That Belle Vue bill of Ron's is fascinating. Not only are the Dennisons and Hells Angels and Royals there, but also the Black Diamonds and The Saints. And orphan Eric Cutler to boot!
Five of the countries top seven tag teams of the time on the same bill. Some going.
Hack's view is interesting as I remember in the early 1960's a clash at the Hammersmith Commodore between McManus and Logan against the Riot Squad -
Pasquale Salvo and Peter Rann. The crowd soon decided that Salvo and Forum "favourite" Rann were the heels and enthusiastically cheered on McManus and Logan to victory. In West London there was hostility to Peter Rann because of his association to slum landlord Peter Rachman where he operated as a leading henchman and allegedly was responsible for intimidation and evictions.
The Riot Squad were a formidable combination as Pasquale Salvo was also a very tough individual who probably could have dispensed with McManus or Logan.Not that would have been allowed to happen of course.
Dale Martin rather underused Salvo and Rann but this may of course be attributed to their outside activities- Salvo went on to own a petrol station and gradually faded out of wrestling in the mid 1960's. I only saw the Riot Squad on a few occasions but they always attracted a capacity audience which proved lucrative to their promoter.
They could start an objection even before the fight , such as refusing to wrestle against Dennison's armbands or Black Diamonds hoods etc , anything to get it off to a bumpy start. The old one of not shaking hands.
Those four 1968 bills I put on with Dennisons and Hells Angels went like this.
First match a draw , return match Double Disqualification , then Dennisons get Disqualified next time and finally Dennisons get their revenge with a win over Hells Angels. I bet that was something like with the ref distracted etc.
You could write a similar script.
Dangermen v Black Diamonds was another well balanced one.
My recollection of heel v heel, be it tag or singles, is that the crowd collectively decided the biggest heels at the start. If that's so, did the wrestlers anticipate the crowds response before the match or did they adapt to the situation?
Giant Haystacks got to a point where he was "no more Mr Nice Guy" and took on other villains such as Skull Murphy, Crusher Brannigan and Rasputin. These matches are on YouTube as is the legendary bout between Wild Angus and Mal "King Kong" Kirk.
A good question and for me maybe the best of tag matches. Good also for building into a grudge with return bouts.
How did it work in reality. Was it as simple as this, The first team to foul drew the heat and got the boos. Even refusing a hand shake might draw the heat. I guess it could be anything you want it to be , it just had to be worked out before hand , but as I say , I Enjoyed these affairs.
A quartet here in 1968 all at one venue and Top of the Bill , a nice little earner for the promoters I suspect with pretty good crowds in those days.
Also of note did Ted Heath travel with Dennison and Cooper on three out of the four here.
That Belle Vue bill of Ron's is fascinating. Not only are the Dennisons and Hells Angels and Royals there, but also the Black Diamonds and The Saints. And orphan Eric Cutler to boot!
Five of the countries top seven tag teams of the time on the same bill. Some going.
Hack's view is interesting as I remember in the early 1960's a clash at the Hammersmith Commodore between McManus and Logan against the Riot Squad -
Pasquale Salvo and Peter Rann. The crowd soon decided that Salvo and Forum "favourite" Rann were the heels and enthusiastically cheered on McManus and Logan to victory. In West London there was hostility to Peter Rann because of his association to slum landlord Peter Rachman where he operated as a leading henchman and allegedly was responsible for intimidation and evictions.
The Riot Squad were a formidable combination as Pasquale Salvo was also a very tough individual who probably could have dispensed with McManus or Logan.Not that would have been allowed to happen of course.
Dale Martin rather underused Salvo and Rann but this may of course be attributed to their outside activities- Salvo went on to own a petrol station and gradually faded out of wrestling in the mid 1960's. I only saw the Riot Squad on a few occasions but they always attracted a capacity audience which proved lucrative to their promoter.
They could start an objection even before the fight , such as refusing to wrestle against Dennison's armbands or Black Diamonds hoods etc , anything to get it off to a bumpy start. The old one of not shaking hands.
Those four 1968 bills I put on with Dennisons and Hells Angels went like this.
First match a draw , return match Double Disqualification , then Dennisons get Disqualified next time and finally Dennisons get their revenge with a win over Hells Angels. I bet that was something like with the ref distracted etc.
You could write a similar script.
Dangermen v Black Diamonds was another well balanced one.
My recollection of heel v heel, be it tag or singles, is that the crowd collectively decided the biggest heels at the start. If that's so, did the wrestlers anticipate the crowds response before the match or did they adapt to the situation?
Apologies for the last post; you were after tag matches. There is the Kendo & George Vs McManus & Logan match.
Giant Haystacks got to a point where he was "no more Mr Nice Guy" and took on other villains such as Skull Murphy, Crusher Brannigan and Rasputin. These matches are on YouTube as is the legendary bout between Wild Angus and Mal "King Kong" Kirk.
There is a great clip of the Hells Angells versus Dennison/Cooper on You Tube.An often repeated match
Yes, they definitely faced each other (in 1973, to say the least)
Didn't we have a bill with the Hell's Angels v McManus/Logan here fairly recently?
A good question and for me maybe the best of tag matches. Good also for building into a grudge with return bouts.
How did it work in reality. Was it as simple as this, The first team to foul drew the heat and got the boos. Even refusing a hand shake might draw the heat. I guess it could be anything you want it to be , it just had to be worked out before hand , but as I say , I Enjoyed these affairs.
A quartet here in 1968 all at one venue and Top of the Bill , a nice little earner for the promoters I suspect with pretty good crowds in those days.
Also of note did Ted Heath travel with Dennison and Cooper on three out of the four here.