In the 19 years I have been commenting about my fewer years in the sixties and seventies as a wrestling fan, one ongoing theme amongst fellow fans has been about shooting and hooking and scurfing ....and all the rest.
Whilst we lap up those occasional moments where things went wrong and tempers really flared, we have to concede that 99+% of the time the wrestlers were doing their jobs in a way they could perform five or six times a week - and we hardly every saw anyone with a bruise or a genuine in-ring injury. Blading just earnt them a couple of extra quid and was voluntary.
This serves to underline that the true day-in-day-out of being a professional wrestler included wrestling light. Wrestling light was therefore the greatest skill to master. It's a skill I have seen relatively neglected on here over these 19 years alongside the focus on those rare "shooting" (or whatever) moments.
I have been mulling over starting this thread for a few weeks since Steve Best's family posted that Steve most of all liked wrestling Mick McManus because he was so careful and light - yet provoked such outrage amongst the fans.
Having seen McManus's routines so many many times live and on tv, I cannot deny affection for him and I am glad that for once we can place him at the top of a list. His routines included taking precisely three cross ring throws per bout. He was also noisy with what I called Tellytubby anger years ago; all this to camouflage the lack of force applied. And he had the delicateness of a cat in contacting just enough to make it look real - but never enough to hurt.
I enjoy watching back as the likes of Clive Myers, Mal Sanders and Best himself exaggeratedly sell their boss's offensives. Their reactions highlight, for me, the respect they had for McManus's in ring skills.
Getting that force/contact balance right is a real art. I know this because I can see others who were too light, Dick Conlon springs to mind.
At the same time I am probably overlooking others who were also skilled light wrestlers because their camouflage was so good.
So I am wondering who else can be listed as adept light workers?
And does this valuation also mean that the likes of Keith Martinelli and Hans Streiger and Billy Robinson were not so skilled as professional wrestlers since they knew only the heavy-handed approach?
Matey Dave has written:
Many claim expert knowledge of light wrestlers but how many would be prepared to go in a ring with a light worker wrestler? It is important to take note all wrestlers were professional and knew what they were doing. When did it become fashionable for a wrestler to stamp his foot on the ring floor to add to the effect of whacking the opponent? How many wrestlers went into the ring and was never worried about putting another wrestler in harm's way? Unless we have ever been in a ring we can only speculate. Personally I would have to trust somebody with my life if going into a ring