While of course I have not seen them all the best wrestler I saw from the United Kingdom to wrestle in New Zealand was Les Thornton. I remember seeing him both on Television here and also live at wrestling shows and i can tell you Les was very competitive.
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I do remember Pat Barrett he was a good wrestler but i have not heard from him in years. Last i heard he had retired to Ireland.
Harry Kendall, Wild Angus Campbell (wrestled here as Rasputin), Pat Roach, Alan Garfield, Rex Casey, Ken Taylor, Pat Barrett (Ireland), Bob Francini, those are the ones I can think of. Probably forgetting one or two.
Two wrestlers who weren't British but came here via their reputation in the UK were Georges Gordienko & Gordon Nelson. Both came over to work for John Da Silva in the late 1960's. Felix Miquet was here in 1950. His brother Francois in 1955.
I'm struggling to think of other British wrestlers who visited New Zealand, lovely though it is. There was Robert Bruce, but I don't think he matched Thornton.
G'day Ron
Thanks very much for posting the footage of Felix Miquet vs Bert Assirati.
Like my mate, The Ost, I had not previously seen this film.
I enjoyed the interesting, albeit brief, footage.
Cheers champ!
Ed
Assirati lost quite a few times in Paris.
Bert shared a few results with top wrestlers.
I think he used the trick of running through the ropes against Doug Clark and George Clark , a sort of honourable way of accidentally beating himself.
Here he loses to Felix Miquet ( a very powerful man)
Thanks Gentlemen for your updates. I wonder if this was the case with Bert Assirati.
Everybody had to please the promoters if they wanted to work,even Billy Robinson had to do the job when asked
So Les sometimes had to lose in North America to please the Promoters.
I absolutely agree with you , Les lived in Weaste , Salford , built himself up very powerfully and gave wrestling his all.
It is my own opinion that British Promoters just could not see it , that at five nine and about 16 stones he was some wrestler. I believe that they wanted the champ to be a six footer and a stone or more heavier.
But in wrestling they could have got away with Les being Mid heavy and what a champ he could have been.
He got his rewards overseas and an odd belt round his waist , but even in North America had to go down to many that there was no need to.
Like a true pro he did what was required and I hope he made good money and enjoyed life.