Discussion today of Aaron Stone brings to mind numerous wrestlers who were around only for a brief period of less than a year, clearly excluding international visitors and silly masked fodder.
Great things were clearly envisaged for Aaron with that Who's Who inclusion, so he must have disappointed the promoters. I mentioned the beguiling photo of Yorkie Walker, clawing his way terrifyingly off the page. But I don't see him on any of the bills we examine.
I suppose the reasons for such fleeting ring careers can be summarised in: Did he jump or was he pushed?
If they failed to fill engagements, that was surely curtains.
But for some, unsurprisingly, it probably just wasn't what they'd hoped. The bumps, the travelling, the jobbing, the necessary showmanship.
A few years later I recall Jack Armstrong, very efficient but timid and couldn't work the crowd. He disappeared, Dusty Miller, Mr Big of 1969 (brief return ten years later), Jim Fitzmaurice, one of The Shamrocks .... quite a few others.
I guess we deserve a badge of honour for seeing these fleeting fossils live.
Can anyone add to the list?
Can you add other reasons why they'd stop? Some went abroad (Robert Bruce); in rare cases others passed away after very short careers (Ezzard Hart.) Maybe there were other reasons?
One even found his way the the cover of The Wrestler, Ted someone, the name escapes me right now.
Just thinking of Adrian Street Esquire's 1971 heyday and my mind wandered to referee Billy Barber. He was late middle age and swarthy, authoritative. The name was good. I saw him a couple of times; he was, wait for it, in the Who's Who.
What's to question?
Analytically, it seems I may have seen his only two evening's work. Well, nearly.
Billy Barber was all in my mind. I spent the rest of the seventies just imagining he was refereeing elsewhere. But he wasn't.
Hillbilly Albert Hellon was very fleeting,saw him on TV then he vanished
The point is, Hack, that far from being a definitive listing of Wrestlers, the Who's Who was clearly thrown together one 1970 day, and included all then newbies to make up the numbers.
Yorkie/Yorgy comes out of this as most mysterious of all.
I would get mine out but after all these years it's floppy and frail.
What about Stedman Clarke?
Great find, The Ost. And that's his same pose, reaching out of the photo.
Now he's really starting to intrigue me.
Yorky Walker wrestled in Singapore in the late 60's as Yorgy Walker:
I've posted before (complained), about a guy who was introduced simply as RED MASK. He was, as you would think dressed all in red (so shouldn't he have been THE RED MASK.)?
He was in with Ray Steele and did absolutely nothing, apart from drag his left foot around the canvas and dive for same, every time Ray put his arm around Mask's head setting up a forearm smash. Steele looked extremely peeved (peeved off), the referee had a couple of chats with RED during the drinks breaks, but at the start of the fourth round, said a quick word to Ray, who flew out of the blocks and delivered a head butt, which kayoed RED, who was then kicked out of the ring (under the ropes) by the referee. I had never seen anything like it and believe the head butt was real and not a work and the referee was disgusted with Red's efforts also. I later talked to one of the 'seconds' that night and asked if he knew anything about RED and he replied that he had come from the audience and issued a challenge to Big Daddy (I think) at the previous months Albert Hall wrestling. I never heard of him again and several enquiries to Heritage has not been fruitful. The worst performance I've ever witnessed.
Did anyone ever see Yorkie Walker?
That photo still send shivers .....
Roy Goodall. I saw him once, against Dave Barrie, and mentioned on other Morrell bills, but no more.
I wondered if he had a connection with the Kellett family.
Yes BKendo, here's Ted Charlton, coincidentally with Jim (or Tim?) Fitzmaurice:
so Anglo was it Mr charlton
if it's Charlton I can elaborate
Only yesterday I came across a few I had never heard of.
The promoter was a local Factory worker called John Ruston.