How did some wrestlers get their wrestling names?

Philip Kenyon

I will start the ball rolling.

I have a friend who in our younger days was very keen on having high powered motor bikes. We were always discussing the various manufacturers such as:

Triumph

BSA

Norton etc.

One day we came up with name of the Italian manufacturer MV Agusta, I said “John that’s it, instead of my real name of Phil Kenyon, I took the name of Mike Agusta. Some promoters would wrongly print as Mike Augusta.

Duncan

Phillip, this has endless possibilities. How about the following: Billy British Small Arms-the Reigate Redskin. Rocky Triumph and finally Hook Norton - the Midlands flying machine. I hope this is what you intended!

Bernard Hughes

Knowing the esteem that Lofty and Chris have for the masked men, it occurs to me that most of those under a bonnet generally took names from 3 different types. First you had the Executioner, Slayer Killer type of name; generally a frightening name. , then it was "The" something..like The Ghoul. Or you had a colour and a following noun e.g. Black Angel.

Where in the western films the goodie always wore a white hat and the baddie wore the black one., look at all the Black Somethings and the White Somethings in the masked boys, the colour didn't help. Generally they all stretched the rules.

I admit there were 1 or 2 outside this sphere i.e. Kendo -- to make people think that he was Japanese.

Dr.Death could have easily have been called just "Death"

Just musing, probably doesn't add anything to Phil's original post, but Phil you should know that promoters or printers often got names wrong.

Anglo Italian

Goldbelt was working as a stevedore in Elesmere Port before he started wrestling. He saw this wealthy Frenchman regularly sail by in his luxury yacht and was mesmerised.

The yacht's name? Maxine.

My other theory about Ellesmere Port wrestlers hasn't been corroborated (in fact I've been told it's wrong, but that won't stop me, will it, Bernard?)

I just thought that Steve Viedor being from Ellesmere Port was just obviously where he got his name from - a stevedore. Doesn't aaaaanyone agree this is a fair theory?

Is there a modern day US wrestler hamming up the monocled Brit bit and wrestling as Sir or Lord Dudley, or something with Dudley? Surely this is in recognition of Alan Garfield, real name Dudley?

Nice topic Philip.

Bill Smith

I did read,in his book,that "Count" Bartelli got the Count part of his name from when he wrestled abroad and shouted to the ref to "count" for the pin fall.How he got Bartelli I dunno

Beancounter

Nice posting Anglo. In which case did the Elesmere Port middleweight Monty take his ring name from a swan paddling by? Your theory on Steve Veidor certainly rings a Bell.

Bill Smith

Great stuff beancounter.I imagine Bert used to drink down at "The Royal"

John

I think that some of the names of British wrestlers were taken from American wrestlers. I believe that there was an American wrestler called Black Jack Mulligan and his name started being used by British wrestler Larry Coulton. Giant Haystacks name came from the American wrestler Haystacks Calhoun. I am sure that other users of this site can think of a few more examples.

Bill Smith

Max Craptree's relative became Greg Valentine........Valentine was a top name American Heavyweight of around 19/20 stone. The British version was a little chap who wore white trunks .

Ed Lock

Steve Young (the son of Roy Bull Davis) took the name of Canadian wrestler Skull Murphy.The original Skull Murphy had used the name since the early 1950s. He was a star in America and Australia in the 1960s.I believe that Young began wrestling in the early 1980s and adopted the Canadian wrestler's name in that decade. The real Skull Murphy passed away in 1970.I'm sure that my good mate John Shelvey has some great memories of the primary Skull Murphy in Australia.

Mad Mac

I think we've previously touched on the strange case of Bernie Wright, who returned from Calgary as the mohawked "Bearcat" Wright, the original holder of the name having been a gentleman of colour who weighed in at about 20 stone...

Dave Sutherland

In an interwiew with "The People" some years ago Bartelli claimed that the name came from his frequent haranguing of the referee to "Count, count aa tell thee" which transformed itsself into his ring name.

Anglo Italian

We've had lots of topics over the years about wrestlers "borrowing" names from others, and one of mine was Masambula copying Max Bambula. The tragic Jim Wango seems also likely to have influenced Johnny Kwango. Haystacks, Hardboiled Haggetty, and others too seemingly influenced by 1967's Pictorial History of Wrestling. Gotch, too? Even in Dale's book there is a reference to Quasimodo which made me sit up. This Quasi was masked.

But I felt Philip was after how wrestlers dreamt up their original names.

Pallo was from his mother's side of the family, so a real name. D'Orazio I believe was his wife's name, but since there was a top fifties boxer called the same, that link is still up for debate. Jack Dempsey was another who seemed to take a leaf from the excitement of 1950s US boxing, as wrestling did across the board. Rocky Wall was no doubt influence by Marciano?

John Elijah was apparently Elisha, and Elijah was a mistake.

I'd love to know how Steve Logan got his name. (The original, of course).

The Exorcist may have been influenced by a film.

Names were rather restricting, in some cases. You couldn't really imagine Johnny Saint doing a heel turn, could you? Or the Mad Axeman being roared on by adoring fans....

Some of the best names were real: Street, Kincaid, Elrington.

And a gold star for whoever dreamt up Leon Fortuna - a name which really was in tune with the sport and caught on immediately and became synonymous with wrestling.

Years ago I had also surmised Elrington was a made up Spanglish word meaning "the ton in the ring" - but it transpires it was his real name.

Philip Kenyon

Another example can be found in the A-Z list, with Bob Bannister wrestling under the name of “Bob Retsinnab” from Hungary. If you hadn’t noticed it was just a trick of spelling his name backwards!

Anglo Italian

Reminds me then of Blackburn Roberts. His etymology seems too obvious to explain. The Stan Rylands - Bobby Ryan - Wtryton Promotions - Arthur Wright chain could do with unravelling. What about The Outlaw? And indeed all those injuns. Cowboy films were all the rage in the forties and set in the minds of sixties promoters (who hadn't noticed that youngsters were less interested in them). So The Outlaw came from the controversial Jane Russell film.

Phil Kenyon

Another name (Big Daddy) has just come up in the thread "Rise of the super heavyweights" by David Franklin, "They then changed his name to Big Daddy (a name taken from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a play by Tennessee Williams, set in the "plantation home of Big Daddy Pollitt (played by Burl Ives), a wealthy cotton tycoon)."

Ed Lock

Did Ray Steel and Steve Casey intentionally adopt the names of former World Heavyweight Champions? Or perhaps promoters bestowed the familiar names upon Steel and Casey?

British Heavyweight Champion Steel used the name (minus an "e") of legendary American wrestler Ray Steele (real name Peter Sauer). Steele (Sauer) was a superstar in the 1930s and 1940s.

Steve Casey (real name Steve Hoy) was, of course, the son of wrestler Wild Angus. Casey replicated the name of Irish wrestler Steve "Crusher" Casey, another star of the 1930s and 1940s.

Bernard Hughes

Just re-reading through this old post. I meant to answer Bill when he put his quip up about Bert drinking at the Royal.(and forgot)

I believe that Bert took his name from the royal blue mask that he wore when he first started.

JN Lister:

Here's a few more:

Tony Walsh is his middle name and his mother's maiden name. ('Banger' is from Mark Rocco claiming Midlanders are a bunch of headbangers.)

Giant Haystacks was adapted from US wrestler Haystacks Calhoun.

Mark Hussey took Rocco from his great grandfather and Rollerball from the film of the same name.

Klondyke Kate was both a play on the Klondike brother wrestlers and was also the nickname of a famous early 20th century singer in the Yukon who was the subject of a 1974 Suzi Quatro song.

Johnny Kidd's name came from Max Crabtree and he's unsure if it was taken from the Pirates singer or was inspired by George Kidd.

Sweet Saraya misheard the name of the band Slayer in a rock club!

Steve Green was renamed Grey to avoid confusion with Roger Green, though for a brief period he started as Stanley Grey to avoid confusion with other Steves.

Malcolm Clifton dropped his surname and used his middle name to become Mal Stuart, but ring announcers kept calling him Mel Stuart by mistake and it stuck.

Darren Matthews took Steve Regal from a US wrestler. He was briefly Roy Regal for Dale Martin and later William Regal for WWE, in both cases under the "too many

Steves" rule.

On a related note, Mel Stuart told me he'd sign so many autographs with his ring name that he'd find himself accidentally signing legal documents like his mortgage application as Stuart rather than Clifton. He also remembered that he got so used to his dual identity that he didn't think of it as unusual until his young daughter asked why she had a different surname to him!

Eddie Rose

Harry Green of Crewe became Jack Lang.

Jim Hart of Manchester became Terry Downs ; there were already professional wrestlers with those names.

Jack Atherton billed me as WAT TYLER without consulting me for about 2 years: it was a history name he liked, but he paid well.

He also billed me at different time as Eric Muiller of West Berlin ("Keep your mouth shut in the ring!) and The Mask. Le Masque, Le Diable Rouge (later Les Diables Rouges in tandem with Pete Lindberg and then Ian Wilson). No wonder some wrestlers had split personalities!

Don't forget Kennet Earsla alias the Kangeroo Kid from New Mills in Derbyshire! We could go on all night......

Graham Brook

I used to get my posters from a printing firm called Bailey's who worked out of a little village called Somercotes. They rarely made spelling errors and would usually print a run of around fifty posters for a show. i remember one of their girls on reception once telling me an amusing story of when they had to throw away a whole print run of posters for Wryton due to a spelling error to which they felt they just couldn't turn a blind eye. This involved Count Bartelli.

Incidentally, I do have a poster from a Wryton show at their Bolton stadium printed by Bailey's which boasts the billtopper of Hans Streiger versus Billy Two Rives.

mikey370

Reading from an earlier post in this thread, it was mentioned that Steve Young took the name of Skull Murphy. I used to go out with a girl who had in turn courted the said Steve Young but she told me his real name was Peter Northey (not sure how surname is spelt). Also i was often curious how the Royal Brothers were Bert Royal and Vic Faulkner and wasnt there dad called Vic Hessell - please correct me if i am wrong regards their fathers name but i think thats what they used to say he was called.

David Mantell

Yes, that's the correct spelling. His dad Roy Bull Davies was Charles Northey to the taxman. Murphy became Skull after losing a hair vs hair match, but his new character, like (Giant) Haystacks (Calhoun), was a Brian Dixon W(W)WF tribute - in this case to the original Joseph "Skull" Murphy of Capitol Wrestling/WWWF in the 1960s. I believe the UK version of Skull played the ghost of the American original in a stage play about a decade ago.

SaxonWolf

Didn't Rocco once claim he was a stuntman in the film, Rollerball, and that is why he picked up the name?