Steve Rickard was New Zealand's Premier Wrestling promoter. He was well known as a Great Promoter who not only cared for his Promotions but was also a former top Pro Wrestler. Who else was a great Wrestler and then went on to be just as successful as a Promoter?
One example in the UK was Sir Atholl Oakeley.
Thank You so much for all these replies. I would have thought there was only two or three Great UK Promoters with Sir Atholl top of the list. Well certainly after reading Blue Blood on the Mat, I got the Impression that Sir Atholl was the only UK Wrestling Promoter.
For me it has to be Norman Morrell
None of us have dared mention Max Crabtree.
Then there was Bill Benny, Jim Lewis, Ted Beresford .....
In New Zealand you also had Walter Miller, John Da Silva and Ernie Pinches
Jack Atherton ,wrestling in the 1940's,is the one that most wrestlers found to treat them well.
McManus & Pallo.
Barry Douglas.
Kendo Nagasaki.
George Kidd.
Ken Joyce.
I would say one of the greatest would be Billy Riley.
Other wrestlers speak well of Jack Cassidy wages.
Well there are quite a few I would put above Oakeley, who had a short wrestling career and not a very long career as a promoter, though admittedly influential.
In the 1930s George DeRelwyskow Senior was a major player in the North and probably more important than anyone taking the business into 1930s Scotland.
His son George Junior was for thirty years one of the most successful promoters in Britain.
Norman Morrell, Olympian and professional, went on to become the most influential promoter in Britain.
Jack Dale, top 1930s/40s wrestler and founder of the biggest and arguably most professional post war promotional business.
Paul Lincoln, of course, as mentioned by James.
Frank Price yes, but then we must include Danny Flynn, Fred Woolley and Jack Taylor who were all top wrestlers in their day.
Bobby Barron, Dominic Pye, Don Robinson, Jack Jefferson were other wrestler.promoters.
Frank Price, a member of The British Wrestling Federation, put on wrestling, under the Premier Promotions banner at Ilford Baths. He also wrestled as the BWF Southern Area light heavyweight champion.Frank also trained young wrestlers.
I was a small time promoter who went on to have three ludicrous attempts at being a wrestler and made a total fool of myself (in tag with Eddie Rose against The Masked Outlaw and Charley the Gent at The Civic Hall, Bollington; against Scrapper Carson at the Dixon Arms in Chelford; and against Doctor Death at Cranage Hall Hospital).
Steve Logan of Birmingham went on to promote both Professional Wrestling and Professional Thai Boxing
Paul Lincoln without any doubt.