Ranking the European workers

[Matt D]

I like Saint, but for me his matches can seem real samey. His matches if you say watch 10 in a row are all worked the same. People talk about Flair being very formula, Saint is way more formula. With that said, his formula is fun to watch. Match one or two it's like that's a coll escape, match 7 or 8 it's like oh he's doing the bouncing ball escape or the handshake spot.

 

This is one of my major issues in general. It goes back to the Taue thing. If I watch a hundred more matches with the four pillars, I'd probably flip my positioning around. I admit that. The holistic approach involves plenty of time. One good thing about what I've seen with Breaks, for instance, however, is that he matched up against a lot of different sorts of adversaries: young, old, face, heel, etc, just due to the nature of the shows he was on, so you do get to see him in a lot of different scenarios.

[ohtani's jacket]

There are a number of Saint matches I'd recommend, but largely because of his opponents. He may have looked good against Breaks; then again pretty much everyone looked good against Breaks from '72 through to '84 in the footage we have available. That's one of the reasons why Breaks was on TV so often. It's not until you see Saint against guys you've never heard of, where Saint is the focal point of the bout and the driver of the action, that you start to realise he's not capable of much more than a wink and a smile and an exhibition in escape holds. I've gone back and forward on guys in the seven years I've been doing this, but not with Saint. It doesn't help that for a long time he was treated as the poster boy of the old-school WoS style, which I kind of resent, but it's mostly because he doesn't have the same body of work as so many of the others. Even accounting for the fact that he wasn't a dramatist, his exhibition style isn't as fun as a guy like Ken Joyce or even Faulkner if you like his smart aleck shit. I do like Saint's early 70s work and he was good in the late 80s in the German tournaments, but Breaks and Grey blow him out of the water.

[JerryvonKramer]

In the Breaks matches he showed a lot of fire, but if he doesn't do that against other opponents and relies on more of his cheeky-lad schtick, I could see how that wouldn't be that good.

 

Are there any other really good heels in WoS beyond Breaks and the smattering of Mick McManus?

[ohtani's jacket]

WoS was chock full of heels.

 

Aside from Breaks, the only ones people would consider super workers are Rocco and Finlay. For gimmicks, Tally Ho Kaye was always enjoyable. Brian Maxine was a shameless self-promoter and created a tremendous Jerry "the King" Lawler style gimmick for himself that allegedly predated Lawler. Boscik after he turned heel, especially against Grey whom he had tremendous chemistry with. Kendo Nagasaki in small doses. The Caribbean Sunshine Boys, which had a underlying racial element to it, but Kincaid especially was a brilliant heel. Skull Murphy, a bruiser who grew on me to become one of my top 10 workers of the 80s. Sid Cooper, who was perhaps the closest in character to Breaks and tremendous at putting over the faces. Bobby Barnes, who was the tag partner of Adrian Street and carried on the exotico gimmick when Street went to the indies. Steve Logan, the tag partner of McManus, but I think you'd find him a bit boring. Tony "Banger" Walsh, who basically made being a rugby player into a gimmick. These were all guys who appeared regularly.

[NotJayTabb]

Tony "Banger" Walsh, who basically made being a rugby player into a gimmick. These were all guys who appeared regularly.

 

Banger Walsh once drunkenly invited my friend and I to his house to look at his collection of memorabilia and to see the old Coventry City dugout he'd bought and had put in his back garden. I kinda regret not going, but I suspect I'd have got there only for him to have no memory of the conversation.

[Mad Dog]

I got into World of Sport because of Saint. But I came away from the first Saint matches wanting to see more Jim Breaks. I still like Saint but my view of him is a little tainted by that reaction.

[ohtani's jacket]

Time for an update:

Ranking the European Workers v.4 (Jan 2016)

All-Time Greats

Jim Breaks, Mick McManus, Alan Sarjeant, Jon Cortez, Marty Jones, Steve Grey

 

Great Workers

 

Terry Rudge, Tibor Szacaks, Mike Marino, Ken Joyce

 

Excellent Workers

 

Bobby Barnes, Robby Baron, Franz van Buyten, Clive Myers, Steve Veidor, Sid Cooper, Alan Kilby, Pat Roach, Pete Roberts, Caswell Martin, Mike Bennett

 

Strong Hands

 

Johnny Czeslaw, John Elijah, Tiger Dalibar Singh, Keith Haward, Tom Tyrone, Brian Maxine, Les Kellett, Romany Riley, Alan Wood, Axl Dieter, Bobby Ryan, Dave Finlay, Ray Steele, Marc Rocco, Zolton Boscik, Johnny Kincaid, Chic Cullen, Tony St. Clair, Skull Murphy

 

Decent Hands

 

Steve Logan (Sr), Jim Moser,, Peter La Paque, Tommy Lorne, Colin Joynson, Ray Robinson, Vic Faulkner, Tony Costas, Bert Royal, Roy St. Clair, John Kowalski, Johnny South, Ringo Rigby, Rocky Moran, Jeff Kaye, Johnny Kidd, Young David, Otto Wanz, John Quinn, Tony Walsh, Rene Lasartesse, Dynamite Kid, Steve Regal, Clay Thomson, Johnny Kwango, Bob Kirkwood, Prince Kumali, Dave Bond, Tarzan Johnny Wilson, Lenny Hurst, René Ben Chemoul, Gilbert Cesca, Bob Plantin, Mal Sanders, Tally Ho Kaye, Indio Guajaro, Klaus Wallas, Jackie Turpin, Klaus Kauroff, Count Vladimir, Pat Patton, Little Prince, Black Jack Mulligan, Pete Stewart, Alan Miquet, Keith Martinelli, Steve Speed, Ian McGregor, Dave Duran, Robbie Brookside, Doc Dean, Blondie Barratt, Mike Zrno, Johnny Palance, Claude Gessat, Marcel Mannevau, Jean Menard, Jacky Richard

 

Average

 

Kung Fu, Alan Dennison, Tony Charles, Mick McMichael, Count Baretlli, Lee Bronson, Honey Boy Zimba, Kendo Nagasaki, Johnny England, Mike Jordan, Kid Chocolate, Dave Taylor, Ivan Penzekoff, Billy Torontos, Colonel Brody, Bernie Wright, Peter Wilson, King Ben, Bruno Elrington, Peter Rann, Kevin Conneely, Johnny Yearsley, Leon Fortuna, Steve Haggerty, Leon Arras, Bob Abbott, John Carlo, Mel Stuart, Colin Bennett, Bobby Graham, John Cox, Neil Sands, Spencer Churchill, Barry Douglas, Ian Muir, Pete Ross, Rex Strong, Gary Wensor, Ed Wensor, Sandy Scott, Tim Fitzmaurice, Lucky Gordon, Scrubber Daly, Bob Anthony, Mal Kirk, Steve Peacock, Beau Jack Rowlands, Wild Angus, Lee Sharon, John Wilkie, Bill Bromley, Steve McHoy, Grasshopper, Andy Blair, Drew McDonald, Rick Wiseman, Studs Lannigan, Eddie Riley, Richie Brooks, Greg Valentine, Jeff Kerry, Kid McCoy, Peter Bainbridge, Jamaica George, Steve Logan (Jr.), Carl Jason, Shane Stevens, Boston Blackie, Franz Schumann, Ricky Knight, Jimmy Ocean

 

Not the Greatest

 

Orig Williams, Rasputin, King Kendo, Mohammed Butt, Flesh Gordon

 

Overrated

 

Johnny Saint, Steve Wright, Eddie Capelli, Wayne Bridges, John Naylor, Danny Collins, Chris Adams

[SAMS]

I thought I'd follow suit and create a list of my own. I removed the overrated category and merged the decent and average groups. There's also a new "Needs more investigation" grouping for guys I just had no real clue where to put at the moment. Anybody I can't remember watching off the top of my head I just omitted.

This is just a snapshot of how I'm feeling right now and I've still got a long road ahead of me. I can easily see the possibility of at least 20 of these guys moving into different categories once I've watched some more of them.

 

All-Time Greats

Jim Breaks, Jon Cortez, Marc Rocco

 

Great Workers

 

Steve Grey, Marty Jones, Les Kellett, Zoltan Boscik

 

Excellent Workers

 

Bobby Barnes, Tibor Szacaks, Steve Veidor, Vic Faulkner, Bert Royal, Johnny Saint

 

Strong Hands

 

Alan Kilby, Pete Roberts, Mick McManus, Caswell Martin, Johnny Czeslaw, John Elijah, Tiger Dalibar Singh, Brian Maxine, Ray Steele, Johnny Kincaid, Jim Moser, Jeff Kaye, Clay Thomson, Mick McMichael, Chris Adams

 

Decent

 

Tony St. Clair, Romany Riley, Sid Cooper, Peter La Paque, Ray Robinson, Roy St. Clair, Johnny South, Ringo Rigby, Young David, John Quinn, Johnny Kwango, Dave Bond, Lenny Hurst, Mal Sanders, Tally Ho Kaye, Jackie Turpin, Pat Patton, Black Jack Mulligan, Alan Miquet, Kung Fu, Tony Charles, Lee Bronson, Honey Boy Zimba, Johnny England, Mike Jordan, Kid Chocolate, King Ben, Kevin Conneely, Johnny Yearsley, Steve Haggerty, Leon Arras, Bob Abbott, Bob Anthony, Mal Kirk, Steve Peacock, Steve McHoy, Eddie Capelli, Wayne Bridges, John Naylor

 

Not the Greatest

 

Rasputin, Alan Dennison, Wild Angus

 

Needs More Investigation

 

Alan Sarjeant, Terry Rudge, Clive Myers, Keith Haward, Dave Finlay, Pat Roach