Was this our Russell?
All fans over 60 and many younger (he was publicising All Star until not long ago) know Russell Plummer and remember him as a great wrestling commentator and historian.
Well, rummaging through the papers I came across a preview in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph of the White Angel-Dr Death 1962 clash at Tooting.
The author said the match had created the greatest interest since Assirati and The Angel. A splendid build up. But then he said that many people believed Dr Death was Paul Lincoln, who may have been looking for a way out to concentrate on his other entertainment interests.
If that wasn't bad enough he went on to say if the White Angel was the well-known English judoka as he believed, who would care?
Bloomin' 'eck, the author has just about unmasked them both before they even got in the ring.
The author was R.A.P. The place was Peterborough.
It all points to our Russell. Come on Russell, time for another revelation.
Russell provided the Wrestle Talk phone line which in the days before the internet was invaluable for finding the dates.times and venues for events
Answering Ost , I saw a few fake Dr Deaths and none were proper heavies , nor were they much good.
Did not see Ted Beech either , and get the impression that he played the part well and may also have claimed to be the original. As far as I know , I don't think Ted Beech was a full heavy. Correct me if wrong.
Yes Anglo , particularly for the south , Lincoln whipped up a storm , even came to the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and promoted for a while. Old Heritage enthusiast Chris Newman certainly was impressed with the Good Doctor. Non of us saw Green Asp van Wurden who was reputed to have been a "Great" and I have to say , it looks like Naggers , Bartelli , Ghoul and Lincoln should be the top four. We were so close for many years to not getting the face of Bomber Bates , long run , never unmasked and then copied.
For me Zebra kid makes up five .
Nice that we can still debate all this with some enthusiasm after all these years.
Interesting point about longevity, Ron.
But leaving Nagasaki and Ct Bartelli and The Ghoul aside, how do all the others stack up? Big names such as The Outlaw and Kung Fu only lasted about three years. The Exorcist and Black Mask even less.
Doctor Death and Zebra Kid are there at about 6 years. However, in terms of the full extent of the career, Doctor Death weighs in at about 14 years, to equate to his stones.
If we have overrated Doctor Death, we have even more grossly overrated many others on the Heritage coundown and only the first three named above really count.
I do agree that longevity comes into it. "Career masked men," as we called them. But other ingredients also influence their standing, such as in ring performance and frequency or, for Dr Death, neverness of being unmasked.
I would say Dr Death would have to be one of the smallest billed heavyweights of the era. But if the fans bought him as such then that is a credit to his ability. Were the other Dr Deaths the same size as Lincoln?
And when you think about it, Dr Death(Lincoln) was quite a small Window compared to other masked men.
Maybe we have over rated him in the fans version of history. He even came out top years ago on this site.
I hold my hands up , he was nostalgia for some. I never saw the real one.
Great find, Hack.
Very very naughty.