The Mal Sanders topic has drifted off topic with the issue raised of wrestlers drifting away from Joint Promotions, a suggestion that the retirement of Mick McManus may have been a factor.
A flow between Joint and the independents had always been common, there are few Joint wrestlers that didn't work for the independents at one time or another. This was often at the start of their career, where the independents were a good training ground, or towards the end of their careers when they may have not wanted to travel so much, or simply that Joint were no longer offering enough work. Some, think Kidd, Capelli, Bartelli, D'Orazio, Mitchell, made the journey to the independents at their peak, only to return later.
But things did seem to change in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, when the flow of wrestlers from Joint Promotions to the independents became a tsunami.
I think the reasons were more complex than the retirement of one wrestler. Was the writing on the wall? Was it a case of leaving a sinking ship? Was it all about money? Was there any place for loyalty? Loyalty to whom?
What do others think the factors were that contributed to this.
I left the sinking ship in 1978. Right from the start I only went if I thought the bill was a good one. I did a lot of halls though , and I would never admit now , the wrestlers that I could not be bothered with at that time.
The quality of the performance was just not as good as it had been ten years earlier and that is despite some great new wrestlers who had great careers.
By the time Belle Vue closed I never considered it and I think Bolton the same year.
I went to an exhibition , Ideal Homes , I think , and Belle Vue had gone.
And at that time it was all "Just Wrestling" to me. I had no idea of all this Brian Dixon option etc.
My learning of the industry has come much later when I joined Heritage about 15 years back.