Les Kellett

[Matt D]

We have 5-6 Kellett matches online. I'm bringing back the train of thought reviews for them. Couple of notes:

1.) He was a real character, apparently, not a nice person, not someone people liked to work with. Tough to a fault. There are a lot of stories out there online.

2.) OJ said previously that if you saw one of his matches, you sort of saw them all. I'm 3 or 4 in and I haven't quite felt that to be true

3.) You should watch the match before reading my review as I'm going to give away all the punch lines, but there's so much to the act and to the comedy that it felt warranted to go into such detail and sort of comment on each and every bit.

4.) While I've watched a good number of matches from this era, this is the first deep dive I've done into comedy. Maybe this is more commonplace than it feels and less novel, but, to me, right now, it feels special enough to examine.

Les Kellett vs Johnny South

1974-5-11

Kellett is hard to place facially. There's a Jimmy Cagney thing to him and an Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal element. He looks like an old rat pack companion twenty years past his prime, or maybe a slightly evil Sylvester McCoy who had just a little too much to drink. South looks a little like Eric Idle as Brave Sir Robin. He's bigger and from the get go, you get the sense this won't be a friendly affair. He starts with a hammerlock and stomping.

Kellett's greatest strength is probably his reactions to things. Post stomp, he looks to the ref, hesitates for a moment and there's a chummy sense of "Who does this guy think he is?" about South. That's when he starts to turn on the shitck, leaaaaaning back away from the lock up. South sells it beautifully, ending up off balance, posturing and pointing, and then, expecting it again, getting mared twice as Kellett drives in instead. He finishes the exchange by pressing in and yelling as South has no idea how to react.

South's ultimate reaction in the match is increasing escalation as he loses his cool more and more. Here, it's with a hammerlock (back hammer) and the UK equivalent of hide the object, which is maneuver around the ref and hide the punch, again and again to the side. This will be important later, as it's the first of many elements being set up to be called back upon later. That's what's probably most impressive about Kellett's comedy to me. It's big and it's broad and it's clever but it's also set up and paid off. It's not just an old trick in the moment.

South moves into a double trap hold. Kellett, using one of those old tricks, sells it with clapping to show he's still in the match and eye-rolling that rouses the crowd. The punchline is a clap to the ref's hands that pops the crowd. That mark checked off, he launches an elbow and his knee-lift, apologizing to the ref in good measure, and follows it with his own prancing lean in, fists up, which South has no idea what to make of. South, wanting to be taken seriously, rushes in with a double knucklelock, spinning, twisting, into a criss-cross arms around the neck lock from behind. Kellett, generally able to slip a bit of wrestling in, from what I've seen, kept the momentum going, reversing it for his own hold and ending it with his trademark primed kick to the back of the head. The punctuation was a stomp (not in the same motion of the hold, so thus illegal were he to do it) with a big comedic step over and falling into the ref.

Again, South, frustrated, trips the leg and starts working it. grinding as South yells repeatedly to sell it. The crowd laughs, and I'm not even sure why at this point. They must have caught a facial expression we didn't. It's an interesting mix, the combination of selling and having a laugh with everything. It ends with Kellett kicking South in the back repeatedly, harshly, until he breaks the hold. The ref admonishes South's attempt to try a new hold after the break; Kellett goofily complains that the ref should "tell him about that" and the ref turns on him, causing him to recoil and the fans to burst into laughter (again). Kellett ends the round with a knee claw (yes a knee claw), shaking violently to South's reactions, his head moving this way and that as if he was seizing. The punchline here is that he gets to pretend that he didn't hear the bell until the ref pulls him off and chases him to the corner, where he hides behind his second and salutes the reprimanding of the ref.

Round two starts with a wobbly legged refusal to tie up, a whip into the corner by Kellett, and some Ministry of Silly Walks steps that pisses off South more. South is good here, lurking over Kellett so that he can grab onto him with a new hold the second he gets to his feet. He ended up offsides, however, jumping the gun, which let Kellett just lay there, taking a breather and playing to the crowd without a ten count (as it was an illegal start by South). When the ref finally starts to count, he shouts at him "you told me to take my time!" and the crowd roars again. He ends up back on his feet with his bottom lip over his top looking like Popeye. South, who has had enough, grabs a foot, causing Kellett to start hopping. This makes South feel pretty good about himself right until the point that Kellett hops onto his foot. The timing on this is just perfect, just the right number of hops to let South look smug and get the fans ready for what's about to come.

And we get some level of payoff to all of the trolling build up. South slams his hands upon the match raises them into the air and charges across the ring, diving for Kellett, who casually steps onto the apron through the ropes, forcing the world's most aggravating break for South. When the ref yells at Kellett for being cheeky, he shows how his arm was over the rope, and for good measure places the ref's over the rope too. More roars of laughter ensue. And in the moment of confusion, Kellett bursts across the ring to shoot another mare on South, punctuating THAT with a nasty kick.

South of course rushes back across the ring, and Kellett leaaaaans back again, causing South to land on his face. When he tells Kellett to stand still, that's exactly what he does, chin jutted, feet together, and South can't figure out what to make of it. He tells him to stop and Kellett leans in this time, causing South to land on his face the other way. Next spot: the set up is that Kellett has a leg and South makes a rope breaks; the payoff is that he gets the legs again, and as South reaches the ropes, Kellett lifts him up and pancakes him on his face. Laughter ensures again. South gets his moment though, as Kellett tries to follow that up with a slam and South lands on him for the fall. He puts in a few stomps to the stomach for good measure, which lets Kellett sell his stomach/ribs all the way to his corner. So after two rounds, the score is 1-0 South.

This starts something of a heat segment, with South capitalizing on the damage to the ribs. He's in there playing hide the punch, and locking in a deathlock, really jamming his elbow into Kellet's stomach over and over. It's pretty nasty altogether, but Kellett responds by fighting his way up, daring South to punch him (which would have broken the hold if not led to a public warning). In the moment of distraction, he pushes him over, but South regains the hold, only to get distracted again (with Kellett daring him to punch once more, shouting "you listen to that referee" at the admonishing which drew a push from South, and sitting up immediately with a big slap), which led to the break and Kellett getting both of South's legs. He teases a stomp but walks a few steps away smugly.

South, frustrated again, dives in with a flying body scissors. After a few seconds, Kellett seemed to grab something unpleasant to break the hold. When South complains and shows his rear to the ref and Kellett, he gets kicked right there for good measure. South demands that Kellett do the same, and takes advantage of it by rushing in, teasing that same kick and hiding a choke instead. For all that he's getting eaten alive and clowned in this match, Kellett's doing a good job of still giving South something, not just that first fall, but also moments of cathartic punishment to make up for Kellett's antics. Here he clubbers him over the top rope and yanks him back off of them to the floor.

Of course, the long term selling is suspect, for Kellett follows this up by pulling his tights up and walking forward, leading to South begging off. He had a reputation of toughness, despite the clowning, so it's believable and I don't think it hurts South too much. He had the advantage, tried something underhanded, only for it not to work. There's no shame in the trying or in trying to avoid the consequences. Remember the punch hiding from before? Here's the payoff to THAT set up, and it's sort of glorious. this time, Kellett puts on the backhammer and starts to maneuver South, teasing a punch to the ribs again, the one that the ref KNEW that he had taken liberties with before but couldn't prove. By moving him around so aptly, South can't land one. Kellett on the other hand, can and does, but when he does, he also drops down, selling as if he was the one punch. South, reeling, gets admonished by the ref. They go right back to it with the same results, making sure to milk it sufficiently before both go down after Kellett's punch. This time however, the ref gives South a public warning when Kellett was the one who did the punch. The crowd eats this up as the bell rings for the end of the round. Kellett is just great here, selling the imaginary punch all the way back to his corner while trying to hide his laughter from the ref.

South comes out furious, going right to another punch and a whip into the corner. He then charges in with a stomp and I thought the narrative here might have been that Kellett was going to anger South so much that he'd win the match through a DQ. South is right on top of him again, waiting for him to get up to toss him down once more, off his game and overly aggressive. He charges off the ropes, slamming him with a shoulder block. Kellett, however, bounces back through the ropes, rebounding like Nigel McGuiness/Dean Ambrose and landing a headbutt right into South's stomach. South sells it nicely, feet dangling over the ropes and, wind gone, he just can't quite make the count up, leading to the KO win for Kellett. To Kellett's credit, he makes sure to sell that last beating as his second helps him back to his corner. South recovers more quickly even in the loss.

I've seen a few Kellett matches now, and I'll go back to the others soon, but this one stood out because he had a grumpy, troublemaking rulebreaker to face off against. The others I've seen had him against more likable opponents. Here, he basically got to stooge a heel, making him angrier and angrier until it all boiled over. I especially loved the strong bit of narrative in there, namely how South's post round attack led to the rib-punches in the next round, which paid off with Kellett turning that action against him later on and drawing the public warning (and that led to South's aggression in the following round, which led to him eating that rebound headbutt).

Just from mentions on the board, I get the feeling that Kellett was someone that people watched more fifteen years ago than they do now, so I'd be curious to see what others think.

[NotJayTabb]

I've enjoyed watching the little Kellett I've seen...his match with Brian Glover/Leon Arras is a lot of fun. Every time I think of him, I just remember what Jackie Pallo said about him: "People see him on the telly and think 'Oh isn't he funny, he's fun'...(tone changes) but Les was HARD. He was a hard man"

[GSR]

Adrian Street tells the following tale on his Shoot Interview with RF, but have found it online too:

 

Adrian Street: "Do you know the story of when Les got his hand bit? He was talking to a friend of his on the farm, feeding the hogs, and this big old boar bit him on the hand. He got an infection and his hand swelled up like a boxing glove. Instead of going to the doctor’s like a normal person, he was wrestling that night so he went to the show. In the dressing room, the guy he’s wrestling with says “Don’t go in the ring and wrestle like that”. Les goes “Yes… yes, I think you’re onto something there. I can’t go in the ring and wrestle like that. So what I’m gonna do to get rid of the poison is put my hand here, on the ground, and I want you to stamp on it.”

“Oh, I can’t do that Les”

“But you’ve told me, and I agreed, that I can’t go in the ring like this. So stamp on it, or I’ll stamp on you.”

So this other wrestler stamps down, hard, on his hand, and all this blood and poison and pus comes shooting out of it. This is in full view of the other wrestlers. He had to be the centre of attention did Les”

[ohtani's jacket]

There were basically two types of comedy in World of Sport -- the full blown comedy acts and the guys who would incorporate comedy into their matches while still maintaining a veneer of seriousness. You could argue that Kellett belongs to the latter category, but I regard him as a full on comedy act. The most interesting thing about the WoS comedy acts was how Walton struggled to explain their existence in kayfabe terms (e.g. he's a comedian, he's playing to the gallery.) I find that fascinating. The Kellett bout I suggest people sample is the one against Johnny Czeslaw, who belonged to category two above. The best Kellett opponent I've seen is Bobby Barnes. There's a clear undercurrent between a hard arse Yorkshireman and an exotico that doesn't need explaining. I've seen three of their bouts and they're highly entertaining.

 

For what it's worth, WoS didn't start airing on TWC until 2004 and even then nobody outside of British wrestling circles discussed Kellett much.

[Matt D]

Train of Thought Review #2:

Les Kellett vs Steve Haggerty

1974-11-30

Haggerty is billed as the Irish Canadian. That gets him booed. He has a glorious robe. Well, it's sparkly at least. Les Kellett's jacket is great. It weirdly ribbed and looks like something the New Breed might decide to wear. This is the main event. Haggerty has the weight advantage (I think. Stones, come on? He's giving away "very nearly a stone." it's enough to matter).

Kellett goofs with the ref during the instructions to begin. Then he gets right to it, with a clean break against the ropes (they had a nice handshake to begin), and a leg trip and twist. He turns that into a lifting leg smash, but, in a spot I've seen quite a bit in the UK, Haggerty lands on his feet. Kellett feigns appreciation, shakes his hand, and flips Haggerty with the flip. The crowd laughs and Kellett looks quite pleased, but in a good-mannered way. Kellett offers an apologetic shake but Haggerty is too smart to take it, backing off and coming back in with a headlock instead. They work this well, grinding down, with Kellett trying to push off, Haggerty grunting and groaning all the way. Eventually, he scores the top wrist lock, only to get shoved off with more Haggerty grunting. This is taken with amused awe by Kellett, who leans right back in with a double shoulder squeeze. Haggerty turns that into a hamerlock and Kellett casually walks him around the ring, picking up speed until he sends Haggerty flying. Probably the first big laugh of the match.

Haggery comes back in with a test of strength invitation. Kellett backs up and slaps him in the face. Haggerty, frustrated, slaps on a modified cobra clutch which instantly becomes another canvas for Kellett comedy, bumping into him as he gets throttled, and keeping eye contact, unnerving him left and right with the stares until he just breaks the hold in derision. Haggery comes back in with a front facelock. Kellett wiggles (literally) loose with another arm flip and then slaps on a full nelson. Despite the comedy, he definitely works it, the stress seen on his face as Haggery forces his way out. Kellett is back in with a top wristlock (mean fingerlock?) though, with Haggerty leaaaaning his face back. Kellett puts the pressure back on, though, with such a smug look upon his face. It's become a real fingerlock now, Kellett just cruelly yanking them back. Haggerty tries to turn the head and gets his already pulled back fingers slapped harshly for his trouble. He goes for a punch and Kellett just ducks, sending him spinning. That's, maybe, the most interesting thing about these. Kellett is uproariously funny but in the midst of it, he's doing really malicious harm to his opponent. That's somehow part of the joke.

Haggerty spins around to get his own punishment upon Kellett's fingers, leaving him screaming at the bell ending round 1. When Haggerty doesn't break, Kellett steps on his foot for good measure to the crowd's delight. He then follows up with a European uppercut playing, once again, that he didn't know the fall was over. It's fun that he did this in a totally different way than he had in the South match (where he had been the one with a hold on).

Round two starts with Kellett reaching around with a double wristlock in the back position and Haggerty increasingly lifting him up and moving him about, ending with Kellett being positioned directly on the ref's foot, which leads to another great facial expression from Kellett and an irate ref and a brief argument about whose fault it was. Haggerty locks ina cravat with Kellett trying to work out but ending back in. Once again, they're back to really working this, with Haggery grinding him down before Kellett can slip out with a grounded hammerlock. Kellett stands high with this, pressing in and controlling the leverage as Haggerty grunts in pain. It's such a simple hold but they're working it well enough that you'd buy a submission here, just on a hammerlock. Finally, though, Haggerty works it into a mere wristlock but can't reverse it, choosing intead to open hand slap Kellett on the shoulder three times until Kellett slaps him dead on in the face, breaking the hold.

From there, it looks like Haggerty's going to get an honest chance to lock up and get back into the match but Kellett ducks under, causing him to stumble, then leans back twice, steps back a third time, fakes him out once or twice with a whoop, and moves right out of the way to send him into the ropes. He ends it with a headlock, lifting his hand to punch but having to scratch his head instead when the ref notices. That lets Haggerty toss him off as the crowd laughs again. Kellet milks the fall, and when he finally gets up, Haggerty is there with a European uppercut, just a brutal one, and then, once Kellett gets up again, with a nasty clubber as the bell rings. Kellett stumbles into Haggerty's corner, so Haggerty taps him on the shoulder a few times and then whips him across the ring to his own corner, "helping." Again, the brutalness can be striking in contrast, both of Kellett's punishing holds and when facing an opponent who's not quite on the up and up, the opponent's offense that takes his grief off on Kellett. I also think Kellett's good at gaining sympathy through it, even if he makes sure never to take it seriously for TOO long.

So we are on to round three, and he was selling big to begin, until the ref counts, and he starts making faces at him, popping up at nine and crisscrossing Haggerty's arms to set up his big tee-up kick that sends Haggerty flying. He's back up at six though, only for Kellett to take him down and start on the knee claw. Now I'm starting to see some of the sameness OJ mentioned before, but it's Bret Hart sameness, a lot of the same signature things, but layered in different ways and in reaction to different things. Familarity, not sameness. I could be wrong though. Here he locked in the knee claw as a response to getting hammered a few times at the end of the last round. Haggerty kept trying to kick him off but they were working it. He was definitely making noise and selling it with some great expressions like it was a horribly painful hold.

It's interesting here that Walton notes how the fans like mat wrestling but only some mat wrestling and that this was going on quite a while. Kellett had to be aware of this though. Eventually, he does get kicked off, only to his that richochet headbutt, the one that ended South in the first match. Here, it just knocks Haggerty down, which goes back to what I said before about familiarity, not sameness. Haggerty makes sure to sell the leg on his way up, and goes into the headlock, hiding the punch, still selling the leg, even as he runs across the ring with another two European uppercuts. He follows up with more hidden headlock punches and some sharp kicks to the ribs, keeping it up after the bell to draw a public warning. The match really seems to be occilating between Kellett having fun, Haggerty punishing him in response, and Kellett getting serious in response to that.

The fourth round begins with Haggerty pummeling him with European uppercuts in the corner, and then bringing it back down with a double trapezius hold, a mare as he didn't get an immediate submission, and then one big, last European Uppercut attempt, running across the ring to set it up. This time, in a nice moment of built up transition, Kellett moves, causing Haggerty to go flying out of the ring. Kellett helps him back in only to get cut off by a back elblow by Haggerty who makes a three count of it. It was a nice, sudden, unexpected finish to the fall, very sudden but also very well timed.

Round five starts with Haggerty up 1-0 and taking advantage of how the previous fall ended by staing on Kellett, with stomps, european uppercuts, and more hidden headlock punches. Eventually, though, he went for one too many and ended up hanging himself on the top rope. When he charged forth again, Kellett just dropped down in a near collapsed and hugged a leg to take him down. He followed it up with his signature inside deathlock, and there was this almost drunken ease to him locking it in which was believably unstoppable, like a ladder slowly falling off the side of a building to leave someone stranded up there. You can see it happening. There's just nothing to be done about it. Insult to injury: he combines the deathlock with the knee claw once more, and a nasty smile to boot.

Haggerty gets out with an open palm strike, making sure to limp into his trap hold once again. Kellett wants nothing to do with this, though, and does a double chop to either side before whipping Haggerty into the post hard enough to shake the ring. that draws applause and he does it again, Haggerty doing a great job selling it. Once he's up, Kellett sneaks another arm-hold and just launches a huge punch just outside the ref's view. He knows, though, but only yells at him, not giving a public warning. It was somewhat Haggerty's just desserts, or at least Walton convinces me of that. Of cousre, then Kellett does it again and there's the public warning and a shot at the granny who said he only did a palm strike.

Haggerty comes out this, deciding that it's a good idea to make the Brock Lesnar guy pose and scream. Kellett mocks that for good measure, dodges a corner charge, and slips in a kneelift, before putting on a trap hold of his own. Haggerty does the double side chop to get out, but when he goes for one of his own, Kellet's gone and he falls on his face at the bell. Between falls, Walton goes on about how he was talking to Kellett about inflation.

Haggerty's out of the corner with another European uppercut to start round six. Then he gets a revenge whip into the corner for good measure. Kellett reverses the next one though and Haggerty takes it stomach first, bumping huge and then completely unable to get up to meet the ten count. There's a bit of sameness. He won against South in as similar way after giving up a fall. All in all, not that strange but in the few dozen other matches from this period I've seen, I don't think I've seen anyone else's matches end with that sort of a just barely knock out. I don't think this was quite as fun as the South match, but in some ways it was more competitive and better worked. It's still well worth watching.

[Ship Canal]

 

 

Kellett is hard to place facially. There's a Jimmy Cagney thing to him and an Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal element. He looks like an old rat pack companion twenty years past his prime, or maybe a slightly evil Sylvester McCoy who had just a little too much to drink. South looks a little like Eric Idle as Brave Sir Robin. He's bigger and from the get go, you get the sense this won't be a friendly affair. He starts with a hammerlock and stomping.

 

I've always thought there was a great deal of Les Dawson in there too, especially when it comes to his gurns.