioning against confusing "something done differently" with "something done wrongly.

Having said all that, if there's one true manifestation of the Hot Tag in British Wrestling, it's in a Big Daddy tag when Daddy tags in and goes on the roll.

[David Mantell]

On 10/12/2014 at 10:49 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Barnes had cut his hair short here but was still a blonde.

Yes, he transformed from Beautiful Bobby to Bad Boy Bobby.  He would later have the blond hair dyed various colours punk-style.

Quote

Mike Marino vs. King Kong Kirk (9/3/80)

Jesus, Marino was older than Moses in '80. Mal Kirk is the type of wrestler who's easy to write off as he was almost the George 'the Animal' Steele of British wrestling, but he was committed to his role, got plenty of heat and never really stank it up in the ring. This wasn't much of anything since Marino was older than dirt, but Kirk's facials were a lot of fun. You'd swear Kirk Douglas was his name sake watching the way he scowls. He's really like a cartoon character come to life.

Kent Walton adored Marino-mainly because he gave Kent some wrestling training in the gym early on as research for his role.  Kendo has in recent years complained about Marino's tendency to keep taking a step back all the time.  His big escape from a headlock was just to yank his head clear suddenly - clearly there was a time before the bandstanding escape was invented.  At one time he was reportedly quite the handsome blue-eye until Bert Assirati badly mauled him in the ring one night.  Still, The Golden Boy got his revenge on Assirati in this photoshoot:

Both Marino and Kirk are sadly remembered for their respective premature deaths - Marino collapsing from leukaemia and dying by a roadside in the arms of his student Mal Sanders, Kirk for his death in the ring in a 1987 Daddy tag.

[David Mantell]

On 4/2/2014 at 2:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Colin Joynson vs. Spiros Arion (11/13/79)

 

 

 

This was crazy. One of the most heated WoS bouts I've ever seen. Arion did the same schtick as above, but this time he claimed he'd beat Joynson within two rounds. He did his all-in brawling and somehow bust Joynson's nose wide open. Then he took the pad off the corner post and rammed Joynson's head into it. Well, the crowd didn't like this. They were on their feet and swarming the ring. More than a few guys had their jackets off and were ready to jump Arion. The only other time I've seen this sort of reaction was with the Caribbean Sunshine Boys. Joynson was the victim, but he was punching guys off the apron to stop them from entering the ring. Finally, Big Daddy came down and cleared Arion from the ring, and one kid who kept trying to enter the ring finally made it through the ropes and tried to raise Daddy's arm, but Daddy being the prick he was shoved the guy out of the way. The ring area was just a swarm of people as Walton closed out the show. Daddy vs. Arion was something they were obviously teasing, but Bridges took his title the following month and that was the end of Arion's run.

 

As discussed a couple of pages back in examples of juice on World Of Sport.  The sympathy factor made Joynson, once the brutal boot droog of The Dangermen with Steve Haggerty, unable to work as a heel again.

 

[David Mantell]

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I ended up obtaining both matches, and they were in colour. 

I suspect some of the surviving late '70s Catch Francais we've got was colour kinescope too:

 

[David Mantell]

On 10/15/2014 at 3:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

 

Giant Haystacks/John Quinn vs. Honey Boy Zimba/Dave Bond (1/9/80)

 

This was Quinn's return to UK television after being humiliated by Daddy the summer before. Forget what I said about Quinn being big, he looks like a midget next to Haystacks. Jesus what a giant of a man. He reminds me of Volstagg from the Warriors Three or that Rubeus Hagrid dude from Harry Potter. Brian Crabtree has one of those 1980 moments when he describes Honey Boy Zimba and Dave Bond as representing the "negro team." Zimba bust his ass here as he seemed to do whenever he was put in this spot. I'm not sure why as I can't imagine the payoffs were any better. The Quinn vs. Zimba portions were easily the best thing about this, though Quinn and Bond also had a nice strike exchange. Bond threw himself in the way of a posting by leaping over the top rope and clinging to the turnbuckle. I don't remember seeing that before, though surely it was something he picked up from the Royals or some other tag team. Walton had trouble describing it so I guess it surprised him as well. Quinn seemed to misread the finish as Zimba was knocked into next week by Haystacks' splash and got on the house mic as though the bout was over. Technically it was supposed to continue and there was an awkward restart before the ref called things off. I'm pretty sure Quinn was meant to wait until the bout had ended to launch into his tirade. Zimba's selling was excellent, though.

Zimba trained at Riley's Gym and had a reputation for working stiff (cf Dynamite Kid's comment in Pure Dynamite that Zimba "was a big old bgger who didn't care if he hurt you.")  He was personable and fans liked seeing him do his headbutt on heels and could work a solid strenght match.  (Oh yes and he liked goat for his Xmas dinner, even if it was in rigor mortis.)  Dave Bond seems to have been getting out of his heel phase by this point.

Stax and Quinn had a much bigger TV match that summer against Pete Roberts and Johnny Wilson

 

FAO John Lister, correction to the 1980 page on ITV Wrestling, this WAS the only match transmitted that week.  Regular World Of Sport was pre-empted in favour of special wall-to-wall coverage of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow but this one match was inserted in to keep the wrestling public happy a la the FA Cup coverage.  There was no actual Olympic wrestling on ITV but this match's screening prompted six year old me to loudly proclaim that the bout was "Olympic Wrestling" which led to a lengthy argument with my dad!

At the end of the above match Wayne Bridges runs in to demand his contractual return match for the title loss to Quinn.  He would finally get it in 1984

 

Quote

Big Daddy/Kid Chocolate vs. Mark Rocco/Tony Walsh (2/5/80)

Banger Walsh and Mark Rocco, what a dream team. They worked together really well here. If tag wrestling had been more important in the 80s they could have been the Black Diamonds to Finlay and Murphy's Les blousons noirs. Daddy came to ringside pushing a kid in a wheelchair and stopped to have a photo opportunity with the local mayor. Slimier than the slimiest politician. Kid Chocolate was dressed like Carl Anderson in the Jesus Christ Superstar movie. I had this notion of him busting out the Big Daddy version of (Too Much) Heaven on their Minds. Rocco and Walsh started the bout by trying to take Daddy off his feet as though they were cleaning him out of a rugby ruck. They even tried the battering ram spot. Man did they bump for Daddy. They made him look like a million bucks or should I say pounds sterling. At one point Rocco jumped on his back to try a sleeper and Daddy tossed him off for a flat back bump from a considerable height. Walsh bumped like a mofo too. I hope these guys got a better than average payoff as this was a lot better than your average Daddy tag. Chocolate took a beating before making the hot tag and the heels worked him over nicely. It's a shame it didn't last for longer, but one of the more amusing Waltonisms is the way he'd always mention how much time there was left in a Daddy tag as though it could possibly go the time limit. Daddy was so god damn lame though. HOF'er he may be if you can convince yourself of his credentials, but the guy was not only a colossal prick, he was also incredibly lame. The injured Chocolate was in his corner and Daddy tried to rev him up by getting him to chant "easy" with him. So lame. Rocco and Walsh walked out on the contest, which was a dignified response.

I recall watching this one as a child too.  After the 1979 FA Cup Final Daddy & Rigby vs Quinn and Rocco bout and the late 1979 Big Daddy and Mal Sanders vs Giant Haystacks and Rocco match, this was the third Daddy vs Rocco match I had seen in my young life.  To be honest, the photo op bit was generally expected of top stars and it was probably more the mayor's photo opportunity with Daddy rather than the other way round.

"Easy" was something invented by football fans (see also a lot of the chants in Catch Francais such as "Ho Ho Cette Arbitre" and "Allez les rouges/verts/bleus/etc".) which wrestling fans picked up on  and which became a big part of the Daddy shtick.  Together with "we shall not be moved", "Easy" became a slogan for Daddymania as a force like Hulkamania, albeit a force with no name, just an emotional expression of Daddy on the attack.  The most obvious articulation of this was Daddy's speech after his win over Haystacks at Wembley "AND REMEMBER, HAYSTACKS, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!!! EASY! EASY!" as young Jane Crabtree stomped along to the chant and waved her cheerleader baton, but clearly Daddy trying to pump up Kid Chocolate here was another example.

BD and KC would have a future together, they would be in the 1983 FA Cup Final match against Charlie McGee's marvellous magical Masked Marauders.  After defeating Fireman Colin Bennett and Nipper Eddie Riley, this is what went down on Cup Final day:

Marauder Minor, played by Lucky Gordon, disappeared fromTV after aving his carcass dragged out of the ring to safety at the end of this match (clearly Bret Hart had a point about that backdrop)  while the bigger Marauder went on to not one but TWO TV unmaskings by Big Daddy:

Banger Walsh in that second match is the incident I referered to above where Walsh actuall did get injured onscreen by the Double Elbow backdrop.

[David Mantell]

On 7/23/2014 at 2:43 PM, JNLister said:

"Big Daddy/Ritchie Brooks/Roy Regal vs. Giant Haystacks/Sid Cooper/Charlie McGhee (11/13/86)"

 

Fair bit of significance to this one, even if it's via hindsight. It was the last match aired by Joint while they still had exclusive coverage. The following week you had All Star's debut with Liger, the returns of Rocco & Nagasaki to TV, and the lunacy of the disco ladder match. Two weeks after that you had the first WWF show with Hogan-Savage from MSG. In both cases viewers must have seen a major contrast.

 

It's also the match that convinced Regal to become one of the few to jump from Joint to All Star, reasoning he'd never improve while working with Daddy & Co.

Something else worth mentioning - after this and the previous week's wrestling they ran a trailer for the new look show with its WWF and All Star tapes. This was the first time I ever saw Hulk Hogan - I instinctively knew he was the American Big Daddy and hated him for that.  They also showed a clip of the British Bulldogs and this is my earliest memory of the bigger American ring with the individual corner pads.   Also a lot of talent who had defected to All Star were reintroduced as "some familiar faces coming back to TV - Quinn, St Clair, Rocco ("Johnny Saint, JUST YOU WATCH OUT!") - "and it all starts with the return of The Great KENDO NAGASAKI" (the only "familiar face" who was legitimately coming out of retirement.)

[David Mantell]

On 8/8/2014 at 3:43 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Dave Finlay/Skull Murphy vs. Alan Kilby/Steve Logan (11/9/82)

Dave Finlay/Skull Murphy vs. Johnny Wilson/Peter Wilson (11/9/82)

 

Man, it's night and day between Murphy's late 80s work and his work here as one half of the Riot Squad. This Murphy is awesome. Anyone who's seen Finlay's early work knows he had a mean streak, and Murphy complemented that perfectly as his hoodlum partner. It was toned down for TV, but in the halls it must have been nasty. Murphy was leaner here and much quicker. He took more bumps, but it was his offence that impressed me. Like Finlay it was based around elbows and knee drops (w/ the occasional punch thrown in), and it was all so well timed and tight looking. If you'd asked me what to expect, I would've said Murphy will drag things down, but he made the bouts better. The psychology wasn't the greatest as in both tags the Riot Squad managed to isolate one of their opponents and take their falls rather methodically, but the work was excellent. I wish they'd gone with a proper big match main event for the tournament final, but these are shortcomings with the booking. At least they put a weight limit on the tag teams so that the fatties couldn't participate. 1982 Skull Murphy was a nice revelation, now I want to see if he was this good all the time or if it was Finlay rubbing off on him.

Murphy had quite a long career ahead of and behind him.  He was the son of 1950s/1960s heel Roy Bull Davies who wrestles Billy Robinson in The Wrestlers from 1967.  As Steve Young, he'd been quite the promising clean youngster in the late '60s even getting some TV appearances in, before defecting off to the independents.  Some time in the 70s he turned heel and became Bad Boy Steve Young and in 1979ish he lost a hair vs hair match (I did know against who but have forgotten.) before returning to Joint and reappearing  on TV as Skull Murphy in 1982.  He was due to have been in the 1982 FA Cup Final match with American heel Crusher Brannigan (a low rent Mighty John Quinn - General/Ripper John Raven was another one.) but had some sort of issue in a previous Daddy tag a few nights earlier and was either  banned from working with Daddy by Max C or else refused to work with him again.  Possbly he got rough with Daddy and didn't go along wiht the no selling.  Finlay and Murphy formed a tag team wnning the 1982 Top Tag Team tournaments and being presented with the only set of tag team title belts I can remember from before the WWF invaded (there was no British Tag Team Title until 1989, a year after TV). They reunited after TV, appeared on Reslo and even had a heel vs heel match with Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett one night (as part of an ongoing Kendo/Murphy feud.)  Murph's greatest moment came in 1995 when he won the British Light Heavyweight title off Alan Kilby altbough Kiilby got it back later that year.  He also had a big feud with Robbie Brookside for both All Star and TWA in 1999 which involved TWA's - and possibly All Star's - versions of the British Heavyweight title.

Murphy continued into the C21st and had an enthusiastic fan called Patti J who would get into fights online with anyone who said anything untowards about her man.  In fact now I've written this, she'll probably turn up on here, so hiya Patti !

[David Mantell]

On 10/30/2014 at 1:55 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

There hasn't really been any additional footage from '81 worth watching, but this was a fun tag. If you've seen The Royals before it's nothing new, but the Wembley Arena crowd were hot and Barnes and Cooper were outstanding as the bumping and stooging foils to The Royals' smart arse shit. Cooper took a bump to the floor and began jawing with this woman who was dancing in a circle and pointing to the sky. She must have been disabled or something, but Cooper slagged her off. Barnes was awesome here, which you can't always say about Barnes in the 80s. Faulkner kept making fun of his snazzy trunks and Barnes ended up taking it out on Faulkner's arm, fucking it up completely with the nastiest looking arm submission I've seen in some time. Of course, the Royals being structurally impaired, after that big FIP segment, Vic made the tag for Bert to clean house... and he moved some stuff and tagged Faulkner in after like 10 seconds... Faulkner was apparently fresh as a daisy and scored the winning fall. Forget the comedy, imagine if the Royals were actually good at this tag wrestling stuff.

 

Barnes and Cooper were each one half of legendary heel teams the Royals had feuded with going back to the 60s (Barnes in the Hells Angels with Adrian Street, now just about to head off to North America starting with Stampede, Cooper with Strongman Alan Dennison in the Dennisons, by now a reformed character who had his soul saved in 1976 by the Dynamite Kid and who ended up as British Welterweight Champion.) 

Indeed there is footage of the Hells Angels and the Dennisons against each other.  Not sure if I already posted it but what the heck, I'll post it again

Bert Royal had a severe injury not too long after this match which put the Royals to an end more or less although he came back for some singles bouts later on.  Vic Faulkner later formed a new tag team with John Savage (John Hindley, later Johnny Smith, evil heel cousin of Davey Boy, in Stampede and Japan.)

[ohtani's jacket]

Boy, I didn't hold back about the Royals, did I? I must have softened on them over the years as I don't have any negative opinions about them now. 

[David Mantell]

18 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Boy, I didn't hold back about the Royals, did I? I must have softened on them over the years as I don't have any negative opinions about them now. 

I guess it's just a matter of overcoming the need for an American style structure to a tag match.  Athough like I said, the Big Daddy tag is pretty much the ultimate manifestation of the FIP >>>HOT TAG story. 
I remember one time in the 90s watching a WWF tape, probably WM4 with Strike Force vs Demolition and pondering how the Big Daddy Tags In spot actually must have pre-dated Big Daddy by ages - only with the two faces in interchangable roles.  (I believe it was Toods Mondt who originally invented FIP/Hot Tag spots in the 1920s.)

[David Mantell]

Talking of Daddy Tags:

On 11/7/2014 at 4:35 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

As with 1980 we close out 1981 with some quality Big Daddy...

 

Big Daddy/Sammy Lee vs. Le Grande Vladimir/Mel Stuart (1/13/81)

 

This was the same Wolverhampton crowd that went mental for the Pat Patton/Bobby Barnes fight so this was going to be loud if nothing else. The Russian/Dutch/French/Hungarian Vladimir came out to Boney M's Rasputin. Daddy came out to a mash up of the Seekers and the local boys marching squad. This woman with an enormous bosom and no front teeth kept pulling the finger to the beat of We Shall Not Be Moved.

Sayama was rocking his Game of Death body suit. I wonder what he made of all this. He rather amusing blew a ton of shit in this bout, but the women at ringside didn't care as they were out for blood. Another worthless tag and another heel buried. Stick a stake in him, Vlad is done.

 

It's difficult to underestimate just how OVER as a blue-eye Sammy Lee was in Britain in 1980/1981.  I missed his first TV match from Croydon against Sid Cooper because my dad dragged us all out swimming that Sat afternoon, but my grandad came round that evening and was absolutely frothing at the mouth.  "SAMMY LEE!!!  WHOAH!!! HE'S FANTASTIC!!!"

Lee and his fast moves and flying kicks were starting to eclipse even Big Daddy in terms of popularity, even the Crabtrees themselves were reportedly in awe of the young lad.  Perhaps that's why they let him upstage Daddy somewhat in this match, even scoring the deciding fall.

Vladimir was a favourite of mine, he had been on a winning streak up til this, so I was rather upset as a kid to see he would be wrestling TWO unbeatable opponents.  The "illegal" sleeper is the only real offence either heel gets in as they slink to a 2-0 loss.  At least Fuji & Quinn vs Daddy and Bridges was not on TV so I was spared having to watch Fuji go down to defeat.

Getting back to Sammy Lee, I remember reading once how Vince Russo or it may have been Vince McMahon -  Some fool called Vince anyway - thought that it was impossible for a Japanese to be a straight babyface (which is why they lumbered Kaentai with that stupid "indeed" gimmick.)  They should watch this match - especially the end when MrMuscles Johnny England flees from the ring and Sammy just shrugs his shoulders modestly and comes across as really likeable. Perfect blue-eye.
 

 

[David Mantell]

On 11/21/2014 at 2:07 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Kendo Nagasaki vs. Roy St Clair (5/25/76)

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about British historians it’s that they tend to have an over-inflated opinion of Kendo Nagasaki’s working ability. Maybe it’s nostalgia or looking at things through rose coloured glasses, or perhaps he was better in the 60s when he was working the halls and kept off television, but at any rate there’s nothing on tape to support the idea that he was an elite worker. Mind you, neither was McManus so I suppose it doesn’t really matter. This was a competitive squash with a lot of public warnings and crowd heat and even a bit of blood from Roy St. Clair’s lip. If there’s one thing I like about Nagasaki it’s his finisher. Along with Roach’s finisher it was one of the nastier moves of the era and looked like a knockout blow every time.

 

I think I dealt with this subject earlier and recommended some bouts (Pete Roberts, Rex Strong).  A lot of it is to do with his persona and his way of always being the centre of attention even when in trouble.  He could be a gifted technical wrestler when he wanted to and his best 1960s/1970s matches were games of two halves with a fine scientific first round or two then an ultraviolent second half (which generally had to be toned down for TV) before getting into finishers and the Kamikaze Crash.  He also had a neat standing grapevine/crossface for getting a submission ("the torture rack) and another finisher where he would do a quick backdrop and splash, flinging the opponent over one shoulder then spinning round and pouncing on them like a bird of prey for the cross press pin - doing it extra fast to get round the no follow-down rule by making it all one move.  He was still doing this in the 1990s (he was still pulling off the Kamikaze Crash in May 2000 eg against Darren Walsh during the Wrestler Of The Millenium angle at Victoria Hall Hanley.)

[David Mantell]

On 11/24/2014 at 12:30 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Vic Faulkner vs. Mick McMichael (10/11/82)

This was pure comedy with Faulkner and McMichael pulling out a gag on each and every hold. For the life of me, I can't remember Mick McMichael ever doing comedy to quite this extent. Maybe he should have worked this way all the time as it was a step up from his usual nondescript bouts. Another thing they did here was mic the ring so you could clearly hear every word the wrestlers and the ref were saying. That made a big difference compared to say those Conneely matches. After a boatload of comedy the bout ended on a serious note as McMichael gravely injured his larynx. Faulkner didn't want to take the decision and all I could think was "no-one gives a shit whether you take the decision Faulkner." Not my favourite workers these two.

 

Was quite surpised with this review - especially the "pure comedy"quote, given the excellent 1972 bout between two on b/w kinescope fim and both mens' inclusion on Kent Walton's potted list in World Of Sport Annual of serious skilled wrestlers who were the antidote to excess showmanship.  So I watched it.

There's still a bedrock of skilled wrestling there.  The trouble is that it gets cut short in round 2 with a TKO/No contest, so Vic Faulkener tries to get in all his usual spots of cheekiness in one solid blast in the short amount of time available.  In the 1972 bout the banter is more spaced out between longer fast paced technical segments and it serves its purpose of showing two friends having a fine sporting match with some added banter that adds to the general bonhomie (with McMichael as mock-grumpy whereas a heel or even a more temperamental blue-eye like Johnny Cxeslaw might kayfabe-genuinely get the hump.) or rather in the case of the 1982 bout three friends including referee Jeff Kaye.  In the 1982 bout you get it in one sudden sugary gulplike drinking concentrated orange squash.  I supect that Max Crabtree asked them to get all Vic's mischief spots in which is why Kent hypes the bout as comedy even though, as I said, it's between two guys he previously cited as the respectable serious side of the sport.

[David Mantell]

Quite a few of the spots from that match became hardy perrenials in Britain.  Mitzi Mueller liked to do the "referee pins/gets pinned" spot - you can see her do it on both the clips I posted previously.  The double leg nelson multiple double pin attempts seems to be a big fave among the young Traditional British crowd at All Star and Rumble - guys like James Mason, Dean Allmark and Tony Spitfire tend to do this spot a lot.  I'll do a deeper dive into all that once I've caught up with myself and got back round to page 19 where I came in.

[David Mantell]

add Kendo - one guy I've compared his late 80s/early 90s work to quite a bit is the just deceased Terry Funk - not only in that both were "autumn crocuses" who went through hot periods late in their careers but also as guys who made their names as technical wrestlers but who were best known for wild extreme violence by the end.  Kendo is about 2 years 8 months older than Funk was so his early 90s time as top star of All Star was his equivalent of Funk as USWA champion, ECW World Champion and WWF World Tag Team Champion (as Chainsaw Charlie) - although Thornley had a lot less wear and tear on his body from having taken most of late 1978-late 1986 out.

[David Mantell]

On 11/24/2014 at 12:30 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

 

Jim Breaks vs. Tom Thumb (8/11/82)

 

You can probably guess why Neil Evans was called "Tom Thumb." He was billed at 5′ 0″ and 9 st, but was a tough little blighter. This was his television debut and he was lucky enough to be up against Jim Breaks, who almost always put over new talent. This wasn't exactly a Breaks classic, but his facial expressions were fantastic and it was a fun bout while it lasted. Breaks was one of the smallest guys around, but Thumb looked tiny even in comparison to Jimmy. He was constantly on the move though, trying to gain an advantage with his speed and quickness. Very fun gimmick. He couldn't escape the Jim Breaks Special though. No siree.

 

Nice docu on Thumb here:

He later had a stint as European Lightweight Champion in 1985.  Neil Evans later became a promoter in the 1990s.

[David Mantell]

On 11/27/2014 at 1:34 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Bobby Barnes vs. Kid Chocolate (11/3/82)

Barnes looked like a clown here. Seriously, he looked like he'd pinched a pair of Doink's tights. The tints in his hair looked a cross between a French poodle and a pensioner. How on earth the great Bobby Barnes descended into this mire is anybody's guess.

 

 

Punk rock.  That was the fashion at the time. 

It fit his "Bad Boy" tag.  Barnes was a hairdresser by day job anyway, so he was actutely aware of what was going on in the street.