In an article in the Christmas edition of the TV Times 1960 Kent Walton claims Professional Wrestling is as reputable as any other sport.He also claims that in the last eighteen months he has known 14 wrestlers with broken bones!Even in 1960 surely most fans attending live bouts would know the injury rate was not this high!
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Also step-father of TV impresario Michael Grade although apparently not acknowledged as such
I accept that he legitimally had a high regard for the wrestlers after all he continued commentating until 1988 when he was over seventy. Also discovered he was educated at Charterhouse whose fees in 2019 are £39,000 per year. Doubt if he was short of money
We have never worked out who Kent's paymaster was. But he went way beyond twice-weekly commentary slots and put his whole personal reputation on the line by "authoritatively" taking every chance to ensure the world that wrestling was 100% legit.
I cannot believe he sold himself and his integrity for free.
I bet that Joint Promotions looked after him very nicely outside any ITV salary. I'd love to know how.
I suppose in reality this article is designed to appeal to those fans for whom the potential of broken bones was part of the appeal of Professional Wrestling
Never seemed to hear him mention broken bones in the later years
Your incisiveness returns like a breath of fresh air, David. (.........with a hint of Novichok)
> Even in 1960 surely most fans attending live bouts would know the injury rate was not this high!
Why do you say this? Just because it was a work?
No dispute that the wrestlers were and are tough
I remember reading that Kent Walton had got in the ring with the great Mike Marino, to see how the holds and throws worked. Poor Kent ached for weeks afterwards.
I suspect Waltons paymasters at ITV were very astute and knew by Christmas 1960 that Professional Wrestling was becoming an effective source of advertising revenue and would remain so for the foreseeable future.
I would say with the amount of wrestlers working at that time, that 14 broken bones in 18 months is not that much of an embellishment.
An enigma bigger than wrestling itself was Kent Walton.
He is interesting in that we have his words as they develop down the years. But we of course don’t have his thoughts.
We have tried for years to establish his level of involvement or knowledge. It seems no clear answer can now emerge. So we are left with those words of his to try to reconstruct his true position, which no doubt changed down the years.
it seems to me that he was very carefully looked after by DMs, McManus, and happily towed the line.He sold himself. Or he just became part of the show, like the wrestlers.
So the next question is: Kent knew, but how much did he tell his paymasters at ITV? Where was the frontline of deception?
Nice find Peter. We all still love Kent for all the right reasons of him maintaining the credibility of the sport. But did he actually believe everything he spouted?