1955 The Championship Muddle

I received one of these typewritten issues in the 50',s. I can't remember why, but it was mostly about Norman Walsh and his titles. I showed it to Norman and Flo and they said some of it was true and some not. Can't remember the details now.

Just as an FYI, Jim Craig lived in Scotland, so he was getting this information from correspondents who went to the matches. So if the promoters did a local title change or a return match angle (for example, held up the belt for a week or two, or reversed the decision later, among other choices) the fan may not have known or provided that information along to Jim.

It's fine to follow these title changes for amusement.

It's fine to follow them to try and understand the nonsense.

It's not so fine to try and make sense of the nonsense.

George Gregory had the heavy champ in 1938. Mancelli champ in 1955.

Talking of 1955 only. I have just been through the year looking at paper bills and I can see Ernie Baldwin advertised as champion nearly every month. When Assiratti popped up he seemed to get European Champion.

I can only see Mancelli as Southern area champ.

Of note in November 1955 Baldwin was champ at Hanley, where he lost to Count Bartelli , but no mention of it being for the title. It did say it was under Lord Mountevans Rules.

Wrestling adverts were so fickle I would not expect much sense from trying to track title changes.

If it absolutely mattered , they would have kept records.

There were several title changes in 1955. The names you mentioned (Sullivan & Mancelli) came from Jim Craig's fanzine that reported the title changes. There may be other sources, but we also have newspaper bills where Mancelli & Sullivan were billed as champion for short time frames.

I want to emphasise that the information comes from a fanzine, because these were local title changes, it was a small group of fans that collected and shared this information to like-minded people. I don't think Mat magazine was still running in 1955 (but I could wrong) so I don't think Morrell was publicising any of this activity. Dale Martin didn't have a magazine at this time.

Again, something might have happened in 1955 but BALDWIN was no longer a champ. and as we already figured it is not anyhow related to his match v ASSIRATI. Someone else was British Hwt Champ in 55, and I do not know who that wrestler was. I hope you my friends also find this research worth of your time and effort, just as I do so. thank YOU.

I think Dai Sullivan was mid 30's in 1955 and Tony Mancelli would have been older, to answer Ruslan's question about their age. Not sure exactly how old Tony Mancelli would have been in 1955, but even if he started wrestling at 16 year of age (around 1931), that would make him at least 40 by the mid 1950's.

Joint did not get control of Belle Vue until 1956. Rogers was in effect a rogue operator who had hung on from the war time , and I assume the Belle Vue Estate management were happy with him. I would not look too deep at this , but of course you enjoy it all and why not.

I think you will find in 1955 that George was 50 years old. He did only a handful of jobs for Dick Rogers that year and bowed out. They could bill him how they wanted , but he was not the British heavyweight Champ in 1955.