Introduce Yourself

The Riot Squad

Many of us on this forum have been chatting away for years, more than ten years in some cases. We wondered if that might be a bit intimidating for some newcomers?

So we are hoping this topic will be one that any newcomer can confidently tell us a bit about themselves, and find out how easy and enjoyable it is to take part.

Not that we should leave it to the newcomers.

Even if there's a risk of repeating ourselves, and let's face it many of us are of an age when we are forever repeating ourselves, please let's have everyone have a go, and introduce yourself irrespective of how long you've been around.

Hack

I was born in Leyland, Lancashire, in 1954. My interest in wrestling began to develop when I was about nine. My dad, who of course always told me it was fixed, talked about going to the wrestling at Belle Vue in the 1950s. He was a bus/coach driver and was regular driver of a coach night out from Leyland to Manchester to watch the wrestling. After not too much nagging he agreed to take me to the wrestling when I was ten years old. The excitement is still with me. When the house lights went down and the ring light came on I was surprised, I hadn't expected wrestling in a dark hall. That first show was an independent promoter, Cape Promotions, with Mike Marino, Crusher Verdu, The Wildman of Borneo and Lord Bertie Topham on the bill. I was hooked. Cape and later Brian Dixon put on independent shows at Preston Public Hall with Morrell/Beresford at the baths down the road. Although the big names were on the Morrell shows my heart was always with the independents.

When I was fifteen I started writing, and was one of the writers for the northern Promoters (Morrell, Beresford, Relwyskow & Green) programmes, Ringsport, The Wrestler and Ring Wrestling in America.

By the mid 1970s life was moving on, wrestling was beginning to change and my interest evaporated. That was it. I gave away all my magazines, books, and posters, leaving myself with just the memories. That was until the internet came along. I was amazed to discover others, like myself, with memories of the old days, but they were talking about them on these things called forums. For months I read the messages on the One Stop Wrestling forum. I didn't make any comments myself, I didn't think I had anything worth saying (so I do know what it's like for newcomers). Eventually I posted a comment about Jack Dempsey, then Jackie Pallo, and then Jack Pye. I got a private message from someone calling himself Anglo Italian asking if I had a thing about men called Jack?

Some time later, 2005 or 2006 Anglo Italian was working in Britain and we met up in Wolverhampton. After a curry and a few drinks the seeds were sown for our own website. I'm sure Anglo Italian said there would be money in it. Idiot! All it has done is cost us money, but given us loads of fun. In April, 2007 Wrestling Heritage was born.

The greatest pleasure of getting involved in wrestling again has been making new friends, and Anglo Italian is a genuine good friend. My wife and I have visited him and his family in Italy twice and he has visited us every year since 2007. I've met a few other members at the Reunion, and liked every one of them. Meeting John Shelvey (who had come over from Australia) and Philip Kenyon (who had come from Switzerland) were unexpected delights. There are also members who I haven't met that I would consider friends.

Can anyone lend me a fiver?

Anglo Italian

As a youngster in the sixties I was fascinated by The Outlaw. With my wife in hospital in June 2004 and time on my hands, I googled around to try to find out who was behind the mask. This was my first rekindling of interest in British wrestling since 1978.That googling led me to other places including Kendo Nagasaki's site where I signed the guestbook to say that though Nagasaki was a big favourite, my all-time favourite had been Alan Garfield, whose picture I post here as a tribute.One of the positive aspects of those initial years was meeting a number of true wrestling fans over the net, many of whom proved to be real gents. One particularly generous contributor was Hack. After further forum frustrations, Hack and I decided to form our own permanent site with our hard work at nobody else's mercy, and the rest is history.

I enjoy my Anglo Italian identity enormously, and love it when people get on friendly terms and call me Anglo. If I had to select two things which identify Anglo Italian's contributions, I would select the following. I always try to write what I enjoyed about wrestlers' work and I hope that these remarks spark interest in others to the point where they, too, share their memories publicly. Too many forum posts just write about facts or even results, when it was the entertainment that was important. I'd like to see more comments about how well or hard or risk-takingly wrestlers worked.

Secondly, I think I am one of the very few with an interest in Fans and I actually started another forum Topic in 2005 entitled Tracing Fanpower. It wasn't especially successful but for me it was just as important as the others. I was a Fan all those years and enjoyed that status and I have no desire to be jumping ship now to become an insider. As a fan, I don't have to pretend I know all the ins and outs, I can just pursue my Sherlock Holmes research and occasionally make fascinating discoveries, usually due to someone else's help.

Now that our Wrestling Heritage site is so established, new challenges and frustrations have come along. Plagiarism is the biggest one, along with the fact that of the contacts we receive, 99% are asking for info rather than contributing. I keep smiling and happy, this is a hobby after all. I own my own cherished memories, and personally compiled autograph collection which is safe in my hands (even though someone has uploaded some of it to Youtube without permission!), and I have the great satisfaction of owning a sprawling and successful site and enjoying every second of working on it with a skilled and generous partner in Hack.

SaxonWolf

I was born in Sheffield in 1962. One of my earliest memories (pre school) was me and my mate Glyn pretending to be the Royal Brothers, and pretending the rug in front of his living room fire was a wrestling ring.

In the early years of my life, I only saw Wrestling once a year, on holiday in British seaside towns. Went to more shows as I got older.

Like most of us, I was hooked on World of Sport. I spent most Saturdays at my grand parents, both avid wrestling fans, especially my Grandma, who would shout things like "stop him referee!" at the screen. Everything would be ready by 3.55pm, sandwiches, biscuits, a pot of tea (tea leaves, not bags, of course), all in place for 4pm Wrestling.

As I hit my teenage years, wrestling became a guilty pleasure, all my mates had grown out of it, no one dashed home for 4pm on a Saturday anymore, except me.

A friend of mine went to work overseas, first on a Kibbutz for 6 months in Israel and then on to Australia for 18 months. He wrote letters to me (pre internet/email of course) saying that US Wrestling was huge overseas (World Class in Israel and WWF in Australia) and that the wrestlers were huge body building types. As I was weght lifting at the time, I was intrigued, so went in to a shop and bought a US Wrestling magazine. Imagine my surprise to see a picture of Adrian Street in it, I wondered where he had gone! and Chris Adams as well.

More shock when WWF shows started appearing on UK TV, and Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith appeared, totally transformed from skinny light weights to huge muscular powerhouses.

I can't remember how I stumbled onto the old "one stop wrestling" web site, but so glad I did. That s where I first met most of the people on here.

These days, I am more nostagic than ever, a sign of growing old guess.

I still try to get on here and post when I can, despite a busy work and home life.

Keep up the good work Hack and Anglo!

Oh, and as an explanation, "SaxonWolf", originates because as a lad, I was hooked on the Beowulf story, a heroic warrior, who faces danger with no thought to personal safety.

Ann

I am Ann Richardson I became interested in wrestling in early 60s and I took over the running of four star fan club if any of the members or wrestlers that I supported are on here it would be lovely to hear from you

powerlock

I was born in 1957 in Newcastle and remember sitting down at early age (about 5or 6) with my dad and grandad regularly on a Saturday afternoon to watch the wrestling till one afternoon after tea dad and Grandad told me to put my coat on, and off we went to get the train to Newcastle I still didn't know where I was going till we got to St James Hall, the atmosphere, the brightly lit ring, and the colour, before that visit wrestling was in various shades of grey on a flickering screen, but now it was so much more exciting, so more real, I was hooked and looked forward to my visits to St James every few weeks or so till eventually it closed and wrestling decamped to Newcastle City Hall. The City Hall didn't have the same atmosphere but held around 2500 and could still build up a pretty good atmosphere, I went fairly regularly till I was about 13 or 14 when paper rounds, music and girls started to take priority along with Newcastle United (although that obsession started when I went to my first match at 5 years old) so I would catch the wrestling periodically on TV and by the time I left school I had lost interest in watching the increasingly stale fodder that was dominating wrestling on tv. By the time I was 18 I was working in different parts of the country doing relief at various hotels in the chain I worked for, occasionally I would go along to an independent show where I was working with workmates. I started to get back into wrestling when I was 23 when I was in Florida for over a month and attended a couple of shows on nights when we weren't up to much and was surprised to see a couple of Brits on the bill including Geoff Portz. I was working in the music business by then and usually watched wrestling on tv depending where I was. When I finally came home to Newcastle in 1983 wrestling shows were not very regular. The odd Independent shows, Joint Enterprise shows and I think All Star had started to make inroads into the North East and I saw shows in a few places around the North East. I eventually got married and both my sons went the same route as me but also including the big American shows, WWE and WCW, as the national scene more or less died out we started looking for more local shows, some were very good some not so. I also brought wrestling to the local community via my role as community coordinator at festivals on a couple of occasions and had both Pac(Neville - the current WWE champion) and Sheamus on the shows on differing occasions before they went onto bigger things. I also produced posters and publicity material for a couple of wrestling promotions locally and helped with insurance as I have experience at event management. Nowadays I still occasionally go to shows, be it in a Social Club or Sports Arena and probably see about 6-8 shows a year in the flesh, the rest I watch on tv., online and trawling through bouts from the past on youtube. Wrestling has changed so much not always for the better and no doubt will continue to change, will I continue to watch. I would like to think so, we will wait and see.

Dave Sutherland

I was born in South Shields, Co Durham in 1948 and I became interested in wrestling around 1960 via Saturday afternoon television. Over the next couple of years I tried to build up a store of knowledge regarding the UK wrestling scene from magazines, posters etc. until I started work in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1963 and began attending St James’ Hall on a Saturday night (after the afternoon at St James’ Park) which became a weekly event over the next couple of years. Having become a regular at the Hall and my friend with whom I used to attend the shows, Alan Patchett, securing a job selling ice cream, peanuts and orange drinks on a Saturday, I too was asked whether I would like to sell their wares and therefore get paid to watch the wrestling!

I had the pleasure of watching just about all of the big names on the Joint Promotions circuit during my days as a punter and as a Hall employee I got to see many more at close quarters. While I saw some great bouts from my vantage point with my confectionary tray or from the hot dog stand to which I later graduated and managed to fill two autograph books after a couple more years I found my interest waning and the lure of music was pulling me in another direction.

Patchett was feeling the same way so in mid 1966 we gave in our notice in order to make our fortune in the specialist (folk, blues) music world; within two years St James’ Hall had closed down although I stress our actions had no bearing on that outcome. In order to make a small fortune in specialist music you need to set out with a large fortune and considerably more talent than we possessed; even so I have actively maintained my interest in the music for over fifty years and have written columns for The Sunday Sun and, currently, Nottingham Post.

Moving to Nottingham for work in 1978 I still maintained my interest in wresting via TV but at a very early age my son became fascinated by American Wrestling (WWE etc.) so I was to take him to a few events locally but none were a patch on the bouts that I enjoyed back in the sixties and seventies.

Somewhere around 2008 while searching the Internet for my favourite wrestlers from that era, Francis Sullivan, Billy Howes, Dennis Mitchell, Geoff Portz and more, I discovered Wrestling Heritage. Where there are forums like “name your favourite 10 wrestlers” I couldn’t keep my nose out and found that my contributions were welcomed. This in time led to suggestions that I submit some reminiscences which became “Ice Cream, Hot Dogs, Leg Locks and Toe Holds”; rather self – indulgent but some readers were very kind about it.

Still living in Nottingham and the possessor of a Nottingham Forest season ticket I watch the modern day version of the wresting on TV or DVD on spasmodic occasions but I cannot drum up the same enthusiasm.

Finally I have to say that a fortnight ago Patchett and I got together for the first time in five years, down in London as South Shields had made it to Wembley in the Final of the FA Vase (a worthy 4-0 victory too) and over a few (many) drinks we caught up on the old days – St James’ Hall for sure!

david franklin

I am David Franklin, and have been known in wrestling circles for a long time as "Old David". A name I acquired on the 1Stop site to highlight that I was older than Young David, who was later better known as the British Bulldog Davy Boy Smith. Yes, I am that old!

I am a retired Production Control Manager who worked in Book Printing Factories in Chippenham and Bath. I now do as little as possible and enjoy being as big a burden on society as I can ----- my turn now!

I live in Bath with my second wife Michaela (Micky) who is quite a few years my junior. We have one grown up son Alex, and I also have two (grown up) children Emma and James from a previous marriage.

I've been a wrestling fan since the 1950's when I first watchrd it on TV. In the 1960's my dad took me to local shows in Bath and Bristol and I was hooked. I was an almost fanatical for for many years thereafter, visiting halls in my local area -- Bath, Bristol, Westbury, Weston-Super-Mare, Swindon, Yate, Trowbridge, Melksham, etc.

I had quite a few wrestling "pen friends" and we kept one another up to date and swopped programmes and results, and I joined quite a few of the many fan clubs that were around at the time.

I started to lose interest slightly in the mid-1970's when the quality of the bills dropped considerably, and "interesting" foreign visitors seemed to dry up. Suddenly all the bills were starting to contain all the same old (boring) faces. Life, marriage, and children, I'm sure added to my waning wrestling interest as well. This was the era when Mike Marino & Mick McManus were "in control" at Dale Martin Promotions, and I was certainly very pleased when Max Crabtree took over and injected some "northern life" into our local shows. Independent shows (Dixon, Orig, Cyril Knowles & Jimmy Hagan) were also offering some interesting events as well.

This lasted for a while until the "Big Daddy Circus" killed off my interest in attending live shows, and around that time they also stopped running shows (regularly) at Bath and Bristol.

I then "retired" from supporting wrestling and I had no interest in it for well over 10 years.

The Internet and "OneStop" got me back in touch with old wrestling fans, and an Internet friend persuaded me to attend a local show once again. It worked and I have been back visiting "live shows" for well over a decade now.

Besides wrestling (At least twice a month) I am Dungeon Master of two different groups of elderly gents who meet to play "Dungeons & Dragons" and who all flatly refuse to grow old gracefully! We have been "playing" together for over 30 years. In any other spare time I have I enjoy walking in the countryside with friends and regularly run local quizzes.

Wrestling has changed over the years, as everything does, but the quality is often very high. I'm enjoying my wrestling so much more now than I did when those Big Daddy shows (that some of you guys remember so fondly) "embarrassed me away". ;)

frank

My name is Frank Leonard and I followed wrestling from around 1977 when my father would take me to Fairfield halls in Croydon every second Tuesday. I saw most of the greats that were around at that time and loved every minute of it. But sadly I lost interest when the whole thing became The Big Daddy show and Legends like Mark Rocco were being used as Daddy fodder. Used to meet a lot of the wrestlers in the cafe area before the show and all apart from one who shall remain nameless were absolute gentlemen to this wide eyed 13 year old with an autograph book in his hand. Great dayz indeed!

yorkie

I am Alan Bedworth I was born in 1956, I live in Knottingley West Yorkshire. My first memories of wtching live shows was at Pontefract Town Hall with both my parents, one bout I can just remember seeing was The Royal Bros v Adrian Street and Bobby Barnes, they had the Hall bouncing with their antics, then when we were on holiday at Bridlington we would always go watch the wrestling, I saw many of the top stars there. Then after I got married and had a son, as he got to about 5 years old, we started taking him to Bridlington when we were on holiday. After that we occassionally went to Pontefract, which were an independant promoter. I haven't seen any live wrestling for about 15 years, although I do see adverts locally for shows, I find it hard getting about now, plus I'm undecided as to what type of show it will be.

Philip Kenyon

I was born as Philip (Phil) Kenyon in Accrington Lancashire in 1943. I started to be interested in wrestling due to certain circumstances: At the age of 16, I was interested in weight lifting. I used to travel to nearby Blackburn to the YMCA Gym twice weekly. This was time consuming and (in those days) expensive. In 1962 I discovered that there was a gym in Accrington run by Robert (Bob) Bannister (wrestling name Retsinnab), where apart from weight lifting, wrestling was being taught. It wasn't long before I got interested in wrestling. I learned all that I needed to know about it from Bob Bannister, and a few other guys in the same gym, such as: Andreas Swajics (worked in the same factory as myself), Ian St. John, Don Plummer, Norman Kenworthy, Ray Steel (of Rishton) and others whose names elude me. My professional wrestling career (amateur from 1960) began in 1962 and ended (sadly) in 1967. I must say it was really hard in those days as I was learning all this during my engineering apprenticeship, which also included night school! My first fight as a professional (heavy weight with 110kg) under the name of Mike Agusta was at the Padium town hall (not far from Accrington). I was billed against "Bob MacNab", who to say the least was a real mean guy. This bout ended in a disqualification of MacNab. Some memorable moments that I encountered were the following: Meeting and training (getting tips and hints) from Joe Reid in his gym in Leigh nr. Manchester. Also training with his Son Marcus (the Great Marcus) at the same gym. A future fight occurred in Morecambe in 1964 where we put on a great fight. The same applies to Bob Sherry who visited our gym on some occasions. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at the armature world championships held in (1963 or 1964?) in Belle Vue Manchester. He was very active in the British amateur side of wrestling! My biggest billing was at the "Floral HallÂ? in Morecombe, where I was billed along side of: Domonic Pye vs. Cowboy Cassidy The bill (if I can remember) was titled "Great Britain Vs Rest of the World".In 1967 due to my engineering background, I was offered a job in Switzerland, where I've been ever since. Must admit it was pure chance that I got to know this website. I received a CD from my Brother about the Mick MacManus / Jackie Pallo era, which included the name of Â?wrestling heritageÂ?. Sorry that I donÂ?t have any photos of me as a wrestler, but I do remember that one time I was billed against Don Plummer in an outdoor contest somewhere in Yorkshire (maybe Settle) at a Miners Fete. This was filmed and was shown, or so we were told in Miners Clubs and Convalescent homes around the North. I also got great pleasure in meeting a lot of the "older" wrestlers in Blackpool 2016 and as Hack says true friendships have developed.

David Mantell

Born 1974, brought up to be a fan from an EXTREMELY early age - about 2 years old - by my paternal grandparents, as they did with several of my relatives (my dad's got a slide of two distant relatives of mine wrestling in my grandparents' back yard from the early 70s). My Great Uncle Jack (my Grandma Ann's brother) was a Lanchasire Catch Wrestling shooter in the gyms of the East End during the Edwardian Era and years later when his branch of the family went to live in Canada, he would watch wrestling - I expect it was Al Tomko's old promotion - with his grand-daughter, my second cousin Diane, and would afterwards giive her some training in wrestling holds - IIRC she can still do a decent double wristlock but has forgotten everything else. However, my 82 year old dad and my nearly 8 year old nephew in Israel are both judokas - there seems to be an alternation between.generations in my family over wrestling vs judo.

2bus

I've been a wrestling fan since the late 1960s. Born in Kettering so used to go to see local Brian Dixon shows in the early 70s. First ever show had a main event of Doctor Death v Billy Two Rivers. I used to be scared to death of Dangerous Danny Lynch and still regret going to football instead of seeing him take on Haystacks Calhoun (later Giant Haystacks of course) in a blood-bath that made the local paper the next day. Always been a big fan of Kendo Nagasaki. In later years you might remember the Piledriver mag that I used to edit.

mark

I was born in 1957 in Acton and went to my first show back in 1972 at the Brent Town Hall in Wembley. I loved it. Got many autographs over the years and was never refused and remember on that first visit chatting to Steve Grey at the interval and asked him to sign my programme. What a nice man he was and to a young lad meeting one of his tv Wrestling hero's its still a great memory.

Ray Hulm

Born in London in 1942 my interest in wrestling came as an offshoot of my interest in boxing and physical culture. I didn't go to a live show until I was 15 but in the first few shows that I went to I saw both Bert Assirati and Dara Singh, Two of the all time greats. I was smitten. Years later I became very involved with martial arts, started to hang out and train with various wrestlers and was even allowed to work on a show (best leave it to the experts was the general view). I can't remember the last time I watched live wrestling but I have never lost my fascination with the game.

If you are new to this site or have been reading the forum for years but never contributed, why not have a shot. There are some very knowledgable folk on here but at the end of the day it's just a bit of fun. We have bored our families near to insanity. At least we only drive each other mad on here. Come on. Give it a go.

frank thomas

My name is Frank Thomas 56 years old, and started attending wrestling shows at the renowned Liverpool Stadium in 1972. Hardly ever missed a Friday night right up until 1978, when I started work and discovered "wine women and song"! Started attending local shows again in the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, but the magic had gone for me alas.. Discovered this site three or four years ago, and almost a daily contributor to the Forum. Come along and relive old memories and get into healthy, friendly debate!

Tom H

I was born in 1945.I started going to wrestling at Ilford Baths in 1961 I saw Doctor Death, Shirley Crabtree, The Great Bula ,The Monster and Big Bruno Elrington. At the end of the year the promotor joined joint promotions. In 1962 I began going to the Dale Martin promotions at Barking Assembly Hall. I went with my father who loved the wrestling as much as me. I bought the tickets my father paid the bus fare.

Gernot Freiberger

I am from Vienna Austria and born July 67. Watched the local wrestling scene (heumarkt) since the mid 80s. I collect now more then 30years all about european wrestling bassically. After all these year I met and talked to a lot of european legends.

Paul

I am 47 and have lived in Reading all of my life. I watched Wrestling from the late 70's and went to the halls, mainly the Hexagon Reading into the early 90's. Like Mr Mantell, I follow Brian Dixon and All star as the tv lights went out and visited Croydon as and when I could. So a lot of the names talked about on here are a mystery to me, but i am loving the depth of discussion.

SarahBrad73

Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm from Doncaster. My daughter came across your site while doing research on my great grandfather for my grandads Christmas present. My great grandfather was Rex Maxine aka Freddie Rex and she came across a discussion on here from a few years ago about my great grandfather so thought I'd drop by.

Les Prest

Hi my name is Les Prest, I was born in 1950 in the village of Gt Ayton , North Yorkshire, also the village where Captain James Cook the famous circumnavigtor lived and was educated as boy in the 1700s. I left school at 15 with no qualifications, but while at a school fet'e playing in the brass band, the top attraction was St Lukes ammature matmen wrestling club (S,L,A,M) for short in which I was very impressed. Later on that summer (1964), I was at Castle Howard steam fair when I came across a wrestling/boxing booth, and on top was Gordon Lythe alias Klondyke Bill from Old Malton, this colossus of a man dressed in a sheepskin body warmer and an horse shoe on a chain around his neck absolutely blew me out of the water, and that is what planted the seed for my wrestling career. After leaving school I started to serve my time as an apprentice agricultural engingeer ( in which I still have an affection for old vintage tractors that I restore to this day, hence email address prestytractorboy). Then in 1966 I enrolled with St Lukes mat men doing wrestling charity shows raising money for such as Dr Banados &Toch H,. while at St Lukes I was fortunate to train with Norman Walsh the british and european midheavey weight champion, then in 1969 I had my first professional bout at Crimdon Dean nr Hartlepool for promoter Ray Diamond earning £3. Because I turned semi-professional officially I could'nt wrestle for them but I was able to train there untill 1971 when Lukies closed shop. After Lukies I tained for awhile at hardwick hall and wrestled for hardwick promotions with Pete Ross alias Farmers Boy, and then onto Johnny Peters gym in Grewelthorpe training with Magnificent Maurice/ Colonal Brody and Fat boy Floyd Craggs. (Promoters) I wrestled for Cyril Knowels ,Allen/Taylor, Kellett/ taylor ( Eric Taylor was one of the most genuine promoters Ive ever known and a real gentleman), Don Robinson who I probablely wrestled for the most, Brian Dixon, all for the opposition, then Relwyskow &Green for joint-promotions. Then in 1981 while wrestling Terry Jowett I broke my ankle badley having to have an operation and having pins and a plate fitted, then told I wouldnt be able to wrestle again, so after a while myself and Sean Mcneil bought a wrestling ring off Don Robinson who had ceased promoting st the time, so we promoting ourselves for a few years untill wrestling died a death the late 80s. Also while we were running the wrestling, I was running my haulage business and finding it difficult to both enterprises, although the ring was being hired out regularly for kick boxing, we decided to sell up.So now I rely on wrestling heritage and reunions to keep in touch with the lads, although almost every monday morning round at Jimmy Devlins house Dicky Swales, Sean Mcneil, Lord Bertie St clair (John Welsh) myself and several others including Black Jack Mulligan and Norman Cooper, meet up for a few hours to chat about the good old days of wrestling. best regards presty tractorboy!!!

P.S. I always have a p.s. Klondyke Bill who first influenced me into wrestling,was one of the most friendly wrestlers in the game, although a top of the bill wrestler he had such a friendly disposition always offered you some jelly babies in the dressing room and had time for everyone, and he had such an high pitched voice for such a big fellow, which I found quite amusing. Gordon you were the greatest!!! God bless you. best regards Presty.

Stephen

My name is Stephen and I was born in 1955. I moved with my parents to the south coast (Worthing) when I was 7. I took a keen interest in wrestling in my teens and met my father in London (where he worked) and attended a number of wrestling events at the Royal Albert Hall. We sadly had to leave before the end to get back to Worthing! In the early 1970s initially in Worthing I was asked by Dale Martin if I would be a second in the ring and also help to take the ring down at the end of the evening. I was Â?handsomely paidÂ?. I did this for a number of years before we moved away in 1978. My activities took me along the south coast and included Brighton, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Portsmouth. Some summer shows were weekly. It was a great way to see wrestling close up though some wrestlers antics made me cautious (especially Kendo!). I got to know Georgeous George a bit and we chatted often. I was in Portsmouth when Veidor beat Elrington 2-0 to take his local Championship belt. Less of a surprise for me as IÂ?d Â?heard Â? the outcome in advance! When we moved to Bristol in 1978 I went to wrestling at Colston Hall but family became a greater priority. I read the web site with interest. I have a book or two of autographs and most wrestlers Â?obligedÂ?. Some were easier to talk to than others! I still enjoy watching the old matches on you tube. Sadly it will never be the same

The Ost

My name is Steve (aka Ost) from New Zealand, and i'm a bit younger than most of the posters here, only started following wrestling in the 1980's.

Luckily, my grandfather who was a wrestling fan, attended bouts in the 1930's so I knew wrestling had been around a long time.

I've also been lucky enough to be friends with Dave Cmaeron for well over 20 years, so i've had help piecing together wrestling's history since then. Lately i've been focusing on NZ wrestlers overseas, and that has lead me to getting a full picture of the history of British wrestling. I've been reading this website for a few years, finally feel like I can contribute. It's also why you'll see me asking some seemingly dumb/obvious questions.

beancounter

I was born in 1948 in a village near Lancaster. We got our first TV in1962 and I became an avid fan of the wrestling. I'm fairly sure my first televised show included a bout where Dropkick Johnny Peters won by a knockout. On leaving school I attended bills at both Preston venues, Blackpool Tower, Morecambe, Lancaster and other local spots. By the mid 1970s married life and my accountancy practice took precedence and I got increasingly fed up with the new gimmicks, American style antics and The Big Daddy/ Haystacks factor and so lost interest. Discovery of this website some 8 years ago renewed my interest in the 60's scene and I've posted contributions from time to time on the forum. I've also been able to keep the members informed of the progress of our oldest living British Wrestler, Gerry Hoggarth, 96 years young this April.

Caulkead

Born and raised on the Isle of Wight - which is what makes me a Caulkhead.

Saw my first live promotion (Paul Lincoln) at Ryde Town Hall in 1963, and then became a regular. Every week during the summer, and every month out of season.

The occasional promotion (Joint) at ventnor Winter Gardens, depending on who was billed.

Seen very little live since moving to "the mainland".

Have attended 2 of the reunions in Kent, enjoying the company of other attendees.

Kenny Morrison

Born and raised in Paisley, 45 years old and wrestling was a huge part of my Saturday afternoons as a kid. Around 16 years ago, I set up a promotion called Scottish Championship Wrestling and tried to do my small bit to kick things on. I only promoted for around 4 years, but had the pleasure of booking Drew McDonald and having the Scottish Heavyweight belt around his waist. I did hope to one day work with him again, but sadly that never happened. I now keep the 80's era of UK & European wrestling alive through my work on unofficial historical mods for a PC based wrestling promoter game (I'll not name it on here). It's been an absolute pleasure to read these forums. The site itself has been invaluable in my research on the aforementioned game mods.

The Hooded Crow

Hi! My names Kenny and I'm up in the highlands of Scotland. I used to post under the old site under the name of Black Tiger. I'm looking forward to talking to you all and hopefully catching up with some old friends (Dynamite Dwayne, you out there?). ??

Nik A

Hi I'm Nik from Southend, I've watched wrestling all my life as my Dad loved it and his Step Dad 'Ernie Monk' was a time keeper (long before my time) till Prince Kumali fell out the ring and landed on him or so the story went.

I watch loads of wrestling from all round the world and really enjoy NJPW but have to admit the old UK scene was the best - happy memories.

Bernard Hughes

Hi All. My Name is Bernard Hughes. You may have seen some of my posts on this site.

I wasn't going to post under this thread because all of my far off day's memories are already on this site somewhere.

However as so many of my fellow posters have ventured, I will do the same, although cutting out many of the repititions.

If you want to know about my early wrestling watching memories at St. James Hall, Newcastle, most of them are in the "Memories" section.

Born Poplar London , moved to Newcastle when I was 4. (my Father's work was originally in shipyards.)

Started watching the wrestling at 12, often getting into the St James Hall by putting the bolts into the steel roller doors for the head British Legion man on the door.Nice fellow was George,always talked to me. Had to do this sometimes, had the bus fare, not the entrance money.

Mr Welch the manager ,was also a nice man, always dressed in a black coat with long tails , had to look the part!

Got to know Norman and Flo Walsh and once, they and Felix Kerschitz picked me up in Norman's car from home.

You should have seen my mothers face when Felix came in! He was a big man. But nice and gentle to talk to.

Not as bulky as The Ghoul but as tall.

Went in the RAF at 18, got posted to RAF Seaton Snook, halfway between West Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.

Joined St Lukes amateur matmen (The Slam boys) and trained with many that went onto make the grade as Les Prest reminds us.

Met and trained and fought Dicky Swales, another lovely man.

Move to a cousin in Welwyn garden City to take up a better paid job at De Havillands.

Then the opposite sex came into it and my time for watching was sadly curtailed.

Now living in Beccles Suffolk, a lovely village right on the edge of the broads.

If you have any particular queries you know where to find me---On this site.

I can't go without pouring praise on Hack and Anglo, who had the wonderful idea of setting all of this in motion.

For me ,and I guess many others, a lifeline back to the golden days of wrestling.

I was so glad when I found this site by accident, gradually all my memories came flooding back, and I could post them for others to enjoy.

Love this site!

Ruslan Pashayev

Dear Friends, my name is Ruslan and I am pro-wrestling fan from Delaware, Ohio of USA.Besides that I am a ballroom dance coach.I did hobby wrestling history researching for my own education since probably 2005. And it was mostly American Pro-wrestling History, 1870-1950.In 2012 I met Dan Anderson researcher from Wisconsin and he kindly presented me with results of his “English Studies”. That episode changed my life.

Dan's Studies had a great factual content as well as many “new names from the very long ago”. When I first read it questions started popping up here and there as mushrooms after the rain. Since then I mostly researched English Wrestling History. All styles which were historically practiced and wrestling territories which were present on England's wrestling map. Some of them exist in some forms some of them became extinct. Of course my main focus was Lancashire Catch-as-catch-can, and what was most surprising, that I shortly figured that there was definite uncertainty about its origin and evolution into current pro-wrestling, and literally no official records, no documentation was left from the “olden days”, mostly verbal traditions, which people believed and treated it as historical truth. Dan and I were working together on English Wrestling studies for few years.

Last year I met Ron Historio and shared with him some of my ideas and results of my studies, after that Ron suggested me to put together all the facts which I have and write a story of catch. Ron helped me a lot with better understanding of local Lancashire geography which was crucial for understanding of the Catch's Evolution. He also did a phenomenal work on building up the biographical background of the catch-as-catch-can heroes.Its interesting but Originally Birth of Catch wasn't even my major topic, my biggest concern was the so-called Wrestling Boom Era (Hack's Era), 1904-1914 as well as all the great tournaments and forgotten titles and characters from the late 1800's early 1900's. But the more I was digging into it the more I wanted to know about “what was before that”, what pre-dated it. And that's how my research switched from Music Halls Era to the pre-1870 Era. And then I discovered for myself a completely New World , unknown chapters of catch history and I want to share this exciting “Story of Catch” with all the wrestling fans members of Heritage.

This story has many heroes who affected catch at its early stages the most and remained in the History as true symbols of Lancashire Wrestling, but the whole story is dedicated to the memory of the Lancashire catch-as-catch-can Pioneer from the 1840's Adam Ridings who saw it all, birth of catch, its evolution and the final picture the music halls of 1890's, which pretty much it still is even now. Special thanks to Dan and Ron for all their help.

I wish everyone have a fun time reading this series (Out of Darkness) and hope it'll bring some interest and discussion on the forum regarding the subject it covers.

I would like to introduce my hero to whom I dedicated the “Story of Catch” – Adam Ridings of Bury, Lancs (1820-1894), who was also known under the nickname of “Dockum of Bury”. Adam Ridings was the pioneer of Catch Wrestling and without a doubt was the most prominent and popular wrestler of Lancashire in the 1840’s-1850’s. He was remembered as a champion wrestler among residents of Bury even in the 1940's, 100 years after the peak of his sporting career, his portraits decorated walls of local Bury pubs. Adam successfully wrestled at all existing back then styles: Cumberland Back Hold, Cornish/Devon in jackets, and Lancashire Catch. He participated in all major competitions of his time and had a greatest accomplishments wrestler of that era could achieve defeating the best wrestlers of his generation in countless number of challenge matches and finishing as the runner-up at Rochdale’s Nudgers, Catch (1844) and Manchester’s, Back Hold (1846) and finally becoming champion of Lancashire at Manchester’s, Back Hold, Belt Holder (1847). Originally a collier just like many other wrestlers he soon becomes a beer-seller, owner of the pub “Lancashire Wrestler” which was located at his own house in Moor Side, Bury and in many articles he is simply referred as such – “Adam Ridings, The Lancashire Wrestler”. Ridings was all-around athlete and besides wrestling Adam was local champion at running high-leap competition (1847), he also was a puglist (boxer).

He was promoting Lancashire Catch in the sporting circles of Victorian England and his influence on popularization of the game was significant, it was during his time and also due to his efforts that Lancashire catch became known to English wrestling fans all around the country, he was among organizers of the first catch tourney of the championship class where the different weight classes were introduced (championships were held among heavies and lights), 1846 Sundial Pub, Bury Lancs. Prior to that, competitions were mostly open to all weights contests or had a specific weight limit, let’s say open to everyone not to exceed 11st. In the mid-1850's Adam was still the most important player on the local stage but he wasn’t that active anymore and already started thinking of retiring from sports. Back then average age of Lancashire champion wrestlers was pretty young, the age of 20-25 was considered the peak of sporting career, and by the age of 30 they would usually retire giving the chance to younger wrestlers, yeas it was a “young men sport”. So he decided to pass the Lancashire Heavyweight Wrestling Championship to the young wrestler from Ashton - William Swann. The tradition of youngster defeating the legend, passing the championship torch was known and very popular among locals; just like in 1842 young Adam beat famous Jack O' James of Oldham. Also looks like Adam also was a “party man”, apparently a dancer, he would often have “dance parties” at his house, and I truly enjoyed that fact since I am myself a professional ballroom dancer and coach. When I was writing “Story of Catch” I tried to see the evolution of Catch as my hero saw it, he started it in the 1840's, saw Golden Era of the 1860's, and its decline, music halls in the 1890's. To me Catch is his story, story of his life. Thanks for your attention and happy reading to everyone. Kind regards, Ruslan