John’s Canadian Register of Imports

Bill Bennett from Southport wrestled as a Canadian. To make him sound more interesting, Martin Conroy added an e to his surname to make him Bill Bennette. Max Crabtree had to be different of course and billed him as Baron Donovan. Occasionally he became alliterative and moved him over into North America to wrestle as Detroit Donovan.

It was as such that I recall seeing him at the Sports Centre, Newark, partnering Terry Jowett against The Pallos. Crabtree seemed to specialise in tag matches where a "clean" wrestler would team with a "dirty" wrestler and they would fall out during the match. Such was the occasion here.

Jimmy Thompson from Burnage wrestled as "Bronco" Jack or "Cowboy" Cassidy of course entering the ring to the theme tune of popular TV series of the time "Bonanaza".

Finally, in the early seventies I visited cousins in Wisconsin and they drove me to The Milwaukee Auditorium to see Billy Robinson versus "Black" Jack Lanza managed by Bobby Heenan. The main supporting bout saw Canadian wrestler Edouardo Carpentier wrestle "Texan" Jack Bence. Although I never saw him wrestle in Britain, I do think that Carpentier had some matches over here.