I remember a Benny Hill sketch in the sixties when he was a wrestler and the gag was that he chatted through the bout with his opponent, planning a night at the pub and talking about their wives. This fed the rumour that wrestling was fixed and also showed "how they do it."
Then we hear wrestlers now openly telling us of chats during bouts. McManus told Bob Kirkwood that there was too much heat so he would have to change the plan and be disqualified. And Nagasaki telling us how Kellett told him to throw him through the ropes as he was going home. Plenty of other instances, too.
But I have to confess, in all my years, I never saw them talking to each other. And I was looking out for it.
What are your memories? Was I particularly blind?
Flair borrowed that from Ray Stevens who was doing it back in the mid 1950's. He probably borrowed it from someone else too.
Not just fellow workers certain refs did it to new hands,two were well known for it but probably more,don't think anyexamples on YouTube for the southern one that was Lou Marco,Northern one was Joe Hill.
Tommy Mann was the opponent in the Benny Hill sketch. Jackie Pallo did a lot of talking in the ring.
I was just rethinking this and remember that Goldbelt Maxine used to talk quite a lot. Does anyone else remember that?
US Champ Ric Flair, but not before Rocco, as far as I know.
I need to see if Rocco was doing that move when he was Black Tiger, in Japan.
Did anyone else do it?
It's a great match isn't it Anglo?, two of the best and most exciting wrestlers we ever produced from these shores. Rocco, the absolute master of knowing when to be the aggressor and when to let his opponent make the comeback. He was the first person I ever saw who did the "upside down" posting.
I must confess, Saxonwolf, I got so enthralled by the bout that I had to go back to look for the whispering. I agree they clearly created hidden angles where they could have talked, but I can't actually see any words. I must be a poor lip-reader.
I was struck by how Dynamite Kid had improved from his tv bout against Tony Skarlo. He followed Rocco's lead and sold every Rocco move enthusiastically. Rocco added such value, exuberant in every single second whether fouling, suffering or attacking.
But Max Ward caught my eye. Between rounds he went in to examine Dynamite Kid's cut eye but seemed clearly to be poking something into it (13:40). Sure enough the claret poured right from the start of the next round.
And then at the start of that round, see Max not watching the wrestlers but possibly taking instructions from someone outside the ring (14:09). This gave all the signs that this may have been transmitted live.
There was a also a nice Waltonsim as the commentator called the opening fall as the equaliser.
Most wrestlers met each other so often in the ring that there was no necessity to talk
By the way, the match I picked, above, was at random, on youtube, and it turns out to be one I was looking for, for years!, I knew I had seen a Rocco vs Kid bout that ended prematurely, with DK bleeding from the head, not something that you saw every week on TV British Wrestling.
Here is a quick example; at the two minute 18 seconds mark (or thereabouts) Dynamite Kid, facing down towards the canvas, says something, Rocco, quietly answers (around 2.25), takes the Kid down to the canvas, Kid facing away, and as he turns to face Rocco (or rather, from the camera angle, face Rocco's knee at the 2.30 mark), he says something again.
At the 3 minute mark, head to head, arms up at shoulder level, shielding their faces as much as possible for a quick chat and across into the corner in the same position. Etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPkiRdcyF8
I didn't see Benny Hill do this but I remember an episode of "The Six Faces of Jim" with Jimmy Edwards where he played a wrestler in conversation with his opponent throughout the show.
Yes, lots of awful endings to bouts, like McManus's single leg boston. Dreadful way to terminate 25 glorious minutes.
But the talking is fascinating. Very divided here. Ron, Hack and I saying we never saw it. Main Mask and Saxonwolf saying it was rife.
Many other views needed to progress, please.
Like Hack says , I never noticed talking.
The thing that struck me was that when one guy was clearly the senior man , he sometimes found a very weak way of making the result 2-1.
One fall bouts got round this , but it always stood out for me .
A deviation on the question , but nevertheless we are talking about evidence that "it was not real"
Old Pallo and some of the southern lads used rhyming slang no use if you were from oop north.Old timers didn't like during bout instructions as they were frowned on as unprofessional
It never occurred to me that wrestlers would talk to each other during a bout.
When a wrestler is sat on the floor with his opponent kneeling behind him, with a head lock on him, his mouth (the seated wrestler) covered by the arms of the wrestler kneeling behind, he is free to talk and plan.
Stood up, in any sort of clinch, where one wrestler has his face buried in the chest of the other, he is free to talk.
It was usually done ANGLO when One Wrestler charged the Other into the Ropes in order to throw him across the Ring!-Watch when the Heads come close
you can see the ' Launcher's' mouth moving!! These 'Clinches' were also used
to 'Warn' the Opponent of the next intended move!
I saw it a lot at KINGS HALL BELLE VUE!
MAIN MASK