John Lees

frank thomas

A wrestler whose name I never see coming up on the forums is the "Mr Universe" John Lees, from Stalybridge. Saw him live only a few times, didn't have a very exciting style, and appeared to be "gimmick free" he featured on one of the very first live shows I attended at Liverpool Stadium.. Thoughts or opinions anyone?

Ron Historyo

I know what you mean Frank. He had a very impressive body as he peeled his top off , big man and I would also say similar of John Kowalski , they fell a bit short of the standard of the top heavyweights. But of course you need a Roster and we can't all be Albert Wall. Another one I saw similar I thought was Kumali. Very big man but just short of that X Factor.

But you never know , there may have been fans out there who thought otherwise. That would be nice to hear.

frank thomas

Strangely enough Ron, 're your reference to Albert Wall, he was John's opponent on the first time I saw him. A dour battle.

Ron Historyo

Well Frank they must have practiced years before and regular. I saw them and to put John over as the strong man he looked , they seemed to spend extra time locking up like a couple of Stags , more or less a stalemate.

Can't remember Lees having a finishing move except a pick up and slam and press.

Bet this one was years before you saw them and similar for myself.

frank thomas

Good few years before i would say Ron.. Strangely, another I can never recall seeing win a contest..

ballymoss

I agree with Frank. John Lees was certainly compentent and billed as a former Mr Universe, was obviously very strong. Sadly, he was a trifle lacking when it came to charisma and style,

Hack

Surprisingly I don't think I ever saw him live and remember him only from tv. Memories are just like those Frank and Ballymoss - a competent wrestler, looked good but didn't capture the imagination. AS Rons say, not everyone could be an Albert Wall and John Lees deserves much more than his meagre A-Z memories. So let's get some good memories together and see what we can do to boost his profile on Heritage.

Anglo Italian

That's funny that some of you didn't see him; I saw him lots in the south. Got his autograph plenty of times, including in the Covermen of Wrestling. So he featured on the cover of The Wrestler, June 1972 from memory.

Very credible and could carry a match through regardless of who the opponent was. We saw him challenging for the British title.

I think he had quite a long career, maybe 17 years?

One little enigma: he was in a televised bout against Zebra Kid in 1965. Or rather the bill was filmed and we know most matches were shown. In spite of what listings say, we will never know for sure whether this bout was aired and whether Zebra Kid was the second masked man on tv.

grahambrook

I recall seeing "Big" John Lees many times as a young fan. I recall bouts at Belle Vue against Gwynn Davies, Sean Regan, John Cox and Wayne Bridges, at The Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, against Masambula, at The Gaiety Theatre, Rhyl, against Count Bartelli and Ray Steele, at The De Montfort Hall, Leicester against Billy Howes, at the Victoria Baths, Nottingham, against Don Vines, at the Floral Hall, Southport, against John Elijah and at The Queens Baths, Derby, against Giant Haystacks. I wish I'd kept records for I'm sure there were several others that have gone from the memory. When he retired he did not go on the independent circuit as such but I did tempt him to The Parr Hall, Warrington, where I billed him against King Kendo but the whole thing was a bit of a disaster as there was thick fog that night in Boston, Lincolnshire, but it was as clear as a bell in Cheshire. Bill Clarke telephoned me at the hall (there were no such things as mobiles in those days) to say that he and his car of wrestlers couldn't see a thing in front of them and were turning back so, with about an hour and a half to go and a good percentage of my bill bowing out, I had to make several frantic 'phone calls. I really needed a masked man so persuaded Kevin Cawley to don one of his masks and come down. With the best will in the world, Kevin was not quite in the same skills bracket as Bill Clarke and, although John put a brave face on it, he did not find the work easy and when I 'phoned him subsequently he told me that he really had retired.

Bernard Hughes

I never saw John Lees live.I do remember that the year before he won Mr. Universe( I believe ar the Olympia) Oscar Heidenstam,secretary of NABBA , got him a job on a building site so that he could work in the open air.He had to get a bit of a tan. The foreign entries (especially from California) the previous year had shown up John's pale skin, to his detriment.Imagine working In Lancashire or Shropshire in shorts only in Spring ,Summer and Autumn? I saw the publicity pictures. After that all of the bodybuilders starting using those dark brown tanning agents.

Ray Hulm

Well remembered Bernard! After John won the 1957Mr Universe Health & Strength serialised his life story and I remember that his efforts to get a tan on wind swept Cheshire building sites were mentioned.He turned to wrestling about the same time but do you also remember all the publicity given to John's KO of Felix Kerchitz? Much talk of broken jaws, broken arms (John's) but who knows?

Bernard Hughes

Hi Ray. No I don't remember that incident at all. Do you happen to know the month and year that this happened? If it was 1958 I was in far flung West Hartlepool in the RAF. I don't remember reading any papers for those 2 years.

Ray Hulm

Here you go Bernard. I found this over on the Furnace site.

http://www.wrestlingfurnace.com/articles/health&strength/leesbb/leesbb15.jpg

It appears to be from H&S June '59 and must be the article that I remember. How come I can remember stuff like this but not "Her Indoors" instructions from yesterday? There is also a report in Dave Webster's Illustrated History Of Bodybuilding. No venue is mentioned but John and Felix may have worked the same thing over and over. Note how in the H&S article John just writes a few words about wrestling but that is enough to lend it complete legitimacy. I really was golden wasn't it?

Bernard Hughes

Thanks Ray- interesting.

Unfortunately not a good photo of Felix's face. The one in the A-Z is the face that I met in my house,as told before. As you say, not much wrestling news ,more bodybuilding. The Ron Oakley from Middlesbrough mentioned as doing a NE show ,went on to wrestle himself. I suppose the body building helped many of those boys were strong but not flexible and I think that it was a drawback. Finally I can echo what you said about 'er indoors. Unfortunately in my case it's 'er indoors ,him nex door, him and her the otherside and many of the people that I talk to outside. Yet I can remember things from my school days and the wrestling. They say it gets us all like that eventually!

Hack

Is John Lees still alive? Anyone know his whereabouts?

paul mitchell

Yes Hack , A U L.

Hack

Thanks Paul.