Mick McManus

[ohtani's jacket]

Thought I'd start this off with all the McManus I've watched. Some of these are just short notes:

 

Mick McManus vs. Jackie Turpin (1/9/80)

 

Fun performance from the veteran rudo. Jackie Turpin was a boxer turned wrestler and a decent foil for McManus. The finish was well booked. Seemed like the ref was going to stop the match, but Turpin got an equaliser and McManus was DQ'ed. Good stuff.

 

Johnny Saint vs. Mick McManus (11/20/75)

 

Classy match, especially after the equalising fall. Great performance from McManus, considering he was already 50 here and making overtures about retiring. It was a similar sort of bout to Saint's matches against Breaks in that Johnny was pissed at the heeling and received a number of public and private warnings, which kinda amuses me since Kent always talks about how he's never seen Johnny Saint get a public warning. Even when he's being aggressive, Saint kind of lacks charisma, but McManus is a superb foil and all of Saint's holds rock, especially the forearms against McManus' ears. How's this for some trivia -- this match is from the same venue as Capelli/Sargeant (Gravesend) and sure enough the same pensioner is in her front row seat. But get this -- it's also from the same card as the most famous of the Grey/Myers bouts. The one that got us all hooked on WoS in the first place. That makes it a hell of a card if you ask me.

 

Mick McManus vs. Alan Sarjeant (11/20/74)

 

This was great shit. A slightly better finish and it would've been my favourite McManus match to date. There was some awesome grappling in this, but what I really loved was how McManus was lumpy like Tenryu and Sarjeant had short legs and no torso like Black Terry.

 

Mick McManus vs. Robbie Baron (12/29/76)

 

Hugely entertaining McManus match. If it wasn't for the cop out finish, I would've listed this. Definitely on my personal list of great McManus matches.

 

Mick McManus & Steve Logan vs The Barons - Jeff Kaye & Ian Gilmour (5/3/73)

 

British tag wrestling was primitive compared to the Southern style, but the matches always got good heat, presumably because they only ever ran them as a special attraction. I suppose you could call it the opposite of lucha. Occasionally, they ran six man tags, but whichever format, they were more often than not heel/face affairs that tended to get the crowd worked up. I've yet to see a great British tag match, but by and large the matches are fun. McManus and Logan were a solid rudo team, but I don't know if you can add "tag wrestler" to McManus' HOF resume since there wasn't a whole lot of structure to what they did in these matches.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob Anthony vs. Mick McManus (4/21/80)

 

Anthony was the biggest scrub I've seen in British wrestling. This was the men playing with the boys. Waste of an opportunity to see 1980 Mick McManus.

 

Johnny Saint vs. Mick McManus (11/30/76)

 

Finally, something from the 70s. This was much shorter than their Gravesend bout from '75, but the body of the match was pretty terrific. Saint was a bit gawky in the mid-70s and didn't really come into his own until '79/80, but McManus looked great, and I thought for sure I'd list this. That is until the finish. Without a doubt, this was the strangest booking I've seen in WoS. Stranger than any Kendo Nagasaki match or any other kind of gimmick. The referee turned his back to issue McManus a public warning and Saint dropped to the canvas to fake a punch. The ref saw Saint laid out and disqualified McManus. Saint kept pointing to his head while the DQ was announced, and even Walton couldn't explain why Saint had pulled a heel trick. According to him, Saint wasn't happy with a DQ win. WTF? He dropped to the canvas. McManus got on the mic and rightly pointed out his case, and Saint claimed if he couldn't beat McManus cleanly he would never wrestle on British television again, which is like one of those lucha hair or mask challenges that never eventuate. At least we got to see Walton smoking after the bout.

 

Mick McManus vs. Tony St. Clair (3/14/74) T

 

his was an excellent performance from McManus. Pretty much a masterclass. In fact, I think it may be the best Mick McManus performance I've seen. Tony St. Clair had a huge height and weight advantage which kind of translated to some awkward looking lock-ups in terms of him having to bend over, but to St. Clair's credit he was full of fire here and sold well. The match was basically about McManus' cheating and St. Clair's retaliation (like all McManus matches), but St. Clair was pretty damn good at his part. Max Ward was on his case the entire match and there was awesome part where Walton started saying "Is he gone? I think he might be gone" in regards to whether it was a DQ or public warning. The last couple of falls were really good since St. Clair was battling for an equalising fall via submission. Not only was this passable, but I'm actually going to list this since it was a genuinely exciting match and a great Mick McManus bout. St. Clair is 4/4 in passable bouts so far, and while I wouldn't call him a good worker, it seems like his opponents liked the heat they got against him because everyone stepped up their game when they faced Tony St. Clair.

 

Kung Fu vs. Mick McManus (4/21/76)

 

This was a great piece of booking. Kung Fu hadn't lost on television since his debut against Myers in October '74, and had vowed that the first person to beat him would take his mask. McManus rarely lost on TV himself, so this made for some great television. McManus was hell bent on out wrestling Kung Fu and had his working shoes on here. His selling was awesome in this match. I swear he took Kung Fu's kicks better than any rudo I've seen in Mexico or the UK. Watch how he tries to block the kicks. McManus was pretty much the Satanico or Fujiwara of British wrestling. Just a sharp match in general. McManus was brilliant at the end.

 

Mick McManus vs. Billy Torontos (7/29/77)

 

Billy Torontos is one of the strangest workers I've ever seen. He basically acted spastic the entire time, throwing his hands about and screaming. You need to see it to understand what I mean, but trust me it's really fucking odd. McManus did his usual schtick here and it was all pretty good. Torontos jobbed in straight falls, but his selling was decent once he calmed down.

 

Mick McManus vs. Chris Adams (11/20/78)

 

Mick McManus was such a great performer. To do the same thing in every match for as many years as he did and still be ridiculously awesome every time out is just as impressive as wrestlers who get praised for taking a unique approach to every match. This wasn't as good as other McManus matches on largely because Chris Adams was such a shit worker (at this point of his career anyway) but medicore McManus is still Mick McManus.

[ohtani's jacket]

Mick McManus vs. Clive Myers (4/7/81)

 

Wildly disappointing. Myers' Iron Fist gimmick was stupid and completely shackled his wrestling ability. Not that there was much wrestling in this. Mick McManus was one of the great figures of British wrestling but he was washed up by the time the 80s came round, and sadly I can't see any of his matches making the 80s set. The only interesting thing about this was the finish which saw Myers take a huge over the top rope bump to the third row. Never seen that before in WoS.

 

Mick McManus vs. Jeff Kaye (1/10/78)

 

This was a good example of the huge difference between 70s McManus and 80s McManus even as late in the piece as '78. Really niggly, entertaining match from two veterans of the ring. Not listing it as it's McManus schtick and I've seen it all before, but Kaye made for a really good McManus opponent and the forearm smashes in this were beautiful.

 

Mick McManus and Steve Logan vs. Iron Fist and Black Belt Chris Adams (7/26/78)

 

McManus and Logan looked like such a pair of crooks. Whoever stuck those two together was a bright spark. Their opponents were The Martial Arts Fighters... Yep. Lots of shitty karate in this one.

 

Two from the master:

 

Mick McManus vs. Steve Best (7/31/75)

Mick McManus vs. Mal Sanders (10/11/78)

 

The Best match is awesome. It's all of McManus' favourite spots rolled into one, but the crowd is heated and Best makes for a great McManus opponent. I really wanted to list this but it was a bit too short. Hell of an entertaining match, though. Mal Sanders is a guy I don't care for along the lines of John Naylor. Not a match I was interested in.

 

Mick McManus vs. Catweazle (2/21/77)

 

Only Mick McManus could carry Catweazle to something this good. For those of you who don't know, Catweazle was a worker who basically took his gimmick from a British children's show about an 11th century wizard who accidentally traveled through time to the 20th century. Really gimmicky stuff, but McManus was excellent at working with these type of wrestlers. I was sorely tempted to list this because of how exciting it was, but it needed at least another round and I suspect that McManus had this match with Catweazle often.

 

Steve Best & Johnny Saint vs. Steve Logan & Mick McManus (4/18/74)

 

I've said my bit on WoS tag matches many times before, but I will say that the heel team of McManus and Logan brought some semblance of structure to their matches. It's nothing special compared to their tag work, but for some reason Joint booked tag matches to be up tempo affairs with little or no FIP, possibly to distinguish them as something unique. Incidently, I'd forgotten all about Saint's 70s hair. Wild.

[ohtani's jacket]

Mick McManus vs. Tony St. Clair (2/4/76)

 

These guys fought quite a few times on TV and had great chemistry together. I've said it time and time again, but it never ceases to amaze me how you had McManus in his early 50s here doing the same thing he'd done on TV year after year, match after match, and still getting fantastic heat for it. This match was built around two McManus staples, the cauliflower ears getting roughed up and McManus' own towel being used against him by an angry babyface, but I dug every second of it despite having seen it all before. There's no doubt based on my recent viewings that McManus was a much better performer than Pallo, though the footage of Pallo is extremely limited and may not give an accurate picture. This wasn't as good as I remember their '74 match being, but TWC showed the cameras still rolling on an amusing post-match that showed what a complete package McManus was and it was fun watching these two lock up again. On an unrelated note, Kent Walton said St. Clair was heading off to South Africa and that we wouldn't see him on the small screen for possibly a year and I'll be damned but he really was away from TV for a year. No bullshittin' from Kent.

[ohtani's jacket]

Mick McManus vs. Mick McMichael (9/26/74)

 

Wonderful performance from McManus. A real clinic in how he used all of his tricks and inside moves to tell a compelling narrative against just about any opponent. You could argue that his matches are "McManus--centric," but in all honestly I've seen McMichael wrestle at least half a dozen times and this was the first time I was interested in him. The match didn't go the distance in terms of rounds and ended up being the kind of easy victory you often see for Tibor Szakacs, Mike Marino or Brian Maxine, but it was highly entertaining and surprise, surprise, it took place at Gravesend.

 

Mick McManus vs. Kid Chocolate (aired 1/17/81)

 

This was pretty good for a 1980s McManus bout. Mick had to be pushing about 60 here but had lost none of his guile. The Mick McManus story is a fascinating one. For the uninitiated I recommend reading this article -- http://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/themanwelovedtohate.htm All told, this was probably the best 80s bout McManus had (at least that I've seen), but I have a bit of a problem with a guy as good as Kid Chocolate being such a JTTS. His involvement was limited here, but in fairness to McManus, Kid seemed to lack the drive to be a star. I love how when McManus was confident he'd sky hook his towel. Legend.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tony St. Clair vs. Mick McManus (3/23/77)

This is somewhat historic footage of one of the rare times McManus lost on television. A move, which as John Lister explained the other day, was designed to elevate St. Clair to stardom. A few months later he would become the British Heavyweight champion by defeating Gwynn Davies in his home town of Manchester. Apparently, the master tape was damaged somehow, so that all that remains of St. Clair's win are the final few rounds. St. Clair is retaliating to begin with, dishing out treatment that Walton claims is totally out of character. We'll never know what McManus did to elicit that sort of reaction from St. Clair, but we can imagine. Mick doesn't get a ton of offence in during the final few rounds, as St. Clair spends a lot of time retaliating before scoring the equalizer. Then he stuns McManus with a surprise roll-up from behind and the crowd go nuts. You'd think he'd won a major championship they way they celebrated. I guess that goes to show how well the crowd knew McManus' record on the small screen. They make about as much noise as you could for from a town hall audience and swarm around the ring. Two young women step up on the apron to give St. Clair a kiss, and in a sign of the times, a guy pinches one of their behinds. Doubt you'd get away with that these days. Neat bit of footage, but missing the bulk of McManus' performance.

[Mad Dog]

I love that Catweazle match. McManus is probably my second favorite WoS guy behind Jim Breaks.

[ohtani's jacket]

Kendo Nagasaki/Gorgeous George vs. Mick McManus/Steve Logan (5/26/76)

 

The set-up for this match was ludicrous as Walton claimed McManus and Logan had sent Kendo and George a telegram challenging them to a match. It could have been a tremendous spectacle if they'd played it right similar to the times that other managers would wrestle like Heenan or Cornette, but instead it was a total mess. How seasoned performers like these couldn't work a simple match based around the fact that George was in over his head is beyond me, but so few guys in the UK were good at tag wrestling and Gillette was more interested in his man looking good than showing ass for McManus and Logan. It didn't help that McManus and Logan looked like midgets compared to Kendo, making them look less than threatening even in a handicap match, or that the heel vs. heel aspect was barely even played upon. The finish was weird too with McManus clapping Nagasaki and George for winning after Gillette had just cut a promo on them. So much for any hopes that this would be fun.

[gordi]

The last line of this (classic) sketch damn near made my head explode. To any and all fans of the great Mick McManus: please enjoy!