DID CRABTREE GIVE EVERY WRESTLER A BELT??

By 1978 Johnny Kwango was not even headbutting his hand convincingly

He may well have gave everyone a turn with the belt. I saw Rex 'Bronco' Lane as he was announced in the early 1990s come to the ring in Newcastle with a belt. This was about a year or so before Davey Boy Smith wrestled for Max

He won a KO trophy as recently as 1978.

Important to consider different contexts.

Around 1971, Dale Martin would send off groups of non-bill-toppers to countries where WoS wrestling was shown.

I clearly recall countries such as Kuwait and Sweden. And some African states.

Wrestlers involved included the likes of Kincaid, Rudge, Stuart, Czeslaw and Kwango. I seem to recall young Rocco getting a gig, too.

It wouldn't take much to imagine that DM would have racially engineered the result to ensure that a wrestler billed from Lagos would win a tournament in Africa.

I even find myself defending Crabtree here: he makes no claims, it's just a photo.

Of Course- I Realise That This wasn't a BRITISH Belt!-But My Main Point is That

whenever in KWANGO's Career-In My View- He Wasn't a Good Enough Wrestler

to Have Won a Title Belt or a Tournament Trophy ANYWHERE!

He wouldn't have been 'Credible' at This Lofty Level!!??

So WHY is he Pictured wearing This Belt at all??- Especially in a 1981 Wrestling

Programme??

MAIN MASK

If you look at the belt you can make out the words "Catch" and "World Cup". It could have even been a European promotion tour to Africa, or the Middle East.

never seen this belt...but yeah belts did circulate around, you can see Big Daddy's British championship belt around Andy Robin waist and being called a Commonwealth championship I believe. lol

The Ost, yeah, resembles this or maybe not, I dont know honestly.

It's a poor quality photo but no evidence this is a younger Kwango. Certainly doesn't look like a 1960s Kwango to me. It's true that programme photos did defy the laws of time but this style of photo on a programme cover is of the 1970s Crabtree time frame. It's not just that you're barking up the wrong tree Anglo I fear you're in next door's garden.

You both dismiss the visual evidence too quickly.

Joint Promotions had a long history of publishing very outdated photos in programmes. Bert Royal still had hair according to many seventies images.

This photo is clearly not of tired and aged and lined 1981 Kwango the referee. This is a photo of a man in his prime, possibly 20+ years previously.

There was so much wrestling in the early sixties with many venues holding tournaments (not the six-man ones that torment Hack, but meaningful ones with cups and belts and bouquets).

It is perfectly possible that Kwango won a belt somewhere in the provinces. We also know he wrestled in France and Germany, presumably against men of his size, even though we always seem to report heavyweight tournaments only.

Not knowing is not sufficient reason to exclude any possibility Kwango had won that belt..

The notion of Kwango as a champion is certainly novel.

To be fair to Max he wasn't the first to get a belt out the back of his car, wrap it round a waist and take it back home. We've seen other examples, and not just from the opposition. To the traditional Fans (i.e the old ones) by the time Max came along the wrestling landscape he had created was such that only the most gullible believed any of it.

So yes, as far as Crabtree was concerned Kwango was one of numerous champions, a champion of utter tosh.

That is a belt from German/Austrian tournament. Not a British belt.