"Foreign bodies"

Trust Anglo Italian to reply with perfectly sensible and reasoned comment. Anglo is quite right,

but whilst most wrestlers could take a crowd "up" and bring them "down" some have a reputation for exciting the crowd and then leaving others to deal with the consequences.

Very pure, Hack. That is the theory.

But the wrestlers got hyped up, too. Angry with opponents who didn't work as they wanted; angry with crowd members who went to far - and there were many.

Beyond this, there was an element of method acting, in that they became their character. What's more, wrestlers had to manage the "script" on the spot and make decisions. They couldn't be seen squirming in front of audience members. They wanted to react to unplanned situations in a realistic way. It's clear that, in the heat of the night, sometimes they will have gauged things wrongly. And then only with the luxury of hindsight.

Professional wrestlers created situations where fans became very emotive. As professionals they had a responsibility to ensure those emotions did not endanger either members of the public or the wrestlers themselves.

Lots of talk....no actual action. The loudmouths all tried to have a go at Adrian....until he got out of the ring. Suddenly no-one there.

There’s several (at least) on YouTube, from the States which look very legit, as the workers take no time in literally kicking them out of the ring (they do way more harm to the interloper than they do to their opponents). Live, in England, Australia and Japan I’m struggling to recall just one incident. Best I can do : Repeating a long ago told story, In 1964, a guy later known as the ‘Skull’ rushed from the back of the Sydney Stadium and slammed a chair over Killer Kowalski’s head as the Killer was making his way to the dressing sheds.Pretty unfazed, Walter grabbed the chair and whacked Skull with it. Decision, a draw! The Skull was supposedly banned for life, but returned within the year.

Sometime later, the Skull became more widely known, as the number two, in the local Nazi party (I would imagine their numbers wouldn’t have made up a football team). He later tried to become a wrestler, under the auspices of one Roy Heffernan, but Roy quickly realised due in part, to the Skull’s very poor eyesight, he would be a danger to his fellow workers and gave him a job as crew man for Roy’s small wrestling promotion.

I last saw the Skull at a couple of shows, probably over a decade ago, still noisy, but much more laid back!

@Norfolk Snake. Cracking story. Thanks for posting.

At King's Lynn Corn Exchange in late 80s/early 90s, a punter jumped into the ring and smashed Psycho Shane Stevens in the face, before leaping out and dashing out of the back door. Psycho was left with a genuinely black swollen eye and cheek. Definitely a real unscripted moment.

Another similar event that I have mentioned before came at the same venue. 4 man KO tournament - Fit Finlay, Rocco, Danny Collins and Steve Regal. Rocco beats Collins in one of their usual hard hitting high flying matches. Finlay takes on Regal and is giving him a hammering when a big and renowned King's Lynn hard nut enters the ring. At that moment Finlay has Regal in a head lock so is unaware of the new addition to the ring. He side swipes Finlay in the face with a helluva punch. Finlay looks shaken momentarily and lets go of a bemused looking Regal, and rocks back into the ropes before unleashing a fearsome one-two punch combination and leaving the big fella swaying and then falling out through the ropes. Finlay looks unphased and beckons him to come back but the big chap looking battered and shaken shouts he will be back 'with others' before leaving through the side door. The bout continues, Finlay wins and then its time for the match everyone wants to see Finlay v Rocco. I'm pretty sure Finlay took the decision after another brutal match up. We all wanted to see it, but I don't know, it lacked something. Two villains, no poor brutalised blue eye to cheer on. Both had been so hated it obviously left all the punters unsure of who to will on. Rocco was definitely the less hated of the two on this occasion and for once became the unlikely hero of the day. I don't think I ever saw Finlay in that role, he was always the bad guy, a role he excelled in like no other. Great memories from a time when every punter in that packed hall believed every hold, punch, kick and throw were for real...and for one unfortunate chap from King's Lynn on that night they were every bit the real thing !

Last year we talked about Ali ring jumping Gorilla Monsoon. I think that as a "work" it was much more popular in the States than here. Usualy with someone famous. Why? I do believe that The Donald had a go. A real (probably drunk) member of the public sounds pretty scarry for all concerned.

I don't recall seeing anything like that, Stooges or otherwise. Lots of fans banging on the ring apron but never getting in.