I imagine this is well nigh impossible, but you never know with so many resourceful Members:
When precisely did Mick McManus become the Dale Martin matchmaker?
The answer to this would provide an interesting water-shed to identify how bills and perhaps publicity changed, in this way identifying McManus's style.
And who did he take over from?
Assuming we don't know, can we identify the start of his reign in reverse? Are there any signs out there in bills and publicity where we can detect a shift in style or direction?
For instance, through his number of annual tv bouts?
He was absent for much of 1964 - was anything going on?
It's an important point, the answer to which could lie somewhere between 1955 and 1971. I think his European title must clearly indicate his own self-anointment.
I always believed it to be Jack Dale, who always came to the Drill Hall for every show......
We didn't really get to the bottom of this. Can we put in order the Dale Martin matchmakers? There was Marino, presumably after McManus. Who was after Marino? Who was before McManus? Which of the Dales or Abbeys were the matchmaker?
The 1980 25 year anniversary show match versus Johnny Naylor was quite implausible.
Give McManus the respect he deserves: he kept going while he could still do it; when he no longer could, he stopped. He was never in a dull or implausible bout.
Whenever it started his tendency to put himself Top of the Bill and to never loose even aged 60 years did as much to undermine the credibility of the sport as Shirley Crabtree
Thanks Hack, though I don't see why your point should exclude an earlier McManus start? There are so many signs of McManus's status pre-1964, like featuring on the previous year's Royal Bill.
And thanks Adrian, great application of resources!!! However, this throws up further blur. Squabbling with rival promoters about venue bookings, well, that's not matchmaking to my way of thinking. That is the real business and real promoting.
I see the matchmaking as the boss giving you 200 venues each month to create, dream up, bills for, deploying the ever-changing roster of regularly available wrestlers whilst sprinkling in the occasional visitors, working around injuries, considering travel and costs ...
If McManus was engaged in a territory war by 1967, that indicates that he had risen to that senior status and had a vested interest in the business. Maybe he was also matchmaking, or maybe he had a junior matchmaker working under him by 1967. Maybe indeed Marino, or D'Orazio who we never mention. He couldn't do it all and wrestle five nights a week.
Personally I doubt that he was the face of Dale Martin's in dealing with various Corn Exchanges and Town Halls. The locals would think they were dealing with a villain!!! So I am all the more surprised by the Cassio diaries.
A sign we could perhaps trace: in the seventies he put himself on every other RAH bill. That's a clear sign. When did that trend start?
Was Mc manus before Marino?
Splendid question Anglo. You're so good at asking good questions!
Well, we previously established Hurst Park took over Dale Martin in 1964 and McManus was appointed a Director in 1971. So that narrows it down to seven years and I would have thought closer to 1964, thought the Abbeys and Martin did stay in control after 1964.
Hi Anglo, didn't Jack Dale originally do the "matchmaking"? I thought that I had read this somewhere.