Most Big Venues in the 1950's and 1960's Featured MASKED Wrestlers fairly regularly on their Shows!
A Career Masked Wrestler with a bit of an Unbeaten Run was always a Great Draw at Arenas such as
the 6,000 Seater KINGS HALL BELLE VUE in MANCHESTER!-Would this be the Nite he would Finally
Lose and his Face and Identity would Finally be Revealed??
For this Thread-I am Focusing on BELLE VUE for the Years between 1961 and 1963!
Probably for Contractural Reasons the Top MASKED Wrestler during this Period-COUNT BARTELLI-
made NO Appearances at all at the KINGS HALL!
The Most Prolific Visitor to Frequent this Iconic Hall in these 3 Years was THE MASK-Who Wrestled
here 17 Times without Defeat!
Curiously the ZEBRA KID only made 5 Appearances-the First being on SATURDAY 11TH FEBRUARY
1961 when he fought to a Double Count-Out with JIM HUSSEY!
His other 4 Visits-All MASKED-were all AFTER he Lost his Mask to BARTELLI at HANLEY on 5/3/1961!
There were just 3 Other HOODED Wrestlers who came to BELLE VUE during this Time-2 were on
'Runs'-One was an ONLY Appearance!-All three of these MASKED Men came just the ONCE!
And Strangely All of them were on within just a few short Weeks of Each Other in JANUARY 1963!!!
Starting with the Show for MONDAY JANUARY 14TH-We have THE LEGIONNAIRE-a Villain Clad from
Top to Toe in Blue!-He Defeats JIM ARMSTRONG of LEEDS by K.O.
MAIN MASK
Digger Rowell was Charlie Rowell, born in Sunderland but moved to Sydney. Returned to Britain in the autumn of 1959. Did quite a bit of work for Joint, Was on tv in 1962 against Black Salem. Here he is unmasked and masked against Rob Roy
.
I did find Mr No three more times scattered about in the following month.
From memory he fought Terry O,Neil and also Simunovitch and another one at smaller halls.
Hi Hack &Ron. I believe MR.NO did about one weeks work for R.& G proms. work around that time. Hope this is any help for you. Thanks very much for your recent reply . Hope yourselves and everyone do do with site keeps safe and well.
Yours sincerely Ian.
The Mr No bill had just a bit more to add when it came to the advertising,.
First time in this country , can you believe it.
Hi shangri-la, Re Belle vue Jan 21st. 1963 on masked men appearing once only at Belle Vue. MR NO i believe was Digger Rowell.This came from a reliable source . Please let me know if you know otherwise. P.S. i love your contribution you give to this great site.
Ian Pringle.
Here's a promo shot of the Professor:
Here is The Professor at Bradford:
Here's one I can share, 1963 in Edinburgh, with a mysterious Professor and likewise Legionaire billed:
Yes, The Monster is in the countdown of the twenty best masked wrestlers on this site.
The original early 1960's Monster was Jim Green , a friend of the Pyes and a nightclub owner in Blackpool.
Welcome to Heritage.
Does anyone know who The Monster is ?
A word of gratitude for these programmes as they have solved a 50+ year mystery for me. On the January night we see an appearance by Pedro La Chapelli who became better known as Pietro Cappelo or similar; he must have been the man of a thousand names. However it was the Pedro monicer under which he appeared at Newcastle a couple of weeks later, topping the bill against Bill Rawlings, and that was the only time that I saw him billed as such. I always thought that in my youthful inattention I had made that name up but now I am pleased to have been put right!
I must say that when I first saw him on TV against Billy Howes I thought that he looked the part as a complete villain however by the time I got to see him live, about a year later, he had started slipping down the bill and the one fight I do recall watching live saw Andy Robin dealing with him quite quickly.
Don't be too quick to blame McManus when we don't know the circumstances.
For one thing, he needed to be invited.
But I believe we noted that Mick just didn't wrestle on Saturdays, so it wasn't personal
It's one thing to happen to own the programmes, Main Mask. What you have done here is superb analtyical research to tell a story.
Good to see the quality on those 1963 programmes with weights and towns and the rounds. This was a professional aspect that was one of the first to be abandoned a few years later; a shame when it was so easy to include.
Wonderful research,Main Mask
Have we ever identified any of them.
Every man and his dog seems to have worn a mask at one time or another.
Only this week we find that Streiger wrestled as The Count and I have just discovered that Danny Flynn wrestled as masked Baracuda.
The Following Show-MONDAY 21ST JANUARY Features the 'Mysterious'
MR. NO!! Defeating DAVE ARMSTRONG!-No Info. on this Man of Mystery-but
I think it was an attempt to 'Exploit' the Popularity of the First JAMES BOND
Movie-'DR. NO'!-A Winner maybe but he seems to have Vanished into the 'Ether'!
MAIN MASK