British Titles

Portsmouth was and still is a hotbed of Professional Wrestling therefore it probably came down to money

Morrell for whatever reason had an office in London and somehow influence in the south.

Take Portsmouth , for many years John Mortimer was promoter and then Jim Smith took over.

Jim Smith had his own belts but even so back in 1949 he was able to put on a British title match.

Dale Martins did not edge Jim out.

Look at 1953 , Jim Smith and his partner are still promoting but now it is in conjunction with Morrell of London. Ironically Portsmouth seems to be synonymous with that welter weight championship.

And are the championship and the winner of the Jim Smith belt two different things.

Why did Morrell want Portsmouth ????

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When I was younger (much !) going to Newcastle to see the Norman Morrell wrestlers, I took everything as gospel.

Now older(but not much wiser) I do query things more.

If I had been a promoter in the London area ,during Morrell's reign, when all the British titles were held by Northern wrestlers, I think that I would have created my own title holders.

Would that have created problems?

What do others think.?

Why did Morrell have such sway, even before Joint was created?"

Bernard asked a serious and important question which has been overlooked.

Just why, Why did Morrell have such sway, even before Joint was created?"

Unless someone in the know comes to our rescue we will probably never know. Morrell was a talented wrestler, Olympic representative, professional. He knew the business inside out. But that is true of Jack Dale and George DeRelwyskow too. There's more to it.

Morrell was (or is it a case of became?) a very shrewd business man. I was told he had part ownership of more than two dozen companies, a man with a finger in many pies. Even a shareholder (but not Director) in Dale Martin Promotions.

Pure hearsay, but I have heard of other forces that gave Morrell his position in the Joint Promotions hierarchy. It was he that brought Dale Martin into the consortium (remember they joined a year later than the rest) and used, careful how we put it, some very persuasive physical arguments to bring them on board.

Yes, Atholl liked to bill a lot of Champions.

Thanks for sharing Hack, appreciate. Great info.

Modern International Catch Can were the rules used by Atholl Oakeley. In 1951he was still trying to revive his business.

Style: Modern International Catch-as-catch-can

Title: Hwt Championship of Great Britain

Champion of British Isles: Frank Manto

Also, first Mount Evans Silver Belts (circa 1950) were held solely by Yorkshire wrestlers - Busfield, Colbeck and Baldwin, it explains who was "in charge" of that Promotion. The second Mountevans Gilt Belts/or Morell Belts were held by the wide variety of wrestlers over the years, BUT originally mostly by wrestlers from Greater Manchester areas. Which also is a self-explanatory.

Makes perfect sense to think that Euro and World would be considered somewhat more prestigious...but I think they for a purpose kept those separate, like one promotion did British Titles ONLY, another International Titles ONLY, the rest had titles of their own like let's say South London or Greater Manchester. I think it was very smart to do it that way, it was easier for fans to follow, one World Champ, one Euro Champ, British Champs and Regional Champs. I would say it was organized pretty well. Sadly newspapers stopped covering major pro-wrestling events, otherwise to build up the titles' succession (lineages) would be not that difficult.

The south had Southern Area titles at various weights, but even then I haven't found much evidence of them changing hands much. It was more of something that looked good on a poster or program. What I also find interesting is that the British titles with the Mountevans belts are looked back as the most respected championships, but really you'd think World & European honours would go above that.

Mountevans belts were only awarded by Joint Promotions. The physical belts may have changed over the years but there would only be one Mountevans belt at any weight at any one time.

Now that we know about 2 sets of Lord Mount Evans Belts...it makes the British Titles Research even more interesting. Special thanks to Mr. Mike Hallinan.

Hi all, sorry if you were confused. I was talking about British titles (which I mentioned) in the period 1948 to 1954.

There was commonwealth championship belts but from what I read they were defended outside joint promotion shows. Area titles were generally honorary titles the exception being the southern area belts but were rarely defended if at all

Danny Lynch's All Nations Heavyweight Champion sounds a good one.

Brilliant question...what would be the names you call your titles? I think that matters. Some big "promotions" monopolized the "names" like let's say World, European, British or Empire or Commonwealth or Northern Counties etc. Also matters what you would call your wrestling, it also was monopolized, let's say - All In, Freestyle Pro, American Rules, etc. I think it really matters how you call your titles and style. The 1930's research shows that despite the fact that Oakeley's All In Titles were sort of universal and his champs we generally accepted as "the champs"...yet there were a lot of very successful local promotions, among others Jack Callaghan's.