Bolo Hakawa

That newly found Seymour Hall bill is intriguing. I don't have any bouts for Assirati after June. He had done occasional DM shows in 1960.

Somewhere, I have an article on Johnny Morgan from a New Zealand Sports magazine. He was billed as a New Zealander from time to time, so I think the magazine wanted to get to the bottom of that. I sold the magazine but scanned in the article, I will have a look for it.

Great recall , James. As often. one thing borrows another. So Johnny Morgan now becomes one of the key figures in the strike, etc? This is like finding a lost piece in the jigsaw puzzle ..

I seem to remember Morgan led the wrestlers' strike for more pay along with Milo Pop at the Seymour Hall one night. Mike Hallinan will know more about him. He might be worth a closer look.

Thanks Ron.

But Japan occupied the Philippines until 9 years earlier. Philippinos would have detested the Japanese then. So to see himself billed as Japanese would have made his blood boil!

You paint a great scenario here Anglo , and I must mention that at times in the USA they also pushed the Jap angle. Crazy stuff , Jap Judo expert from Hawaii etc.

I checked some facts on Wrestlingdata and they have 1926-1981 correct and they also had him wrestling in Hawaii as early as 1943 as Bob Bataan. He did France and Spain and in particular Germany , even doing Hamburg as late as 1970. Billy Robinson beat him in Hamburg in 1962. He did a tag match with Ricky Starr (1958 USA)and one against Zebra Kid (1959 USA). Looks to have done it all.

Mike Hallinan who donated the Cardiff programme makes an interesting point. The original owner of the programme, has marked a Hunter win on it and made no mention of a switch to Sammy Cohen for opponent.

Still time with digital newspapers for more matches to come to light yet.

Good call, James. I suspect you are right. Ex-boxer Johnny Morgan went on to do one of the first exposés of pro wrestling. Bolo must have arrived with some reputation - they put him in with chaps who could look after themselves.

Yes, Ron, all grist for the mill. The great coincidence is that I was only this morning working on a 1970 bill - unrelated to this topic - where Sammy Cohen was a no-show himself and replaced by Ray Glendenning. I think the Sammu was one of those misprints that stuck in the works. He was just an all-round Jewish Sammy Cohen. From South Africa, I think.

Poor Bolo gets mangled into a Japanese by Dale Martin. He was of Philippine descent and WW2 would have been fresh in the 1954 memory. Enough to make him no-show when he saw the insulting handbill!

The Cardiff no-show has to make us wonder whether he turned up for any of those other matches, even Bolton?

Can the Morgan you query v Assirati, Anglo, have been Johnny Morgan who turned out against Bert a number of times around that period ?

I have just added another bill for Cardiff , Dec7th 1960 Hakawa v Ray Hunter ,(thanks to Mike Hallinan) but Ray P's results show Hakawa was replaced by Sammu Cohen. Shown in any case though just to reveal the itinerary.

So in 1954 in his very first bout he beat Marino at the Albert Hall.

In the staged world of pro wrestling, I am intrigued as to what factors were at work in making this decision, allowing him to win. This is a very big decision. Even to put him straight into the spotlight of a main event in Kensington.

What credentials did he arrive with? Someone was very very sure of the product.

I wonder how he fared against Ernie Baldwin in May 1954?

He's come from the far side of the planet so probably went off to the Continent for four weeks between '54 tours.

And probably in 1960, with his potential limited, he was required to tour and lose to the very wrestlers he had beaten six years earlier, such as Ray Apollon. Jean Ferre operated on the same UK model.

The divvying out of the talent is also interesting. So Wryton is thrown a morsel or two but otherwise DM guard him protectively. DM could surely have used him on 9th December. So what OBLIGATION did DM have to share him around? Similar patterns 15 and 20 years later when Ferre and L'Ange Blanc were largely property of Relwyskow and Morrell and DM just got snippets.

Who was the promoter in Smethwick? Seeing Howes I am guessing Wryton?

This is the only 1960 result I have (from Ray's files):

December 6th, 1960 – Watford, England

Apollon bt Hawaka (Ray's spelling)

Everything else is just the lineup. Seymour Hall date is a new one for me. I will have a dig online, hopefully today.

No results thus far for Seymour. Assirati Spurious.

It's been a good debate and we might add yet. Here is a recap.

31stMarch1954 Hakawa v Marino Albert Hall

1st April1954 Hakawa v Ken Davies Bristol

5thApril1954 Hakawa v Apollon Bedford

6thApril Hakawa v Orford Colchester

8th April1954 Hakawa v Butch Johnson Southampton

9thApril1954 Hakaw v Orford Rochester

11thMay1954 Hakawa v Ernie Baldwin Reading

14thMay1954 Hakawa v Al Hayes Ramsgate

5thDec1960 Hakawa v Zaranoff Seymour Hall

6thDec1960 Hakawa v Apollon Watford

7thDec1960 Hakawa v Ray Hunter Cardiff ( Sammy Cohen came in for Hakawa)

8thDec1960 Hakawa v Howes Smethwick

9thDec1960 Hakawa v Alf Cadman Bolton

10thDec1960 Hakawa v Ray Hunter Brighton

14thDec1960 Hakawa v Digger Rowell Hove

Aaaah, yes. Assirati is listed. I can only imagine that this was another mangling in a phone call. They changed Bolo's surname by mistake. The person at the Evening Standard probably remembered Assirati's name. 1960 opponent was Morgan, the Lord only knows who that was. Newspapers are a great resource but full of traps. Do we have 5/12/60 Seymour results?

Yes Assirati not important not really connected to Bolo , it's just that he was on the Dec1960 Seymour Hall bill.

He apparently did not wrestle after April 1960 and those final years did his own promotion or maybe Jack Taylor.

I thought leaving Joint/Dales was acrimonious and that there would be no way he would be on one of their bills again.

But yes I see now that The Seymour Hall was Dales.

So good to work with you, Ron 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

But I just cannot see how you are bringing Assirati into all this. Please explain.

Some good observations there Anglo. And I don't doubt what you say about Seymour Hall being DM . I just would not expect Assirati to be working a match for them in 1960.

I can rule out Bolo Hawayan being a copy. I had wondered about Bobo Matu seeing as they were so similar and Matu coming from Bolton. But Yes Cornelius running the travel would answer that.

Also worked with Billy Howes at Smethwick on 8th December 1960.

And Dec14th at Hove with Digger Rowell.

There is enough here for a decent A-Z entry.

I can't share your suspicion, Ron.

Those are magnificent cuttings.

Seymour Hall actually states it's a DM bill. That whole pink ad has been placed by Dale Martin.

Joe Cornelius has been tasked with driving the two internationals up to Bolton and then brings them back to Brighton for the Saturday. A shame Wryton dumbed Hawaii down to Japan. It smacks of the detail being mangled in a phone call, Hawaiian becoming his surname,

Bolo seems to be a winner. Outweighed by Ray Apollon, he defeats him, too.

1960 is interesting. Ray only had a result for him at Watford (he had it spelled "Hawaka"). But the rest of the bills are lineups only. Will have to dig further.

Here is some background on Bolo from a 1958 newspaper. It look pretty genuine as well mentioning meeting the Duke of Edinburgh.

Another show Bolo did I found this report. Another barefooted wrestler

and then also Bolo comes back in 1960 which do not look like Dale Martin bills.

By now Assirati was virtually promoting odd shows himself before bowing out. See the Seymour Hall show.

And a show at Brighton with Ray Hunter.

But below , very suspicious that this is also our man. ( the day before Brighton ?)

Hi Anglo. Where and when I grew up, in Newcastle there was only Morrell.

I only learnt a little when i went to London and Dagenham I was surprised that this travel as was mentioned ,started that far back.

Agreed. Baldwin travelled extensively as British champion as they all had to: Baldwin, Royal, Dempsey, Maxine, Wall (1972 only, then he was pooped), Riss, Faulkner, Thomson - they all wrestled everywhere.

Bernard, it seems to me that you guys in the early fifties thought there was no life outside Newcastle!

The European and world titles were the fun ones. Colbeck did whatever he wanted for 25 years; McManus followed suit in the seventies. Was there ever a European Heavy-Middleweight Championship? As for Howes and Marino .....

It seems that the serious Olympians of the thirties - Morrell, Relwyskow - saw the British titles as meaningful within the theatre of pro wrestling. Billy Riley was in there with his fixation on Snakepit-style. They were muddled in a way Jack Dale wasn't.

Ct Bartelli would take it to extremes with his Commonwealth title. Peter Rann not far off.

We (I) mustn't complain. It's clear that in the sport/spectacle of pro wrestling there would be fine dividing lines. Even with hindsight we can't define them. At the time, with things changing on a daily basis, the guys did their best to make it serious.

The Olympians were probably right to strive for perfection.

But Jack Dale didn't have Olympic material at his disposal and had to get on with things. It took him a while, but his approach was eventually very successful.

Maybe it was his insistence on serious wrestling, an avoidance of no-shows and rejiggings AT ALL COSTS, that gave him the ultimate edge. By which I mean his administration made the difference rather than the operation.

For Bernard , It looks from the papers like once Ernie was champ or even a top contender , there was a requirement to travel at least a bit. Not as much as Mike Marino did in the other direction , but evidence he even went as far as Torquay.

I have found a couple of bouts as far back as 1946 in Hawaii, he used his own name quite a bit and the name Sunni White Horn when working in some Canadian promotions, he also worked regularly in Germany

Not wishing to sidetrack your query Anglo, But I was surprised to see Ernie Baldwin on a DM bill.

This switch is not mentioned in Ernie's entry in the A-Z. Did he do many DM nights?

Ost, Ron - two diamonds!!!

And in America#

Here he is:

He also wrestled in France as well as a lot of US promotions his real name was Sonny Pascua, he looked a solid unit.

So genuine that we know nothing! In 1955, Hawaii wasn't in the USA. It was a republic and a few Hawaiians wrestled in UK. After annexation in 1959, they didn't seem to be able to get out any more.

Looks like he was a genuine Hawaiian