Burnley, 1933. Catch-as-catch-can.

Thanks Ron.

Three of my old articles give some insight

https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/doncastergrappling

https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/rotherhamgrappling

https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/johanfesson

Johanfesson had been at it since about 1915 with Rel senior.

His son Jack Quesick seemed very well in with early Dale Martin , even before McManus.

Johanfesson had a London Promoters License , I have often wondered if early Dales was their influence.

I have no evidence though that Chesterfield man Johanfesson was in any way tied to Charlie Glover's Barnsley Stable

I'd be interested in any more info you find about the South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, North Derbyshire, North Lincolnshire area, Ron.

Ron, thank you so much for all this priceless info you found on Walsh. Yes, it appears to be very interesting time when all three styles co-existed, fields-catch, musical hall pro wrestling and all-in rasslin.

John William Walsh was born in Burnley in 1893 , as I suspected was just too young to have made those Alhambra championships up to 1910 in London.

Fighting in fields in Burnley was usually done at Lowerhouse , I think and old football ground although I cannot be sure of that.

Some of the old Lancashire wrestlers , it seems to me , were slow to accept the flamboyance of the Oakeley/Irslinger style stuff that had been introduced to some big northern towns like Manchester and Hull. Spotting that promoters were making a lot of money there were some attempts to portray wrestling in these areas as either catch or All In. Almost as though never sure which would bring in the money the best.

Whilst "All In" was going on in 1932 Bannon did a show at Lowerhouse where he was World Middle weight champ and Walsh giving away a stone was 11 stone champion of the North. Walsh won by going 30 minutes without being thrown.

Bannon then did some All in Stuff and Walsh mainly promoted "Catch" but did some refereeing for the indoor ring shows and even got involved in some comedy antics. Don't know if Walsh stayed in the game , but I think died in Darwin in the 1950's.

On the border of South Yorks , Notts and Derbyshire and even Lincoln , Johanfesson was another such old hand that seemed unsure which was to portray a new wrestling and again did shows where the object seemed to be to avoid being thrown. This seems to me to be absolutely what was going on in America at that time.

This business of being thrown , surely this is not catch Wrestling Lancashire style.

It seems to have taken two or three years to drop this idea.

Just an opinion , but Billy Riley seemed to very quickly understand what was required for success and acted as matchmaker for T Storr , promoting shows in this area. (Burnley , Nelson , Colne)

He got a good mix of Wigan Style wrestlers , but brought in others.

I should think they might have round Burnley way Ruslan.

Walsh actually had an All In match at the Drill hall Burnley in 1932 so technically . like Bannon he lived to do the modern thing.

A lot of them did scrape in Like Billy Moores , Peter Gotz , Jack Carroll.

Brilliant as always Ron, thank you so much. Quite a unique situation. Music Halls and All-in. Fairground work, do you mean they had pro wrestling matches in the field as a part of entertainment, like in the olden days?

Walsh must have known all the Wigan greats.

I give you Charnock , Riley , Silcock all on one show in 1935 at Nelson.

I guess Walsh fitted between the Music Hall age and "All In" as he just about finished in 1933 . He did some fairground Work Locally and had a small stable of up and coming wrestlers. Would have been a better Front man for Burnley than the Nasty Bannon.

Look at the Show at Nelson , Walsh was Referee.