The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[David Mantell]

On 6/9/2015 at 1:39 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Greg Valentine vs. Jimmy Ocean (10/26/88)

 

"Farmer's Boy" Greg Valentine? Shouldn't that be Promoter's Boy Greg Valentine? 

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.

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Marty Jones & Steve Taylor vs. Skull Murphy & Johnny South (8/24/88)

 

This was hands down the biggest disappointment of The Arthur Psycho Hour to date. I thought this had the potential to be really good w/ Jones, Murphy and South all involved, but it was an incredibly shitty attempt at playing WWF style wrestling instead of beating the tar out of each other. It started off promising with South having shaved his head to form The Manchester Hardman with Murphy, who was bedecked in La Parka's wardrobe. Skull cut an amusing promo where he claimed he didn't even know who Steve Taylor was. Jones retorted in his inimitable style. One of the greatest workers to ever live and one of the single worst promos in the history of the racket. Steve Taylor was the older brother of Dave and I guess coming out of retirement for this. He should have stayed retired. This sucked. Murphy and South cheated like brats instead of dishing out an asskicking and Marty spent more time posturing with his lazy eye then proving he was still world class. Taylor might as well have been invisible. Not good.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 6/13/2015 at 10:12 AM, ButchReedMark said:

I suppose Reslo finishing in 95 leaves a massive gap for wrestling where we won't be able to know now how good things were atb the time due to lack of footage. That's a bugger. I mean by '99 Orig Williams was doing "WWF Tribute Shows" instead of the Reslo type stuff. Boston Blackie was The Rock.

 

It was dire.

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.     

[David Mantell]

On 7/17/2015 at 10:41 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Pete and Danny Collins vs. Robbie Brookside/Steve Regal (1/5/88)

 

This may as well have been a handicap match given how little Pete Collins was in the ring. Fairly standard action between these guys. Regal was still learning the ropes.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 8/13/2015 at 1:14 PM, ButchReedMark said:

Karl Kramer's still going. Very good big man worker, wrestled on LDN's ill-fated attempt at a World of Sport reboot a year or two back which I *think* is on Youtube. I worked on a couple of shows with him and he had a cracker against Big Dog who goes about 30st in a bodyslam match in Llanrwst. There was only about 4 bumps in the whole match but I loved it. Although Krammer cut possibly the worst promo of all time before the match in the ring.

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

[David Mantell]

On 8/13/2015 at 11:49 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Skull Murphy & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Pete Roberts & Steve Adonis (9/6/88)

 

This was the main event of the Mick McManus VHS tape, which a bit of research tells me was called "The Mick McManus World of Wrestling." The commentator whose name I couldn't make out before was Lee Bamber. Fairly typical sort of British tag. All-Star at least tried to work more of a Southern style tag format than Dale Martin, so there was a big FIP segment with Nagasaki and Murphy working over Roberts as the crowd grew increasing livid. That was the highlight of the match really as some of the crowd had a real go at Nagasaki in particular and things got a bit dicey when the heels went over. Nagasaki's manager got a lot of stick as well, but he always did as he was openly gay. He pretty much gave up on his post-match promo to kick at a ringsider. Not a lot of action otherwise. Adonis looked hopeless green, Nagasaki was old, Murphy's great work from earlier in the decade had taken a dive, and Roberts was too long in the tooth to hold it all together, not that the great workers ever really could in these British tags. Make like VHS and fast forward to the end.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 8/13/2015 at 11:49 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

 

Danny Boy Collins vs. Ritchie Brooks (Cage Match, Cardiff, taped 3/30/90)

 

This was the last match I expected to be any good. Anybody who's followed this thread will know how I feel about Ritchie Brooks and Danny Boy Collins and here they were in a cage match on TV with escape match rules. Not a great recipe for success, but I really, really enjoyed this. Brooks dished out a meaningful beating to Collins. Collins sold well and hit some big offence. A couple of big spots off the top of the cage including a missed splash from Brooks and a superplex that was straight out of the Hart family playbook. There was also one cool spot where Brooks stopped Collins from escaping out the door by using the side of the cage to run up the ropes and deliver a diving stomp. A bit hard to describe, but I'd totally pinch that if I were a wrestler. Anyway, I was right into this. My only criticism would be that Brooks should have stayed down longer from the move that let Collins escape instead of popping up quickly to dramatise his shock and disbelief, but that's a minor quibble. One of the big surprises thus far.

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.

[David Mantell]

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Johnny Saint vs. Barry Douglas (Corwen, taped 4/7/90)

 

Another decent Saint match. A short technical bout with a lot of cool looking escape holds. Straight up with very little in the way of shtick. Douglas couldn't really add anything to the bout, but that's all right. It was fun watching Saint.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 8/14/2015 at 1:10 AM, ButchReedMark said:

Lee Bamber who commentated is possibly the UK's most respected MC, and is also the Play by Play man on LDN's Ill-Fated Reboot Of World Of Sport. Watch it here, Karl Kramer is in the opener -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLZC2_02gug

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:

[David Mantell]

On 8/16/2015 at 4:53 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

I finally got around to watching that 60s footage from Iraq featuring British wrestlers.

 

 

 

 

John Lees vs. Adnan Al-Kaissie (Iraq, 1960s)

 

 

 

 

 

John Lees came from a bodybuilding background and was actually Mr. Universe in 1957. A few years later he turned his attention toward professional wrestling, and while the Heritage guys on his profile that he was a skilled wrestler who could hold his own with the likes of Joyce, Robinson, Davies and Wall, I've heard whispers that workers like Robinson didn't think much of him. That shouldn't come as much surprise given he was a bodybuilder in an era where a lot of the top guys were rippers. This footage was a series of clips and there wasn't a lot to judge Lees on outside of a couple of strength holds and a flurry of takedown attempts. He didn't look bad, but he wasn't exactly awe-inspiring either. The finish was weak even by the standards of the day as Al-Kaissie pinned him from a body slam and the ref took an age to make the three count meaning that Lees stayed down for a mighty long time from a simple body slam.

 

 

 

 

 

Massive crowd on hand for this. I dunno if they were there of their own volition as there was plenty of top brass around, but there was a sea of people filling up an outdoor football stadium and a constant blare of music and cheering similar to what you'd expect from a national football match. The stadium noise cut in and out as the narrator did his voice over, which was annoying. All up not much of a revelation but novel enough.

 

Ian Campbell vs. Adnan Al-Kaissie (Baghdad, 1960s)

 

 

 

 

I think this is from either 1968 or '69, but I can't be sure. Ian Campbell was a giant 20 stone Scotsman who like most British big men had impeccable mat technique for a man his size. It never ceases to amaze me how skilled the British big men were. Apparently, he was a fiery rule breaker in his pomp. but he was wrestling here in front of a huge Iraqi crowd and had to play it nice. In fact, he copped a fair bit from Al-Kaissie but didn't really dish any back. There were moments where they would have slid into a forearm smash contest in the UK, but I guess Campbell thought discretion was the better part of valour in front of the Minster of Defence and what looked like a hundred thousand Iraqi fans. Pretty long broadway where the psychology was more about trying different strategies to win a fall than targeting a particular body part. There was a lot of tough, no frills matwork and a few holds that went nowhere, but for the most part it was an old-school chess like contest. Al-Kaissie again won a fall with that body slam of his. That was all right I suppose, but later on when Campbell body slammed him, Al-Kaissie kicked out at one. When in Iraq, I guess. The finish saw Campbell not able to recover from a leg submission Al-Kaissie had used and Al-Kaissie kicking the shit out of his leg and dumping him over the ropes a couple of times. Each time Campbell got up bruised and battered, covered in dust and a little weaker than before. I thought he could have shown a bit more fire as he was allegedly a pretty fiery rule breaker in his pomp, but he was there to do the job to Al-Kaissie and did so tidily. Some moments of skill, but a big investment of your time so be warned. Campbell seemed like a fun worker, though. Apparently, he once wrestled on Coronation Street and he was in the cult film Wicker Man, so that's cool.

 

 

 

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.

[David Mantell]

On 8/16/2015 at 5:18 AM, Tim Evans said:

OJ, I hope you review the match Arthur uploaded today with the fake dick murdoch, Flash Gordon's pervert brother Flesh and the topless girls. That was something to see. I loved how the announcer called it straight.

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

[David Mantell]

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Kung Fu vs. King Kendo (Unknown location, taped 1985)

 

Kung Fu against the fake Kendo Nagasaki. This is kind of like watching, I dunno, Marty Jannetty against fake Diesel. I really hate bouts like these where a boring big man is beating down a smaller man. No matter how hard Kung Fu sold it was never gonna make up for the fact that Kendo's offence sucked. Dour way to pass the time.

King Kendo & Barcud Du vs. Orig Williams & Kung Fu (Unknown location, taped 1985)

 

Orig's big moment... and it's a boring beat down... that was to be expected with King Kendo and Johnny South doing a masked heel gimmick, but it's sapping my will to watch this channel.

 

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.

[David Mantell]

On 8/24/2015 at 1:01 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Roach got on the mic and told Haystacks he wasn't worthy of a World title shot, though I'm not sure what belt he was talking about at this point.

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

[David Mantell]

On 10/8/2015 at 10:57 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Tony St. Clair vs. Soldier Boy Steve Prince (Caernarfon, taped 2/27/95)

 

1995... this is some seriously late Reslo. I don't know if you'll remember this, but Steve Prince was the guy who Fit Finlay stiffed mercilessly during a match on ITV. Back then he was wearing a black gi and wielding a katana blade. Here he'd changed to some sort of soldier gimmick. St. Clair was professional with him, as you'd expect, despite the fact he hadn't improved.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 10/10/2015 at 8:28 PM, pantherwagner said:

Wasn't sure where to put this.

 

Wayne Bridges has got a pub in Kent, right below a bridge, run by him and his wife. Pub is obviously called The Bridges.

 

This is him and his wife (sorry, can't post this as an embedded image).

 

O_O

 

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/resources/images/1399736/

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.

[David Mantell]

On 10/21/2015 at 3:34 AM, ButchReedMark said:

After Orig Williams, Danny Boy Collins was probably my favourite British wrestler as a child (Third being Tony St. Clair after watching him win a tournament dispatching of PN News and Drew McDonald 30 yards from my house all while wearing a pair of hot pink trunks that 1990 Lex Luger would have been proud of). He always seemed to put in a shift on the EWF/Flesh Gorden shows on Eurosport in 1991 or 1992 or so, always seemed quality on Reslo, and even now one of the more respected names on the current British circuit says that now Brookside's in America, Collins is the only trainer he'd recommend. So it's nice to see you're coming around to him, and that I haven't been wrong to have thought him ace all these years based on childhood enthusiasm.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 10/22/2015 at 2:35 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

I think I've come around on everyone I used to hate except for maybe John Naylor.

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

 

[David Mantell]

On 12/6/2015 at 4:10 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Mick McMichael vs. Battlestar (1/19/83)

 

This was kind of disappointing. Whenever I saw this in listings I always thought it would be some God awful gimmick like Max Moon, but it was just Barry Douglas in a lucha mask.

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.

[David Mantell]

On 12/20/2015 at 6:24 PM, ButchReedMark said:

I'm pretty sure EWF was Flesh Gorden's promotion, that's why Orig ended up on commentary on the English language broadcasts. Probably as payback for Orig letting Flesh be the drizzling shits on Reslo.

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

[David Mantell]

On 12/17/2015 at 1:11 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Steve Regal vs. Colonel Brody (Eurosport, circa 1990)

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."

[David Mantell]

On 12/29/2015 at 11:54 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Doc Dean vs. Danny Boy Collins (Caernarfon, taped 2/27/95)

 

What was with Orig Williams and dancing gimmicks? First it was Dave Taylor then Drew McDonald and now Doc Dean. At least he got a pair of dancing girls, but a disco gimmick in 1995? Maybe they still had discos in Wales. Pretty good bout. Dean was a good worker. By this stage, the UK style had become homogeneous with wrestling from the US and Japan and lacked the idiosyncrasies that I find so appealing about it, but these guys could work.

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:

 

[David Mantell]

On 4/18/2017 at 4:41 AM, NintendoLogic said:

I just found out what "seconds away, round X" means. I thought the ring announcer was letting the audience know that the beginning of the round was only seconds away, but he was actually instructing the ringside seconds to leave the ring. That's from boxing, right?

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.

[David Mantell]

On 1/19/2018 at 10:17 AM, JNLister said:

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Also, anyone know where I can find Mick McManus vs. Jackie Pallo..

The full tape of the broadcast exists 

Kinescope print actually, 16mm black & white.  Tapes were expensive and got reused at that point.

[David Mantell]

Okay, I seem to have caught up with myself on page 19 now.  Just to polish this off, here are some promised favourite examples of the Great British Clean match alive and well in the 2010s and 2020s
 

All Star typically puts a clean bout on as bout number 4 of a 5 bout bill.  Here is a typical example from Oct 2013.  One drawback to the lack of rounds is that in order to pace themselves, the wrestlers have to have clapping breaks to lead the fans in cheering.  Being the C21st versions of the good sportsmanly tehcnical blue eyes, Dean Allmark and Tony Spitfire encourage the fans to cheer each other.

 

An even better example here from the same months (the same day according to an error Dean input into his Youtube account.)  Notice James Mason appears to be a little riled about this - usually if it was somewhere like Rhyl or a holiday camp, he would turn heel by the end of the match, setting up a grudge rematch with little technical wrestling.  Possibly that was being saved for the rounds match proposed at the end which never occurred.

This should have been the World Of Sport The Next Generation match at that second TWC Skydome show instead of that ridiculous comedy wth Colt Cabana:

John Freemantle's Premier Promotions adheres stricly to full blown Mountevans Rules.  Naturally they have plenty of clean matches such as this from 2017:

Also Rumble Promotions, Steve Barkers old 1990s company was revived after the pandemic and reactivated the British Lightweight Championship, won by Nino Bryant.  He is still defending the title on Rumble shows in 2023, but here is his 2021 title win.

 

[David Mantell]

Okay, eight pages later I'm finally up to date with everything I wanted to post.  Hope this has all been some use, giving the native perspective of someone whose ground floor thinking on pro wrestling was shaped by this territory.  Thanks for reading, look forward to any feedback.

[David Mantell]

Stuff I missed earlier:

On 2/18/2016 at 12:19 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Big Daddy/Andy Blair vs. King Kendo/The Spoiler (9/16/87)

Kendo and The Spoiler were being managed here by Dr. Monika Kaiser, a German woman who was allegedly a taxi driver from Leeds. She showed plenty of thigh stepping into the ring and Walton seemed to fancy her. His exact words were "slicey," and yeah, I had to look that up too. Kaiser berated Daddy in German, Daddy took care of business, and the Spoiler was very nearly unmasked. Haystacks showed up at ringside for the next bout and they teased Haystacks/Daddy II for the millionth time. Surely, they didn't think that would turn things around in '87. A bunch of local kids flooded the ring to join the "easy" chants and tell Haystacks what a wanker he was. From a safe distance of course.

The actual word Kent Walton used was "swazzy". I'm sure Princess Paula had her fans but apart from odd bits of flamboyance like her Native American headdress, she did not really do the whole glamour thing like American valets/ manageresses (such as Elizabeth, Sherri, Missy Hyatt, Precious, Sunshine, Dark Journey) did, nor did any other female sidekicks (the only two I know of were Jeannie Clark, the future Lady Blosson, as then-boyfriend Chris Adams' second one time on TV in 1979 and Sharkey Ward having a similarly "ethnic" "princess" in his corner for a 1980 Big Daddy tag) until Monika came along.  To some extent she paved the way for Saraya (senior) in 1992 on Reslo with her vamp/ganster's moll image.

Monika Markwart was Drew McDonald's life partner and common law wife until his death from cancer in 2015.  She reportedly still lives in his hometown of Perth & Kinross in Scotland.  I asked Drew about her on his website messageboard in 2002 and he said that she was "living in England and still a heel in real life."   Bless <3 

For this first match, Monika wore a rather dodgy looking female military uniform in black and white, ucomfortably close to SS female uniform!  For subesequent appearances she wore a black dress and a red summer hat.  A shot of her slapping Big Daddy on his behind while he was sat in the ring corner was incorporated into the title sequence for the wrestling during the final year 1988.

Bill Clarke as King Kendo was getting quite a lot of Daddy tags around late '87 - he was King Kong Kirk's tag partner the night Kirk died in the ring in August 1987 at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome (also the site of the filming of the Pallo's 1981 video, some of the matches from which Ohtani has reviewed.)  This was basically Max Crabtree's response to the real Kendo Nagasaki becoming Brian Dixon's flagship at a time when All Star were not only now on ITV but actually on the point of overtaking Joint as dominant promotion. 

Having Big Daddy squash King Kendo like he could never squash Kendo Nagasaki was Max C's equivalent of Vince doing the whole Huckster vs Nacho Man thing in early '96.