The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[ohtani's jacket]

I'd say that if you've only seen Pete Roberts in Japan then you haven't really seen Pete Roberts. The same is true of most British workers in Japan. The stuff I've seen from Roberts in Japan he's tried to work the local style and been pretty average at it. The big problem with Roberts was that he had no personality and when he's out of his element it makes his matches even worse. I'm not a huge fan but against guys who could work like Rudge or Roach or Jones he was oftentimes quite sensational and when your work is good then that's a type of charisma in itself. The two things I'd say are missing most from his Japan work are the matwork and the moments of sheer athleticism like in one of the Singh matches where he's able to counter a body slam by springboarding off the mat with one hand.

 

For what it's worth, I think Tony St. Clair is a guy who really suffers from having shitty Japan matches.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. John Elijah (10/2/85)

Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. Barry Douglas (4/26/84)

 

Wrestling on ITV got really lame towards the end. I hate the cheesy voice over that introduces the wrestling and the whole Saturday lunch time wrestling schtick with the corny as shit Brian Crabtree MC'ing. Gil Singh could sure half-ass it when he wanted to, especially in one fall matches. I've seen no evidence so far that Barry Douglas was the Southern Terry Rudge, though he was well past his prime here and jobbed in about as short a time as WoS matches went.

 

John Elijah vs. Tom Tyrone (7/15/86)

John Elijah vs. Tom Tyrone (5/11/82)

 

A guy whose stock is definitely rising for me is Tom Tyrone. John Elijah was basically reduced to comedy schtick at this point, but remained a decent worker, and Tyrone had the goods in what was unfortunately the wrong era. The '86 match was particularly impressive as it was an entertaining, spirited draw in a really shitty time period for British wrestling. It wasn't good enough to make an 80s set, but it was undoubtedly one of the highlights of that year.

 

Dave Finlay vs. Ringo Rigby (2/24/83)

 

Ringo Rigby was the guy who went to North America with Chris Adams and had significantly less success. It shouldn't be much of a surprise then that he was by far the better of the two when they worked the British halls and was one of the more likeable blue eyes around. This was the final few rounds of a match for the vacant British Light-Heavyweight title. It was a rematch from a match the week before that ended in double count out. Dale Martin loved booking rematches for matches that were supposed to decide vacant titles. Early Dave Finlay is awesome. I don't think he was ever this awesome again until his WWE run. But the match is only really notable for Marty Jones cutting a promo at the end. He was supposed to hand his vacant British Light Heavyweight title to the "deserving" winner and refused to hand it to Finlay. Finlay told Jones that winning the British title was only the beginning and that he was coming after Jones' World title and I guess this kick started their feud. The amusing thing about all this was that Jones was wearing glasses because of his lazy eye and they were really thick lenses that made his eyes look huge (as I'm sure you can imagine) and it was so odd to see this world class athlete looking like my old woodwork teacher. Can you imagine Vince letting a guy cut a promo with glasses like that?

 

Ringo Rigby vs. Banger Walsh (12/7/81)

 

Walsh wasn't have the worker that the truly great heels were, but I like his schtick and the general idea that such a regular looking bloke can be a heat drawing prick in the ring. It was one of those WoS matches that is basically about the heel cheating, the face retaliating and the referee intervening, but it entertained the punters and yours truly.

[Smack2k]

Ohtani...

 

Can you recommend some good Kendo matches?? I'd like to watch him wrestle as I have read a lot about him and seen his unmasking and documentary stuff...

 

Would liek to know if the cover matches the drapes in terms of quality?

[ohtani's jacket]

I haven't watched all that many Nagasaki matches, not because he was an awful worker (he was passable), but because he usually didn't wrestle guys I'm interested in seeing. I'll see what I can scrape up for you.

 

EDIT: For some reason, a lot of his stuff has been taken down from YouTube. I'd go with the Wayne Bridges, Lee Bronson, Peter Stewart and Johnny Kincaid bouts from what's available.

[PeteF3]

I know some people really hate the Bridges match. Bridges is past his prime and Nagasaki is nearing the end of his active career, it's from 1987 when British wrestling was dying as a national TV sport, and it's got an Americanized finish. But when I saw it, I liked it way more than I should have. (But then I really like Bridges).

 

Bridges/Rocco vs. Nagasaki/Shane Stevens is probably a match that made OJ want to gouge his eyes out, but I also thought that was fun, but it's not much of a Nagasaki showcase.

 

Two more matches that served as gateways for a lot of people: Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers from 1975 (though they had about 7,000 matches against each other) and Johnny Saint vs. Robbie Brookside. Saint/Brookside is very exhibitiony but Saint runs through all of his trademark spots in greatest-hits fashion.

[ohtani's jacket]

I thought the Bridges match was big and dopey and fun the same way a Rayo/Caras match is fun. Can't see why anyone would hate it.

[ohtani's jacket]

Rocky Moran vs. Chic Cullen (4/11/84)

 

This two matched up really well and I was glad to see another of their matches. There were some disadvantages in terms of rating it in that the footage as joined in progress and the crowd, while into the match, were not the most boisterous of audiences. It was also part of some sort of Ireland vs. Scotland Davis Cup style contest and tournament style matches tend to be less memorable than other styles of bouts.

 

Keith Haward vs. John Elijah (7/31/85)

 

I liked this a lot. I found it on the internet so I'm not sure if I saw all of what exists, but my main take away from it was that Elijah, even at this veteran stage of his career, was a really solid foil for his opponents. He didn't have great matches, but whenever I see his name on paper against a "worker" the results are undeniably good. Haward as a wrestling machine. He made Pete Roberts seem like an outgoing guy, but he was a wrestling machine. He does a double leg takedown move in this match that is killer. Good stuff.

 

Johnny Saint vs. Mike Jordan (3/16/88)

 

There was actually some decent action in this, but it was an ASW bout and the bullshit was never far away in their matches. A real Jordan/Saint match in the halls might have been pretty interesting but on TV in '88 it was doomed.

[Smack2k]

I haven't watched all that many Nagasaki matches, not because he was an awful worker (he was passable), but because he usually didn't wrestle guys I'm interested in seeing. I'll see what I can scrape up for you.

 

EDIT: For some reason, a lot of his stuff has been taken down from YouTube. I'd go with the Wayne Bridges, Lee Bronson, Peter Stewart and Johnny Kincaid bouts from what's available.

Thanks a lot...strange its been taken down but I will dl those you mentioned and check em out....

[ohtani's jacket]

Ken Joyce vs. Tony Costas (1/9/80)

 

This was a really beautiful "Euro" style match. Ken Joyce was a veteran grappler who had retired and come back more times than Terry Funk and was a master at this style. He had a counter for practically every single hold and would feed his opponent a limb to counter into the hold he wanted, completely befuddling his man. And of course, he did a bunch of tricked out submissions and holds of which the closest equivalent is lucha. In fact, he was almost like the European version of Dos Caras. Costas for his part was game, though this was very much a Ken Joyce showcase. The match lost its shape a wee bit down the stretch, but not enough to sour me on it and I really loved how Joyce used open handed palm strikes. Never seen such an old man look so cool doing palm strikes, except for Fujiwara perhaps. The weakeners he dished out were nasty looking too. Personally, I like Joyce as a representation of this style much more than say Johnny Saint or Steve Wright.

 

Tony Costas vs. Paul Britton (6/28/83)

 

The previous bout made me want to see more of Costas. This was a short, one fall bout against a young man who was making his debut and who I don't think was ever on television again. Some really great action here. Costas could go, but unfortunately there's not that much footage of him.

 

Steve Grey vs. Steve Speed (1/25/84)

 

This was awesome. Steve Speed a lightweight with the physique of a Keith Haward and the skills to match. Grey never shied away from the physical stuff and this was a hell of a contest. Again, it was a shorter one fall bout, but the action was so fast and so snug that Speed got a busted nose and there were these cool visuals of both guys going for broke with Speed's blood smeared over him. Great sub-10 minute bout. I desperately wanted to see more Speed after this, but there's less footage of Speed than there is Tony Costas.

 

Roy St. Clair vs. Tarzan Johnny Wilson (5/11/77)

 

This was a really good heavyweight contest against two pretty big boys. Both guys used their frames to punishing effect and I felt sore just watching it at times. Roy St. Clair was the older brother of Tony; I haven't seen all that much of him so I was scouting him a bit to see whether I should grab a couple of his other matches and on the basis of this I will. This went to an DKO injury finish, but St. Clair sold that his neck had been dislocated and the referee Max Ward put it back in place to gasps from the audience, and I thought if you're going to do an injury finish at least they were creative with it. Good bout from the heavies.

[ohtani's jacket]

Lenny Hurst vs. Dave Bond (11/20/84)

 

When Bond grew heavier in the 80s, he lost some of his athleticism but became something of a mini European Mark Henry. This started off with some decent strength holds with Bond demonstrating his size and power advantage and Hurst using his veteran guile to escape from Bond's grip, and with so many grey tufts of hair it really was veteran guile on Hurst's part. From there they moved into the heat segment where Bond used his array of inside moves to give Hurst a working over. All of this was perfectly solid and the crowd responded dutifully, but Hurst didn't really have the charisma to make something compelling out of a tried formula. Which isn't to say his selling as lacking, as he clearly tried, but the match lacked a certain spark that you get with the really engrossing rule breaking.

 

Dave Bond vs. Count Bartelli (4/24/79)

 

Bartelli was a big deal in British wrestling, a masked wrestler who went undefeated for twenty years until he lost to Kendo Nagasaki in 1966 or so the folklore goes. After that bout, he unmasked and reinvented himself for another decade plus run. I'm not a fan of late period Bartelli as I haven't seen a great deal of wrestling skill from him, but he carried himself like he had a great deal of wrestling skill, which is the important thing. This was the leaner, more athletic Bond, but a bit rough around the gills at times. In a huge surprise, they put him over here in what I believe was Baretlli's last televised match. Bond got a submission from a vertical suplex position, which as a pretty unique way to get something to submit. Someone in the YouTube comments wondered if it as a failed suplex, but I've seen it used before as a neck hold and I think it's kind of cool.

 

Bobby Barnes vs. Chris Adams (10/11/78)

Dave Bond vs. Clive Myers (10/11/78)

Bond/Barnes vs. Myers/Adams (10/11/78)

 

The promoters were constantly coming up with gimmick TV matches around this time usually involving teams of some sort. This was a tag team match that began with two singles matches before a two-on-two bout. The singles matches were one fall bouts that were shorter than your average WoS bout. Barnes was all class in his singles match wrestling quite a straight up match against Adams, who kind of sucked at this time. He was like the European Steve Blackman. Bond/Myers had a lot of up tempo action. Barnes was wearing a pimpin' hat before proceedings began. He looked like Bobby Womack on an episode of Soul Train. Myers was already doing his kung fu, martial arts fighter schtick here, but it didn't bother me too much as Bond was a solid foil to schtick like Myers removing his shirt Bruce Lee style. The tag match had some exciting moments, but as many of you are probably aware, Europe didn't do tag wrestling well. Yet worse than the tag match structure was the finish. This was quite a long TV gimmick, a good 30+ minutes of action, yet after making a considerable investment in the match, it ended with the heels getting disqualified for something pretty innocuous. Left me feeling like I'd wasted my time. Fuck knows why they couldn't have put the faces over clean.

[khawk20]

I must say I've enjoyed this thread and the match reviews a lot and it's compelled me to seek out some of these on youtube when I have the chance. Kudos.

[Smack2k]

I must say I've enjoyed this thread and the match reviews a lot and it's compelled me to seek out some of these on youtube when I have the chance. Kudos.

My sentiments exactly....thanks for opening a whole new world of wrestling to me....

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm glad people are getting something out of my comments. They're a small part of a much more epic thread here -- http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/i...?showtopic=2555

 

It was my great disappointment to discover that my new find Steve Speed was quite the enhancement talent. Despite that, I believe we have all of the footage from his times on television.

 

Alan Dennison vs. Steve Speed (11/1/83)

 

Walton wouldn't shut up about how unfair it as that Speed had to make his television debut in a catchweight contest against a wrestler the class of Alan Dennison. This was particularly annoying not only for the number of times Walton mentioned it, but because Dennison wasn't a particularly good wrestler. In fact, the only saving grace for this match was Speed bumping for Dennison's strongman act. One of the odd things about Walton's commentary is that there'd be these bouts where he'd be dismissive of one wrestler's chances right from the get-go and instead of praising the younger or lighter worker for putting up a fight he'd take aim at the matchmaking.

 

Danny Collins/Steve Speed vs. Derek Collins/Pete LaPaque (6/28/84)

 

The British Rockers weren't some blowjob babyfaces but a couple of boorish heels. This was Derek Collins' debut as a Rocker. I'm not sure what happened to Tommy Lorne, LaPaque's previous partner. He died in a car crash, but I think that was later. Anyway, this was a bit better than your typical WoS tag match. The Rockers actually cut off the ring and worked a somewhat Southern style, but there as no semblance of the hot tag and it was ridiculous watching Danny Collins get the winning fall without any involvement from either of the partners. No interference from the heels, no teamwork in clearing the ring, everyone just stood around and watched Collins get the pin. It's weird how under-evolved British tag wrestling was.

 

Kid McCoy vs. Steve Speed (6/10/87)

Richie Brooks vs. Steve Speed (10/28/87)

 

Speed was from a body building background and got even bigger in the late eighties, hindering his mobility. The Kid McCoy match was awful. The Richie Brooks match was a bit better, but it's so hard to care about these young workers that were all over the screen in the late 80s, unless you're part of the gay British wrestling fetish sect who contribute 90% of the YouTube comments on WoS matches.

 

Anyway, that'll teach me to think someone is a find after one match, especially a match against Steve Grey. Ironically, when I was checking the dates for these matches I saw that Speed was a replacement for Clive Myers in that match and wasn't scheduled to occur at all.

[ohtani's jacket]

Sammy Lee vs. Mark Rocco (3/31/81)

 

How can a guy as good as Rocco be so shit all the time? This was just awful. Sayama was so over with the crowd, drawing football chant level support, that it would've been a breeze to put together a hot match. After all, all-action, big bumping, show stealing performances were supposed to be Rocco's specialty. Instead, we got this turd-by-comparison, and believe me Sayama wasn't blowing spots either. Bluck.

 

Spencer Churchill vs. Mel Stuart (5/27/75)

Spencer Churchill vs. Mel Stuart (12/18/75)

 

Churchill was quite the physical culturalist as Walton liked to put it. Mel Stuart looked like a smaller Dick Murdoch with not quite a quarter of the talent. These were every bit the preliminary bouts. They'd start with a bit of jockeying then Stuart would bend the rules and Churchill would retaliate, a pattern which finally woke the crowd up. I'm waiting for some new stuff to arrive and scraping the dregs a bit here. Can't imagine there being any reason people would want to watch these.

[ohtani's jacket]

You know your DVDs can't arrive fast enough when you're watching all the available YouTube footage of workers you don't particularly like.

 

In this case, I'm talking about King Ben. Ben was a heavy middleweight who mainly worked in the North. He was the father of young wrestler Kid McCoy, who was one of the staples of the later period of television wrestling. Here's a picture of them together:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j_TGCF8fANo/UKX7...Kid%2BMcCoy.JPG

 

King Ben vs. Kid McCoy (3/19/88)

 

In 1988, the father and son pairing of Ben and McCoy fought this rather novel final for the 1988 Golden Grappler Trophy. Instead of McCoy kicking Ben's leg out of his leg, they wrestled a really clean bout with the odd bemused look from the old man and plenty of jocularity. The YouTube fetishists kind of bit their tongue over this one, though there were some weird comments like, "did anybody wrestle their dad when they were a teenager?" The bout fell somewhere between watchable and a bit of a bore.

 

Ringo Rigby vs. King Ben (2/16/83)

 

This was a short tournament bout that set up a final between Rigby and Dave Finlay. Rigby did a couple of cool spots, but Ben looked woeful on offence.

 

King Ben vs. Little Prince (1/26/88)

 

This was from Golden Grappler Trophy quarterfinals. Prince was a Pakistani wrestler who belongs the shortlist of hairiest men in the history of professional wrestling. This pic doesn't do his back justice:

 

 

I'll spare you a report on the YouTube comments. The Prince made this interesting. He was extremely belligerent and attacked Ben illegally on a number of occasions when his man was either down or after the bell had gone. This brought out a bit of desperately needed fire in Ben, whose wrestling really wasn't good enough to carry a pure contest. Match ended in a draw after a messy finishing stretch and the referee awarded Ben the match on points. The Prince was screwed! I actually liked this quite a bit. For a match from '88 it was highly watchable. I've said this many times before, but I love how many different nationalities you get amongst WoS workers. Not all of them were real, of course, but it's still cool to see all these workers from not only the Commonwealth but other parts of Europe.

[ohtani's jacket]

King Ben vs. El Diablo (10/8/87)

 

El Diablo was Tony Francis, a Bobby the Brain type manager who led heels against Big Daddy in the waning days of television wrestler. I don't really know as I don't watch Big Daddy matches. For some reason, he was moonlighting as a masked wrestler doing squash matches. Match was shit.

 

Dave Duran vs. King Ben (date unknown)

 

This was a handheld from the halls. Judging by the crowd (or lack thereof) it may have been after TV. The only really interesting thing about it was how much more it resembled an American house show match than a British wrestling match. I wonder if that was common in the halls.

 

Bert Royal/Vic Faulkner vs. King Ben/Lee Sharron (3/17/81)

 

This had a slightly interesting dynamic in that face Ben was partnered with heel Sharron. The Royal Brothers were kind of like the British version of the Funks and had all sorts of popular tag team spots. Of course, they didn't add much psychology to the bouts but they at least had some energy to them. Working with Faulkner was by far the most athletic Ben has looked so far.

 

King Ben vs. Lucky Gordon (2/3/88)

 

This was from the semi-finals of The Golden Grappler tournament. Boy am I glad so much of this vitally important tournament survives. This was terrible. Gordon is one of the worst wrestlers I've seen among the hundreds of British matches I've watched so far.

 

Man, unless there is some killer early King Ben, I deeply regret that foray.

 

Johnny Saint vs. Tony Costas (9/9/81)

 

This as a good match. It's rare that I praise a Saint match so that says a lot. They didn't do anything outstandingly great so it's not a match I would put on my list of recommendations, but it had a good rhythm to it that I quickly settled into.

 

John Carlo vs. Bob Kirkwood (4/18/74)

 

Around 1975, wrestling's ratings began to drop somewhat as audiences grew tired of McManus, Pallo, Logan and Kellett. Around this time, Joint Promotions began trying to push some of its younger talent. One guy they thought was the future was this young, lanky heavyweight John Carlo, who disappeared off the face of the earth after a couple of television appearances. One look at him and I thought this was going to be a long match, but Kirkwood surprised me here by crafting an exciting bout for the young man to wrestle. Stellar job and went up in my estimation. Go Bob!

 

Jim Moser vs. Dave Duran (4/20/88)

 

Man, Moser was older than dirt here. Duran seemed to have a bit of promise to him even if he did arrive on the scene too late. This was okay, but awfully slow. Walton kept pointing out how banged up Moser was since it was pretty blatant.

 

Little Prince vs. Steve Casey (8/3/83)

 

I like Little Prince. He wasn't a great worker, but he was a lot of fun and did some nice moves. And his matches are never less than entertaining. It's a shame none of his 70s work is available.

[JNLister]

I interviewed Jim Breaks today for FSM. I'm both a little sad and also happy to say he's an absolutely lovely guy who's so far from his in-ring persona, it's silly. He's like a jovial grandpa who's telling you about how much he loved pissing people off.

[ohtani's jacket]

Ken Joyce vs. Dick Conlon (2/13/75)

 

Ken Joyce is like the lucha maestro of British wrestling. His matwork reminds me of Dos Caras at his most creative. Conlon's a guy I've never seen or heard of before and Walton kept suggesting that this should have been lopsided, but Joyce gave him most of the bout and Conlon did a fantastic job working from the top. A lot of the older WoS guys worked four round showcases in the mid-70s, so it was cool to see Joyce giving his opponent most of this rounds and the result was a highly competitive bout. Not only was he generous with the amount of control he gave Conlon, instead of some easy pinfall to win the bout he pulled out a tombstone piledriver, a move you almost never see in British wrestling and a sign that he had to dig a little deeper to win this one. Good bout.

[FLIK]

OJ how up to date is your recomended match list on page 1?

[ohtani's jacket]

It should be fully up to date. I generally edit it when I add a new match.

[ohtani's jacket]

John Elijah vs. Roy St. Clair (6/1/77)

 

This was exactly what I expected from these two: Elijah's power vs. St. Clair's speed.

 

These are two of the more underrated/unknown WoS workers, though St. Clair was no great shakes in the charisma department. WoS tends to be like lucha in that the heavyweights are often overlooked in favour of the lighter weight classes, but WoS had the best heavyweights in the world in the 1970s. I'm no fan of the "best in the world" tag, but I can't think of another territory were the heavyweights were as technically gifted as they were in the UK. The finishing stretch of this match was tremendous with a series of fast paced nearfalls to rival anything that the light weights were capable of.

 

Mike Marino vs. Roy St. Clair (2/13/75)

 

This was one of the better Marino matches on tape, though the fact that they were both wearing black trunks and it was slow paced, technical contest made it a match that required a fair bit of concentration. There was reward in the detail, however. It does strike me as kind of odd that Marino was so heavily protected. Even Walton mentioned that no-one was capable of beating him. I wonder how many times he jobbed on television.

 

Clive Myers vs. Clayton Thomson (3/23/77)

 

Kind of an odd match. Thomson was making his return to television after a couple of years out of the game with a back injury. The whole match as built around Thomson's back not being right, which seemed like a strange way to re-introduce a guy. You don't have someone job in their comeback match to the injury that put them on the shelf and sure enough Myers suddenly missed a couple of moves and it was his back that was in trouble allowing Thomson to get his comeback victory. Oddly booked. Myers went from looking a sure bet to losing in the space of 30 seconds.

[ohtani's jacket]

Brian Maxine vs. Clayton Thomson (5/11/77)

 

I wish Walton had never pointed out Maxine's nose to me. It's kind of gross seeing a guy who has no cartilage. This was another odd Thomson comeback match. Walton was trying to put a hard sell on us that Thomson was as good as George Kidd, the oft talked about, never seen, light heavyweight champion of the world. Thomson was undoubtedly better in his young days (he's better in the earlier WoS footage we have of him), but not so flash in this comeback.

 

What made the match odd was that Maxine attacked Thomson from behind before the start of round two and as they were scrapping Max Ward caught a back elbow in the face. Ward called for a DQ, got out his little book from his back pocket and gave Maxine a booking football style. The whole thing lasted about a round and a half, maybe a quarter, though Maxine got tremendous heat for it as usual. I love the spot he does where he backs the ring announcer into the corner and then climbs the turnbuckle to prevent him from announcing the result. Some guy leapt out of the crowd and tried to pull him off Mike Judd, the ring announcer. Then Maxine got on the mic and cut a promo while everyone booed him. So you see WoS isn't always like hushed tones at the cricket.

 

Speaking of which...

 

Tony St. Clair vs. Dave Bond (12/6/77)

 

I absolutely love this feud. This was during the Caribbean Sunshine Boys run where both Bond and Kincaid took shots at British Heavyweight champion Tony St. Clair. The first Bond/St. Clair match is fantastic and this picks up where they left off. Bond is much slimmer here than he was in the 80s and was at the peak of his powers as a performer. He uses every trick in the book and a couple of new ones to antagonise St. Clair, who ends up with two public warnings and the risk of disqualification out of sheer frustration at Bond's inside moves. The babyfaces are always allowed a bit of retaliation from the refs in WoS, but St. Clair takes matters into his own hands here. If you've ever thought Tony St. Clair is boring you need to watch this feud as both his open handed and closed fisted strikes are awesome in this and he smacks the shit out of Bond at times. The heat is tremendous all the way through and this is just a great brawl. Even the over the rope countout finish is good and those are almost never good in WoS. This time St. Clair slingshots Bond over the top rope and Bond can't make the count of 10. It's a really aggressive move to get the COR victory. Afterwards, St. Clair lays the belt down on the mat and challenges Kincaid who's jawing with him at ringside. Tony was up for this feud and this is another of my recommended matches.

[ohtani's jacket]

Dave Bond vs. Tony St. Clair (9/13/78)

 

Soul Brother Dave Bond was wearing his Bobby Womack hat here. And your friend, Annie May, tell you all she see. Did you ever think she was trying to get close to me? This was a year removed from the Caribbean Sunshine Boys controversy and showed their chemistry together was no fluke. St. Clair had one of the most kick ass passages of babyface offence in this bout and this was ruling as much as their '77 stuff when they decided to do this cutesy finish where Bond tricked St. Clair into inadvertently DQ'ing himself, which the ring announcer managed to get overturned. That forced the match to continue and St. Clair quickly won with a flash pin. Pretty lame considering how good the match was.

 

Mike Marino vs. Dave Bond (3/23/77)

 

This was the beginning of the Dave Bond heel turn or at least that's the way Walton called it. Marino was an easy bleeder over his left eye and Bond went all out to try and get him to bleed. Marino took exception to that and knocked Bond the fuck out with some of the best looking punches I can remember seeing. After the match, Bond shoved Marino from behind and the look on Marino's face was priceless. He looked exactly like an old guy does when he's pissed at some young punk. He was just seething. It could have been a shoot it was that good. Really fun match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Steve Logan vs. Romany Riley (2/13/75)

 

Steve Logan was a villainous motherfucker. Not in an extroverted way like McManus, but with his actions. I don't think the guy could be fucked wrestling. His matches were all body shots, all the time, and there was a shot of him squaring off with Riley here where you could tell that Logan was a hard man. Riley himself was a big guy. Lots of tats, huge mutton chops, and spent most of this match giving Logan as good as he got, but Logan just loved it. I mean Riley was pummeling him with illegal shit and after the bout Logan went over and shook his hand. Not every day you see a heel do that. No surprises that this was from Gravesend. I have no idea why it was such a hotbed, but Gravesend *always* got good wrestling.

[ohtani's jacket]

Little Prince vs. John Wilkie (3/23/83)

 

Wilkie, you're no match for the Little Prince. This was the Prince's return from what looked like knee surgery and was pretty much the WoS equivalent of a squash. Wilkie hailed from Hanley in the Potteries near Stoke-on-Trent. I think we've located parts unknown. Walton at one point called Prince a "very strong boy indeed." Now I realise everyone was a boy to Walton, but no man with that much hair on his body and that big a mustache can possibly be called a boy. As you can possibly tell there wasn't much to this, but at least we got to see Prince do his victory strut and stroke the ends of his mustache.