The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[David Mantell]

I haven't paid much attention to the Knight Family's WAW, mainly because in their early days in 1994 they aspired to be an "American style" promotion, but as more and more old school talent worked for them, they became more of a Traditional British promotion.

This bout is from Great Yarmouth 2005 and features not only a match under full Mountevans rules but also the unusual sight of Ricky Knight, the bigger and heavier of the Superflies tag team.  wrestling cleanly and behaving in a sportsmanly fashion. Granted he is more of a strength wrestler up against skilled technician Quintan, but he keeps it mostly clean and here is even a bit of the banter that Faulkner and McMichael would use to spice up their (primarily scientific) bouts.

[David Mantell]

On 3/29/2024 at 10:51 PM, Jetlag said:

Came across this article talking about how the entire Granada TV archives would be moved, catalogued and made accesible to the public in 2022:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/vast-granada-tv-archive-returning-24019217

It seems to be mainly talking about music related stuff as well as the paper archives, but hopefully it's a step towards more old WoS footage becoming available sometime in the future.

That sounds encouraging, maybe someday we will have George Kidd in his prime and the first two generations of Wigan Snakepit wrestlers to watch.

[David Mantell]

Probably THE biggest feud in All Star in the early 21st century was Dean Allmark versus Robbie Dynamite (Berzins).  Often for the British Mid Heavyweight championship (formerly held by the late great Mike Marino and vacant from his death in 1981 until Dynamite filled the vacancy in 2002), on this occasion "Deano" comes in as British Heavyweight Champion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCxV3MwGhc

(embed not working)

[David Mantell]

Doucumentary from 1971 about The Klondyke brothers, a superheavyweight tag team in the days before Big Daddy became the scourge of all monster heels (after having been one himself for a bit!).

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=384318719496070

Notice the big celebration over the Klondykes getting disqualified - and consider what I said about DQ finishes and how it can be anything but a cheap finish to see the heels get sent packing in disgrace if done correctly.

Footage from this was later used in this episode of legendary BBC sitcom Til Death Us Do Part rather than pay ITV for footage of actual TV wrestling broadcasts:

THe Klondykes were never a tag team on proper Wrestling TV anywhere but Jake got one World of Sport match in in 1976, while Bill as I think we've mentioned on the French Catch thread, got one French TV bout in the early 70s:

 

[David Mantell]

On 10/29/2023 at 12:54 AM, David Mantell said:

Superheavyweight tag team The Henchmen were on the bill (accompanied by a partner who was called Cannonball Grisly but clearly was not Paul Neu.) Forty years ago the Henchies would have been obvious cannon fodder for Big Daddy, nowadays they remind me of 1970s opposition heel team The Klonkykes (Jake made it onto ITV against Count Bartelli in 1976 and Bill made it onto French TV Vs Dave "Batman " Larsen in 1973.  Together,  they were the subject of a docu on BBC2 on the brothers, footage from which appeared in legendary sitcom Til Death Us Do Part on Alf Garnett's TV screen, saving the Beeb from having to pay ITV for footage.)

As I mentioned before, the Henchmen are to my mind the modern equivalent of the Klondykes in 1971.  In between times there were various tag partnership Giant Haystacks had with pre-peoples' hero Big Daddy, King Kong Kirk, Bully Boy Muir but probably the most apt partner for this lineage, Scrubber Daly.

After that, there were the UK Pitbulls in the Noughties.  They mostly worked New School promotions but occasionally turned up for All Star - and indeed there is some Premier footage in this docu about them:  
(WARNING there is also some pretty godawful footage of Hardcore/Death Match promotions in this docu towards the end.)

 

[David Mantell]

Nice 1-1 draw from Leeds 1986, good folding press from Martin for the opening fall, ather like his No Contest with Marty Jones at the RAH in 1980

[David Mantell]

16 years ago at the Sunderland Empire. Two of the best of the Noughties.

[David Mantell]

On 8/15/2023 at 9:19 AM, David Mantell said:

I went to all three of the big Skydome shows the FWA one and the two TWC shows, and actually walked from my house in Coundon to the arena for all three.  After the 2004 FWA show I took their coach back from Coventry to King's Cross London as I went to see All Star's Sunday afternoon matinee show at the Fairfield Hall Croydon and spent the night at my parents.  Apparently there had been some incident involving Sanjay Bagga and Tony Walsh earlier in the day where Sanjay had criticised Darren Walsh's abilities and Tony had responded by putting him in a hold. Sanjay was getting people on the coach to suggest ideas for what he could do in a putative "rematch".

There has recently been a revival of the "Sword of Excellence" angle from 2008 between Bagga and the then aging (66) and now outright elderly (82) Kendo Nagasaki, with Bagga having bragged about being able to take on Kendo himself to keep the sword in LDN custody.  Curiously at this point Bagga seems to be the heel and Nagasaki seems to be the blue-eye in all this.

There was meant to be a confrontation between the two at Fairfield Halls Croydon recently (in one of the smaller rooms, not the legendary Concert Hall that was All Star's equivalent of MSG 1985-2013 - I suppose the equivalent would be the Felt Forum).  Naggers showed up, doing his own speaking for once (in Thornley's native Staffordshire accent) and collected the sword to cheers from the Croydon crowd which must surely have included surviviors of the original South London Hellcrew which staged RIOTS at this venue when he appeared there or at nearby Lewisham Theatre Catford 31-37 years ago:

Ring announcer is our old friend Leigh Bamber

 

[Jetlag]

Somebody posted some 70s German wrestling clips to Youtube. Just about a minute each so don't get your hopes up but it's  still something.

 

Roland Bock vs Jack Rowland

 Bock vs Johnny El Corso

 

Going by Cagematch, the Rowland match might have been as early as 1974.

[David Mantell]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:28 PM, Jetlag said:

Somebody posted some 70s German wrestling clips to Youtube. Just about a minute each so don't get your hopes up but it's  still something.

 

Roland Bock vs Jack Rowland

 Bock vs Johnny El Corso

 

Going by Cagematch, the Rowland match might have been as early as 1974.

Interesting.  The ring looks like French Wrestling especially the red roped one in the first clip.  Beau Jack Rowlands wasa journeyman blue eye heavyweight on 70s WOS, I thing he faced Daddy solo in 1976, probably with Daddy still the heel but don't quote me on that.  The gong for a bell and the referee with a football whistle were very much regular tropes of the CWA era (apparently the promotion everyone calls the CWA was called the IBV back then - is that correct serg1e?  Roland Bock reminds me of the younger Rex Strong before he got ill and piled on the pounds.

[Indikator]

IBV by then was Selenkowitsch. Hannover until 1980 was Schober (Peter William as the matchmaker). Berlin/VDB was  Berger. Hannover then got Kaiser, who was more like a money mark. In the end William/Wanz as more or less heads of VDB edged out Selenkowitsch, consolidated power and by that you could say they drove it into the dead end that was Catch.
It will take quite a while until all the intricate details of the promotional structure will be shown at WD. Like Berger&Lasartesse copromoting and then being in opposition to each other in Berlin.
Then again I am also trying to flesh out the UK and things like figuring out Jack Atherton shows is quite some task.
I could live to the age of 200 and never run out of things to do.

[Jetlag]

On 5/14/2024 at 11:45 PM, David Mantell said:

Interesting.  The ring looks like French Wrestling especially the red roped one in the first clip.  Beau Jack Rowlands wasa journeyman blue eye heavyweight on 70s WOS, I thing he faced Daddy solo in 1976, probably with Daddy still the heel but don't quote me on that.  The gong for a bell and the referee with a football whistle were very much regular tropes of the CWA era (apparently the promotion everyone calls the CWA was called the IBV back then - is that correct serg1e?  Roland Bock reminds me of the younger Rex Strong before he got ill and piled on the pounds.

This rant that was recently posted by a well versed historian on a German messageboard feels very relevant:

 

"It has long bothered me that everything that happened in Aut/BRD is automatically attributed to the CWA. A well-known data site even goes back to 1972, which is total bullshit. The CWA as an organised club that held events under the banner did not exist before 1988 event 87, but then only in Austria in Graz and then from 89 in Vienna. Before that, if you read CWA it was merely a title. Otto got the rights to a CWA title that Jan Wilkens had previously held in South Africa in 1977 (not 73 as is often stated on the net). There was also no tournament that is always mentioned here. Otto passed the title on to Don Leo, the date of 01.09.1977 is also incorrect here, I doubt whether there was a fight at all. The reason was that it was of course better for Wanz to win the title from a champion in his home town than to come home with a belt that nobody knows how and where and above all against whom he "won" it. Well DLJ got a good payday and Otto called himself world champion of the CWA from 1978. At that time it was still called the "Canadian Wrestling Association" (it didn't exist, but who cares). Otto defended the title at home at his shows, which he had been organising since 1972 and then mainly in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. Otto defended the title at home in his shows, which he organised from 1972 onwards and then above all in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. This was also reflected in the fact that Otto even won a second world championship title in 1978, the title played out in a tournament in Bremen with Nico of the IBV (International Professional Wrestling Federation). The success proved everyone right, Otto thrilled the crowds and Nico was able to fill the halls. However, the events were always organised under IBV, CWA only came into play on the final evening where Otto received a share per spectator in addition to the fee. When Nico resigned in 1987, more or less due to the intrigues of the new management of the Stadthalle in Bremen and other ricochets, Otto took over together with Peter William. The same thing happened in Vienna. After the 1988 tournament, Heinrich Kaiser (who did NOT organise CWA for the VDB) was booted out and Wanz and William also took over Waltz City. Hanover also belonged to Kaiser and the VDB until 90. Then in 1991 a discotheque owner called Jürgen Windolph took over for the VDB.   But only for one year, then came Paul Violka and now the CWA with PEter William. Wanz was never an organiser in Hanover. Sure, he got his percentage for the name, but he had nothing to say, only William did. Cities like Karlsruhe, Hamburg and others were never CWA territory. I'm annoyed that I've been doing educational work for years and then, as in this case, everything is simply labelled CWA on various Twitter pages, sorry X or youtube. But it is not. If you're interested, you can read it. Most people don't care, they just stick with CWA."

Source (German) -> https://www.moonsault.de/forum/thread/125606-aufklärung-zur-cwa-catch-wrestling-association/

 

FWIW, Roland Bock had a few matches against Jack Rowlands in 1974 for IBV, so the clip might be from one of those.

[David Mantell]

On 5/17/2024 at 10:51 PM, Jetlag said:

This rant that was recently posted by a well versed historian on a German messageboard feels very relevant:

 

"It has long bothered me that everything that happened in Aut/BRD is automatically attributed to the CWA. A well-known data site even goes back to 1972, which is total bullshit. The CWA as an organised club that held events under the banner did not exist before 1988 event 87, but then only in Austria in Graz and then from 89 in Vienna. Before that, if you read CWA it was merely a title. Otto got the rights to a CWA title that Jan Wilkens had previously held in South Africa in 1977 (not 73 as is often stated on the net). There was also no tournament that is always mentioned here. Otto passed the title on to Don Leo, the date of 01.09.1977 is also incorrect here, I doubt whether there was a fight at all. The reason was that it was of course better for Wanz to win the title from a champion in his home town than to come home with a belt that nobody knows how and where and above all against whom he "won" it. Well DLJ got a good payday and Otto called himself world champion of the CWA from 1978. At that time it was still called the "Canadian Wrestling Association" (it didn't exist, but who cares). Otto defended the title at home at his shows, which he had been organising since 1972 and then mainly in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. Otto defended the title at home in his shows, which he organised from 1972 onwards and then above all in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. This was also reflected in the fact that Otto even won a second world championship title in 1978, the title played out in a tournament in Bremen with Nico of the IBV (International Professional Wrestling Federation). The success proved everyone right, Otto thrilled the crowds and Nico was able to fill the halls. However, the events were always organised under IBV, CWA only came into play on the final evening where Otto received a share per spectator in addition to the fee. When Nico resigned in 1987, more or less due to the intrigues of the new management of the Stadthalle in Bremen and other ricochets, Otto took over together with Peter William. The same thing happened in Vienna. After the 1988 tournament, Heinrich Kaiser (who did NOT organise CWA for the VDB) was booted out and Wanz and William also took over Waltz City. Hanover also belonged to Kaiser and the VDB until 90. Then in 1991 a discotheque owner called Jürgen Windolph took over for the VDB.   But only for one year, then came Paul Violka and now the CWA with PEter William. Wanz was never an organiser in Hanover. Sure, he got his percentage for the name, but he had nothing to say, only William did. Cities like Karlsruhe, Hamburg and others were never CWA territory. I'm annoyed that I've been doing educational work for years and then, as in this case, everything is simply labelled CWA on various Twitter pages, sorry X or youtube. But it is not. If you're interested, you can read it. Most people don't care, they just stick with CWA."

Source (German) -> https://www.moonsault.de/forum/thread/125606-aufklärung-zur-cwa-catch-wrestling-association/

 

FWIW, Roland Bock had a few matches against Jack Rowlands in 1974 for IBV, so the clip might be from one of those.

He doesn't exactly make it easy does he?  

To be honest it's very hard to take apart the Wikipedia page for the CWA since all the sources called it that.(Verifiability Not Truth and all that.)

It seems to me (and correct me if I'm wrong). that IBV is what people are referring to when they talk of the CWA- the promotion with the big ring with white ropes, blue or dark grey mat, covered in logos of sponsoring companies, gong instead of a bell.  featuring Otto and a load of visiting Americans, filmed very professionally by a multi camera crew for home video. While the VBD are the Other lot, smaller ring, a lot like Britain, lots of Joint Promotions mid careers on the bill, also quite a few older Germans like Axel Dieter, filmed badly with a single handheld camcorder.

 

 

 

 

[David Mantell]

On 8/24/2023 at 12:08 PM, David Mantell said:

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.

Have found another couple of TV bouts they had besides the rather rushed above bout and the 1972 bout found on b/W film.  Much more room for the bout to breathe in these than the short bout, you get a better feel for their technical abilities in these two and '72 also.

 

  

 

[David Mantell]

On 9/23/2021 at 11:37 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Vic Faulkner vs. Mick McMichael (6/28/72)

Man, it's been a while since I've seen a new ITV match. Maybe it's because I've been starved of ITV wrestling, but I really enjoyed this. I wouldn't classify either guy as a favorite of mine, but this had some really nice wrestling in it. Mick McMichael looked so young! The most recent McMichael stuff I've seen was from when he was a ref in the CWA in the 1990s. Walton clearly liked him as he kept calling him underrated and a great technician. They did a great job of mixing up the competitive wrestling and comedy spots. Faulkner can come across as smug at times with his in-ring tricks, but I thought he likeable here. They went at each other so hard and so fast that the inevitable draw felt like the most realistic outcome, but wow, that nearfall that Faulkner countered into the equalizer was a superb sequence. Highly entertaining bout. 

 

 

 

Bumping this review up and adding the 1972 bout video so we can see what their work together was like overall. As I have said, the short match is somewhat rushed and overstuffed for it's duration but the other three bouts show us two skilled wrestlers who expressed their sportsmanship and bonhomie through banter and humour but did Not veer into outright comedy matches, with the skill remaining the prime focus. You admire their work nut you also wouldn't mind joining these guys for a few rounds of cards or dominoes in the pub one night.

[David Mantell]

On 5/17/2024 at 10:51 PM, Jetlag said:

This rant that was recently posted by a well versed historian on a German messageboard feels very relevant:

 

"It has long bothered me that everything that happened in Aut/BRD is automatically attributed to the CWA. A well-known data site even goes back to 1972, which is total bullshit. The CWA as an organised club that held events under the banner did not exist before 1988 event 87, but then only in Austria in Graz and then from 89 in Vienna. Before that, if you read CWA it was merely a title. Otto got the rights to a CWA title that Jan Wilkens had previously held in South Africa in 1977 (not 73 as is often stated on the net). There was also no tournament that is always mentioned here. Otto passed the title on to Don Leo, the date of 01.09.1977 is also incorrect here, I doubt whether there was a fight at all. The reason was that it was of course better for Wanz to win the title from a champion in his home town than to come home with a belt that nobody knows how and where and above all against whom he "won" it. Well DLJ got a good payday and Otto called himself world champion of the CWA from 1978. At that time it was still called the "Canadian Wrestling Association" (it didn't exist, but who cares). Otto defended the title at home at his shows, which he had been organising since 1972 and then mainly in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. Otto defended the title at home in his shows, which he organised from 1972 onwards and then above all in Bremen, where Nico Selenkowitsch saw potential in Otto and built him up as a top European HW. This was also reflected in the fact that Otto even won a second world championship title in 1978, the title played out in a tournament in Bremen with Nico of the IBV (International Professional Wrestling Federation). The success proved everyone right, Otto thrilled the crowds and Nico was able to fill the halls. However, the events were always organised under IBV, CWA only came into play on the final evening where Otto received a share per spectator in addition to the fee. When Nico resigned in 1987, more or less due to the intrigues of the new management of the Stadthalle in Bremen and other ricochets, Otto took over together with Peter William. The same thing happened in Vienna. After the 1988 tournament, Heinrich Kaiser (who did NOT organise CWA for the VDB) was booted out and Wanz and William also took over Waltz City. Hanover also belonged to Kaiser and the VDB until 90. Then in 1991 a discotheque owner called Jürgen Windolph took over for the VDB.   But only for one year, then came Paul Violka and now the CWA with PEter William. Wanz was never an organiser in Hanover. Sure, he got his percentage for the name, but he had nothing to say, only William did. Cities like Karlsruhe, Hamburg and others were never CWA territory. I'm annoyed that I've been doing educational work for years and then, as in this case, everything is simply labelled CWA on various Twitter pages, sorry X or youtube. But it is not. If you're interested, you can read it. Most people don't care, they just stick with CWA."

Source (German) -> https://www.moonsault.de/forum/thread/125606-aufklärung-zur-cwa-catch-wrestling-association/

 

FWIW, Roland Bock had a few matches against Jack Rowlands in 1974 for IBV, so the clip might be from one of those.

Have copied and pasted the entire piece to the talk pages of the English Wikipedia articles for the CWA and VdB

[David Mantell]

Apparently there were another three McMichael-Faulkner bouts:

1. Feb 1971 Doncaster one fall contest Vic won
2. Oct 1971 Morecambe result unknown 
3. 1975 Bradford result unknown 

I'm guessing  the two result unknowns wee 1-1 Broadways!

@JNLister the bout with the white ring apron and the bad audio was Bridlington August 1983 (same TV taping as Honey Boy Zimba Vs Steve Lanegan).  You might wish to add the video to your 1983 page.

[David Mantell]

14 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Have copied and pasted the entire piece to the talk pages of the English Wikipedia articles for the CWA and VdB

Have also updated the CWA page on Wikipedia to incorporate the IBV and Nico Selenkowitsch. You might want to pass this back to the bloke on the German forum, see what he reckons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Wrestling_Association

[David Mantell]

On 5/21/2024 at 1:29 AM, David Mantell said:

the CWA- ... filmed very professionally by a multi camera crew for home video. While the VBD are the Other lot, ..., filmed badly with a single handheld camcorder.

I was remiss in not noting that in the 1990s as camcorders became commonplace there were also plenty of dodgy single handheld fan-cams of CWA matches, as with every other promotion on the planet

 

Incidentally that's Mick McMichael refereeing.

Conversely, there is also the VDB 1998 taping we discussed a few pages back (Marty Jones Vs Danny Royal, Mike Zrno Vs Danny Collins, Drew McDonald Vs Tony StClair) which is professionally filmed and looks and feels  for all the world like a British taping circa 1985.

However when it comes to earlier, 1980s German footage, the IBV/CWA is the well filmed multicam stuff and the VDB the shaky single handheld jobs.

[JNLister]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:05 PM, David Mantell said:

Apparently there were another three McMichael-Faulkner bouts:

1. Feb 1971 Doncaster one fall contest Vic won
2. Oct 1971 Morecambe result unknown 
3. 1975 Bradford result unknown 

I'm guessing  the two result unknowns wee 1-1 Broadways!

@JNLister the bout with the white ring apron and the bad audio was Bridlington August 1983 (same TV taping as Honey Boy Zimba Vs Steve Lanegan).  You might wish to add the video to your 1883 page.

Thanks - have added the clip at the end of the 1983 page (the "didn't air on ITV but did show up on The Wrestling Channel" section.) It looks likely it was scheduled to air on August 13 but World of Sport had athletics instead. 

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, JNLister said:

Thanks - have added the clip at the end of the 1983 page (the "didn't air on ITV but did show up on The Wrestling Channel" section.) It looks likely it was scheduled to air on August 13 but World of Sport had athletics instead. 

You're welcome.

There was also a tag bout early 1968 in Leamington Spa - McMichael and Clements "The Yorkshire Terriers" Vs The Royal Brothers.  So that makes 8 total.

[David Mantell]

Another modern classic from Jordan Breaks. This time against Nino Bryant's youngest brother Leland. Notice Jordan's use of Ken Joyce's old trick of preventing a slingshot or posting by dropping down to a sitting position:

 

[David Mantell]

On 7/31/2023 at 5:16 PM, David Mantell said:

> I wish we had more footage from Spain and Greece. 

We've got video of a rough and ready looking couple of Greek shows from September 1987 filmed in what look like a converted underground carpark with a spectacularly shabby ring.  It's only where in one match where the camera turns round to reveal a rostrum of about 300 fans that you realise it's actually a "theatre" and not just a garage gym.

 

@ohtani's jacket I've just found a couple more bits of Greek footage on the same YouTube channel as the first of those three clips

First up there is a movie clip from a 1984 film.

Second up is this compilation of wrestling/strongman act footage of George Tromaras.

What's particularly interesting is that the wrestling footage looks particularly high budget except for being in b/W.  The ring looks very much like a British ring and there is a full camera crew filming the bout (you can see other crew members in shot.) The match footage is watermarked ATV. Who was that? (Surely no connection to Associated Television in the UK up to 1982? ).  The letters A/Alpha and T/Tau are common to the Greek and Latin alphabets but there is no V in Greek unless it's actually a capital Upsilon which looks like a Latin capital Y and they've not given it much of a stem. Either way I'd like to know what ATV/ATY was.

I've looked on Wikipedia but can't find any mention of a channel called ATV in Greece. The nearest thing is Antenne 1 but its acronym is ANT1 not ATV and it was launched 31st December 1989. Old school Greek Wrestling died out in 1991 yet the scene in those ATV shots looks in healthier condition than the 1987 videos.

George Tromaras seems to have been quite the celeb judging by the clip, doubling as a strongman and wrestler like Hercules Cortez, Otto Wanz and to some extent Shirley Crabtree during his 1960s Blond Adonis years. (Most likely Cortez inspired the other three although strongman/GR Wrestler crossovers were a staple of circuses in the 1800s. The channel is owned by Konstantin Tromaras, presumably some relative of his.

[David Mantell]

Not especially a classic Traditional British bout, but of interest because of the historic outdoor venue, The Oval bandstand in seaside town Cliftonville. A regular wrestling venue going back to the 1930s.

It was never used for ITV and the sound issues caused by the blowy wind on an otherwise nice sunny English summer's day may be a clue why. (If you look through Rumble's channel you will find videos of their last taping there, in a downpour!  This time they got a respectable 400 (some WOS taping houses were half that many) although you only get a few shots of the bulk of them as they were mostly behind the cameras.

 

[David Mantell]

Jordan Breaks and Hakan in a rematch from a bout last year (not sure if I posted it.) spoiled slightly by a long fighting in the stands section (although it does give you a good view of the Oval.) Plenty of good British technical skill from Jordan and some good technical skill from Hakan too.