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
.