Meet the WoS Wrestlers

[Matt D]

OJ, should I follow the order you present here or what? I want to start watching some WoS and I don't necessarily want to watch the best matches before I can appreciate the style. What's the best way to get my feet wet and build up to what I should be seeing? I'm okay making this a long-term investment if it means doing it the best way.

[ohtani's jacket]

There's no particular order to what I'm posting. I'm just introducing the characters and people can take it from there. Many of the wrestlers I introduce I don't expect to be nominees, but they were part of the WoS landscape and will help people get a feel for the television and discover what match-ups they'd like to see.

 

There's two distinct eras -- the 70s and the 80s. The 70s has a lot of aging stars from the 50s and 60s who are still hanging on to their spots while Joint tries to push their latest bright young hope. Business was flagging in the mid-70s before Daddy got hot and they try to create a bunch of new stars in that era. The matches tend to better in this era and I'd say the 70s really encompasses what most people imagine WoS to be. The 80s are fine for the first few years, but a lot of talent jumps to All Star Wrestling and there's not the same variety to the television as there was in the 70s. The matches become more workrate driven to keep up with the times. 1974 is the starting point for the 70s and 1980 the starting point for the 80s.

[ohtani's jacket]

Peter "Tally Ho" Kaye, equestrian, landowner, country gentleman...

 

 

Johnny Saint, you might have heard of him... rolls himself into a little ball... here he is in one of the better tags I've seen from a country that never really got tag wrestling. Oh they liked it all right, but they never got how to do it. This match also features Jeff Kaye, who often appeared as a referee in later years but was a fine wrestler in his own right.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

The maestro. Ken Joyce. WoS's answer to lucha maestro matches. Retired and came back more times than Terry Funk. Here is against protegee Johnny Kidd:

 

 

Johnny Kwango, one of the looong time WoS stars. He was in his mid-50s in the 70s, but you wouldn't know it. This is a bit of a cheat as it's also the only full match of Jackie Pallo's we have available. Mind Walton's off colour references about Kwango's skin colour.

 

[Childs]

OJ, what are your favorite Mike Marino matches? I know you like him as a worker, but he doesn't show up a ton on your great Euro matches list.

[ohtani's jacket]

In the 70s, they'd do a lot of showcase matches which usually went four rounds and reminded everybody of what a great wrestler a Mike Marino or Tibor Szakacs was. Marino was in a lot of these matches. I don't remember seeing him in a title match or anything special by TV standards. The finishes were more often than not screwy, which kept me from listing a few. Marino was also in his 50s at this point so it's difficult to gauge how good he was relative to his prime. He had the book at some point as well, and I assume he was booking himself in showcase catchweight contests while pushing other guys.

 

Here are the bouts I wrote about favourably:

 

Mike Marino vs. Wayne Bridges (7/31/75)

Mike Marino vs. Caswell Martin (3/14/74)

Mike Marino vs. Lee Bronson (4/21/76)

Mike Marino vs. John Kowalski (11/20/74)

Mike Marino vs. Bruno Elrington (12/18/75)

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

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

Mostly positive:

Mike Marino vs. Steve Logan (10/10/74)

Mike Marino vs. Terry Rudge (1/22/77)

Mike Marino vs. Pat Roach (5/21/75)

Mike Marino vs. John Elijah (10/8/75)

So so:

Mike Marino vs. Man Mountain Moran (9/11/75)

Hated it:

Mike Marino vs. Amet Chong (12/11/74)

[ohtani's jacket]

One of my favourites, the very much underrated Robby Baron up against one of my least favourite wrestlers, Snake Pit trained John Naylor:

 

 

The superbly talented Bobby Ryan, who always reminds me of Buster Keaton for some reason:

 

[ohtani's jacket]

One of the strangest, weirdest, most idiosyncratic gimmicks I've ever seen, Billy Torontos:

 

 

Ironfist Clive Myers... I much prefer him in the 70s with his cool Jamaican vibe as opposed to his later kung fu inspired shtick, but either way he was a cool cat.

 

[Childs]

 

In the 70s, they'd do a lot of showcase matches which usually went four rounds and reminded everybody of what a great wrestler a Mike Marino or Tibor Szakacs was. Marino was in a lot of these matches. I don't remember seeing him in a title match or anything special by TV standards. The finishes were more often than not screwy, which kept me from listing a few. Marino was also in his 50s at this point so it's difficult to gauge how good he was relative to his prime. He had the book at some point as well, and I assume he was booking himself in showcase catchweight contests while pushing other guys.

 

Here are the bouts I wrote about favourably:

 

Mike Marino vs. Wayne Bridges (7/31/75)

Mike Marino vs. Caswell Martin (3/14/74)

Mike Marino vs. Lee Bronson (4/21/76)

Mike Marino vs. John Kowalski (11/20/74)

Mike Marino vs. Bruno Elrington (12/18/75)

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

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

Mostly positive:

Mike Marino vs. Steve Logan (10/10/74)

Mike Marino vs. Terry Rudge (1/22/77)

Mike Marino vs. Pat Roach (5/21/75)

Mike Marino vs. John Elijah (10/8/75)

So so:

Mike Marino vs. Man Mountain Moran (9/11/75)

Hated it:

Mike Marino vs. Amet Chong (12/11/74)

 

 

I watched the Martin match last night, and Marino was indeed quite a stylish wrestler. But I can see what you mean about the matches not taking off past a certain level. He certainly seemed skilled enough to be a top 100 candidate, even if there's not enough (or any) prime footage to make the case.

[ohtani's jacket]

Rather annoyingly, I have a clip of the finish to a match where he upsets the heavier Albert "Rocky" Wall, who I think was the reigning British and European heavyweight champion at the time. That's the sort of hot match that would tell us more about Marino, but we don't have it.

 

One of the better wrestlers to debut in the 80s, the Scottish all-action star Chic Cullen in an excellent title match against Finlay's buddy Rocky Moran:

 

 

Canadian wrestler Mighty John Quinn, who had one of the best runs of any foreign wrestler in British rings. His matches weren't the greatest, but he got plenty of heat for his anti-British shtick.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

One of the long time WoS wrestlers as both a heel and face, strongman Alan Dennison. I personally think he's a smart arse, but he was a perennial presence on British screens up until his sudden and untimely death.

 

 

Another favourite of mine, the hard working Tom Tyrone. Not a flashy wrestler by any means but put him in the ring against a Terry Rudge or Pat Roach and the sparks would fly. This is a great bout that introduced a fair few people to Rudge:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxIvWPPcUGc

[ohtani's jacket]

The 'Polish Eagle' Johnny Czeslaw, tough as nails with a cracking sense of humour. British wrestling had a lot of performers like this. Guys who could do comedy but also wrestle. The playing to the gallery can be a bit offsetting at first, but if you like you like British comedy you soon get the swing of it. Here he is against a very underrated wrestler, Romany Riley:

 

 

This is a bit of a cheat as we don't have much of him on tape, but I thought people might appreciate the stylings of the positively unknown Alan Wood.

[ohtani's jacket]

One of my personal favourites, John 'The Bear' Elijah. A rock solid power wrestler, who never had a truly great match but was consistently excellent. My choice of match may seem odd, but it's the only time I've seen Big Daddy bother to have a proper singles match (or a proper match or any sort really.)

 

Terry Rudge, not actually held in as high esteem among British fans as in our circle, presumably because he spent most of his time overseas, but truly a God among workers. Here he is in one of the finest WoS bouts to make tape:

 

[Childs]

I watched Ken Joyce against Costas from 1980, and though I found Joyce very skilled, he seemed a little cutesy for my taste. Is that a bad read on his style? Walton obviously loved him.

[ohtani's jacket]

No, I don't think that's a bad read. He's the type of worker who would purposefully entertain with his holds, work in jokes and throw little winks to the audience. Then when it was time to get serious he'd roll the sleeves up and cut out the jokes. He had a really nasty piledriver that sticks out like a sore thumb compared with the rest of his antics. I also love how he's the Terry Funk of WoS, always retiring then coming back. MJH mentioned the other day that he finds a lot of the face vs. face WoS stuff too exhibition-y. I think there's a place for all styles whether it's fast paced lightweight stuff, the slower heavyweight bouts, the comedy stuff, or the heated blue-eye vs. villain bouts. I like how you can have all those different styles in the same promotion. I'm not sure it would have worked without Walton. The way he could call a Pallo match or a Kellet or Kevin Conneally match, where they'd stop and tell a joke in the middle of the match, as though they were deliberate pranksters taking the mickey out of their opponents is some of the best straddling of kayfabe you'll ever hear.

[GSR]

What do you think of Conneely OJ? I saw a match he had against Kwango and was positively cringing at times, especially when Conneely dropped an elbow to Kwango's head and he then sold the elbow! He turned up on a Reslo disc looking about 80 and was still doing the same stuff. I enjoy Les Kellett, but not so sure about Conneely.

[ohtani's jacket]

Conneally (or however it's spelled) really stretches the limits of believability as he's basically a comedian doing a wrestling act. Personally, I don't find him funny, but as the old adage goes: "everybody was somebody's favourite."

[ohtani's jacket]

Now for a couple of guys who may test the limits of how important personal charisma is for you, but were part of a quartet of hard hitting wrestlers from the 1980s along with Roach and Rudge. The first is Indian star Tiger Dalibar Singh (also known as Gil Singh):

 

 

And my boy, Ray Steele. If you can get into him then you and I will be wrestling pen friends that's for sure.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Another under-the-radar favourite of mine, Tarzan Johnny Wilson. He won't look like much at first, but if you've seen the crazy amount that I have you will appreciate his sterling efforts every time out.

 

 

And because you must see him once, one of the hairiest men to ever wrestle, ladies and gentlemen Little Prince:

 

[Childs]

I've revisited some of the WOS matches I reviewed a few years back and my thoughts have changed considerably in a lot of cases. I mention this only because it feels like a style I learned to watch, and I'd encourage others to stick with it, even if it seems foreign for a time.

[ohtani's jacket]

That's good to hear, Childs.

 

Here's the mysterious Anglo-Russian grappler Ivan Penzekoff with the vague gimmick and legendary drinking prowess against the aforementioned king of comedy Kevin Conneally.

 

 

Long time vet and solid pro, The Jamaican Kid Lenny Hurst:

 

[ohtani's jacket]

The mini-Adonis, body building brat Johnny England:

 

 

A heavyweight I've always found a tad overrated, but whom others swear by, the leading heavyweight of his day Wayne Bridges:

 

[JerryvonKramer]

[hype] we're doing a show on five WoS matches this weekend.

 

However, my real reason for posting here: OJ, on Cornette's show, Adrian Street put over a guy called George Kidd as "the greatest technical wrestler ever to lace up a pair of boots". Have you seen him or heard of him?

[Ricky Jackson]

Parv, Kidd is a legendary figure and as far as I know not a shred of footage of him wrestling exists (pre-70s guy)

 

Edit: Well, there is this

 

[ohtani's jacket]

[hype] we're doing a show on five WoS matches this weekend.

 

However, my real reason for posting here: OJ, on Cornette's show, Adrian Street put over a guy called George Kidd as "the greatest technical wrestler ever to lace up a pair of boots". Have you seen him or heard of him?

 

Kidd is regarded as the greatest lightweight wrestler of all-time. He was the World Lightweight Champion for 26 years and retired undefeated in 1976. Whatever footage there is of him is locked away in ITV's vaults.