Jackie Turpin Jr, boxer turned wrestler

[ohtani's jacket]

Jackie Turpin Jr was from a famous boxing family in the UK. His father Jackie Sr was a successful featherweight boxer, his uncle Dick a former British and Commonwealth middleweight champion, and their brother Randy Turpin a household name in England after defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for the World Middleweight Championship in 1951.

 

Jackie Jr fought 32 professional fights between 1967 and 1975 and went 24-7 with one draw. He was British Rookie of the Year in 1971 going 12-0 on the year with 11 knock outs. According to his father's autobiography, Jr didn't train hard enough and got caught up in the limelight. After a pair of bad losses, the Board of Control withdrew his license as unfit to box. A court case followed, and three years later Turpin was allowed to box again, but after being knocked down three times in his final fight he quit the fight game and entered the wrestling business. Randy Turpin had also worked professional wrestling bouts after retiring (mostly because he was desperate for cash) and for a while played off his name in the independent circuit.

 

Jackie Jr has been impressive in the matches I've seen him in against Breaks and Grey, so I bit the bullet and got a comp made of his work.

 

Jackie Turpin vs. Tally Ho Kaye (3/23/76)

 

This was Turpin's television debut some five months after he quit boxing. I'll have to see if I can find out who trained him. He was pretty green here. He was trying especially hard to sell properly. Kaye didn't carry him all that well, I thought, but it was one of those bullshit television tournaments (this time team sports, The TV All-Stars vs. The Challenge Team), so it was never going to be a great bout. Kaye looked amazingly young. He aged rather dramatically in a short span of time. The MC was this older guy who always made mistakes about the match length or the number of falls needed. You could hear Walton correct the announcement then throw his head set down and complain that the MC got it wrong. Ha ha, nothing pissed Walton off more than incorrect graphics on the screen and the MC making a mistake. The finish to this saw Turpin instinctively start boxing and get DQ'ed for his lapse. Not an auspicious start to his wrestling career.

 

Jackie Turpin vs. Tally Ho Kaye (8/2/78)

 

Two years later and Turpin had made a big improvement. His selling in particular was much better. Kaye could also work with him more easily here. Kaye was a decent worker though not really in the class of other charismatic heels such as McManus, Breaks or Cooper, but his heel shtick was generally good and he had some great one-liners. The crowd loved to see him get his comeuppance and were riding him on every bump, More of the Tally Ho Kaye show than a standout Turpin performance, but definitely an entertaining bout. Since we were talking about DQs just the other day, Crabtree DQ'ed Kaye here and if you hate referees who over step the boundaries he not only kneed Kaye to break up a hole, but told him to take a hike at the end as well. That was partly down to his MC shtick where he'd lambaste the heels, but I can't see Crabtree being too many people's favourite ref. He did an awesome dismount from the ring afterwards, though, which got a small pop.

[ohtani's jacket]

Jackie Turpin vs. Sid Cooper (11/20/78)

 

This was a fairly standard Cooper match. In fact, he was on TV two other times in the same year working similar matches with newcomers Mal Sanders and the Dynamite Kid. Walton mentioned that Turpin was really coming along after looking like a novice in his first two or three bouts. It's nice to have some honesty sometimes. Cooper would have these nights where it all clicked, the heat was tremendous and the match fantastic. This wasn't one of those nights. He got good heat -- there was a woman in the third or four row who kept getting out of her seat and whacking him -- but the heat was on him more than it was Turpin. It didn't help that Cooper scored the first fall only to have it waved off by the ref -- a decision even Walton couldn't explain. Turpin was up a fall when again he punched an opponent and was disqualified. I have no idea why they kept using that finish. Yeah, Turpin was a newcomer and yeah maybe he was used to boxing, but why make him look like an idiot? His uncle was booked in boxer vs. wrestler fights, but as far as I know this was just a cheap finish with no payoff in the halls.

 

Jackie Turpin vs. Tally Ho Kaye (3/12/80)

 

By 1980 Turpin was much improved and looked like the guy I admired from the Steve Grey and Jim Breaks bouts. The Digbeth crowd was raucous and got on Kaye's case by imitating hunting dogs. I've never heard anything like it. He began the bout by straight out wrestling (since he didn't need to lift a finger to get heat) and I was impressed with his strength holds. The first few rounds was the best Turpin has looked so far, but the bout wore on, the crowd became tired of yelping, and the match stumbled towards a conclusion as the middle rope came undone.

 

Jackie Robinson vs. Jackie Turpin (12/17/80)

 

The only part of this that survived is the finish with both men unable to beat the count in round two. Poor old Jackie Robinson. He looks like a great worker, but so much of his footage is butchered.

[ohtani's jacket]

John Naylor vs. Jackie Turpin (3/31/81)

 

This was all right I suppose, but you have to ask yourself why a Wigan trained wrestler like Naylor relied so heavily on pinning combinations and simple takedowns. Maybe Turpin couldn't work the mat. but any rate the mat work was zilch.

 

Johnny Kidd vs. Jackie Turpin (11/30/81)

 

Fun bout with Kidd doing plenty of matwork (mostly of the Ken Joyce variety.) This was a tournament bout so it was on the short side, but it was kind of JTTS meets JTTS so it had a more interesting dynamic than a lot of Kidd footage where he's up against an established star.

 

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Jackie Turpin (10/11/82)

As you can see, the promoters booked Turpin with Tally Ho Kaye a lot (presumably because Kaye was a veteran hand.) The last time we saw these two fight, Turpin took a nice bump over the top rope and was unable to beat the count, and Brian Crabtree got the heat back for himself... err, I mean Turpin... but cutting a promo on Kaye afterwards. This time round Turpin had grown in stature and they actually gave Jackie the win after having him work an injury for most of the bout. Progress Jackie!

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Jackie Turpin (12/15/82)

Just to prove it was no fluke, the pair were back on television a few months later in the semis of a knockout tournament. Props to Turpin for wearing a cape in 1982. Again Jackie worked the bout around a leg injury before surprising Kaye with a pin. I wonder if they plotted that out in the halls. I would have liked to have seen Kaye in the halls actually as I heard he had a number of bloody stip matches, which is a side of him he was never allowed to show on TV.

Alan Dennison vs. Jackie Turpin (2/24/83)

Dennison took this pretty seriously and actually wrestled for a change, which was interesting. I half expected some bullshit to creep in, but he treated Turpin pretty well. Dennison wasn't a bad worker. He was similar to Kaye in that he knew his way around the ring without being spectacular. The bout ended up being less competitive than it seemed at first, but still if Dennison had worked like this more often I would have a better image of him.

Dave Finlay vs. Jackie Turpin (1/28/86)

1986 Jackie Turpin -- still rockin' the cape, but now with a moustache. This was a fun bout. It was for all intents and purposes a competitive squash but Turpin threw in some headbutts and open handed strikes to make life interesting. Finlay was heavy on the shtick at this time being under Princess Paula's thumb. Whatever plans they'd had for Jackie were over by this point and he was just another guy, but this was short and sweet. Daddy came down afterwards to demand a match with Finlay. Not sure why your super heavyweight needs to demand a match with a middleweight, but his comically bad mic work made it entertaining.

[JNLister]

FWIW, Cooper's probably the guy that retired wrestlers mention the most as underrated and valuable in his role of making new guys look like stars.