Just a comment David.When he was at "Home" in Japan The Great Muta imo had some of the very Best Ring entrances I have ever seen,he was also a pretty good worker.
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Feb 17, 2022
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When Akira Nogami wrestled for All Star in the 1990s he completely ripped off The Great Muta's make up scheme. This match from the CWA around the same time is about the only footage I can find of his with that look:
@davidmantell The wrestler in the video clip above is, of course, Steve Hoy, son of Frank "Wild Angus" Hoy. Decent wrestler from memory and did a fair bit of globe trotting.
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Feb 17, 2022
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@SaxonWolf Wild Angus/Black Angus Campbell had a good reputation in the business on both sides of the Atlantic, so that probably helped too.Anyhow, point is that the "original" Steve Casey was not an American, he came from somewhere a lot closer to us from whence a whole load of our own top stars sprung. And the British Steve Casey, like the British Steve Regal a decade later, went to America and used the name over there and got away with it, to put it mildly.
@davidmantell Agreed on that, Wild/Black Angus seemed to be well liked by the people he worked with in the USA, and considered "a good hand", as they say. He obviously drew money for promoters, hence them putting so many titles/belts on him during the 1970's.
in my opion and possibly off topic was the turgid bill matter ,likeable ,lanky,hilarious ,laughable etc,plus renaming off workers like Dave Ramsden to Reggie,the quality of bill matter after the retirement of the cartel reflected the dire offering on the bills.Lots of great talent woefully handled.
Nearly as bad as Orig Williams advertising wrestlers he hadn't booked,who mysteriousley "failed to turn up"
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Dec 11, 2021
I will say when Brian Dixon put on Kenny The Sting from the USA, 15 year old me actually thought he'd got Steve Borden over for a tour!
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Dec 11, 2021
Most of the punters didn't know the American names anyway. There were just a tiny minority who bought Aptermags and traded videotapes and much of that crowd poisonously detested British Wrestling the same way most US smart fans in 1982-1983 hated Bob Backlund and thought his push was a crime against the business.
Not necessarily name borrowing but names well used were at least 2 (probably more) Mighty Yankees along with several Cowboys including Rick Hunter and the Hart brothers. It was getting to the stage of cringe inducing by the time Max was naming stars "The Mouth Of The South" and even his own son 'Greg Valentine.' When i saw Chris Colt billed in a 1979/80 edition of the Tv Times as The American Dream Machine i automatically thought it was Dusty Rhoades, and again Max borrowed 2 Americans names to combine them as 1 in Ox Brody (perhaps a mix of Ox Baker & Bruiser Brody) to face Wayne Bridges in another televised bout. Disappointment in both cases. (To top it off the American Dream Machine bout was pulled).
This has gone way off topic, with most of the names having nothing to do with Max Crabtree.
The 1967 Pictorial History of Wrestling named many Americans and right at that time several UK pros started out, lifting names from the book:
Harboiled Haggetty
Haystacks Calhoun
Skull Murphy
Killer Kowalski (amusing when our cyclist actually became Killer; Kincaid still calls him Killer respectfully.)
Lots of old-time names rehashed in the seventies: Dynamite Kid, Wonderboy, Black Angel. I'd struggle to be wanting to credit Max Crabtree with trying to keep wrestling heritage alive. Kwango in the early fifties was already a rehash. And Tiger Woods in the sixties.
Credit to Nagasaki, Wild Man of Borneo, Bert Royal, Honey Boy Zimba, Kim Kendo, Count Bartelli, Goldbelt Maxine and others for being original.
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Dec 11, 2021
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(Giant) Haystacks (Callhoun) - as in Martin Ruane - was Brian Dixon's work. Joint picked him up fully formed in 1975.As mentioned elsewhere there were a couple of earlier non Martin Ruane Giant Haystackses but they were nothing to do with Max Crabtree either.
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Dec 10, 2021
The UK Billy Graham actually predated "the Superstar" (although that then brings up the touchy subject of where Mal Sanders got HIS nickname from).
Mal used "Superstar" (Billy Graham) and "Mouth of the South" (Jimmy Hart). He used to wear stars and stripes strides away from the ring too.
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Dec 10, 2021
Yasu Fuji being billef as "Mister" may have had something to do with one Harry Fujiwara.
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Dec 10, 2021
Killer Kowalski - Wladek the ear-muncher over there, blond John over here.
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Dec 10, 2021
Dave Duran and Jim Monroe as the Road Warriors on TV in 1988 are an interesting story as this later evolved into Johnny South as a blue-eye Legend Of Doom in the mid 90s,
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Dec 10, 2021
About the time Steve Young first became Skull Murphy, there was another one in Memphis managed by Jimmy Hart.
I liked Max but my oh my did i get sick of the copycat names. I think Max got away with it because not many fans read the American wrestling magazines until they became more popular in the mid 1980s. These days he would need to be more imaginative. Strangler Shufflebottom, Arbuthnot The Axe and Fireball Farquarson would be my suggestions. Seriously though flicking through The Wrestling News picking any popular name got tiresome.
I recall going to see Roy St.Clair versus The Mighty Yankee on a Crabtree show at The Floral Hall, Southport, and Mighty Yankee turned out to be Jim Moran. Usually Crabtree's Mighty Yankee was a large but mild-mannered man from Spennymoor, County Durham, Ian Glassmore. He would do the fisting, eyes on the ropes etc but his heart never really seemed to be in it. I saw him twice, once at The Sports Centre, Newark, against Billy Two Rivers and once at The Sports Centre, Worksop, against Shirley Crabtree. I recall the match concluding with Shirley putting the plastic bucket which he had been spitting into over Glassmore's head, grabbing the microphone from brother M.C. and wittily announcing, "It's Mr. Bucket Head. Easy. Easy."
Incidentally, with all his hundreds of bouts for various promoters over the years, Eddie Rose may well not remember this but in 1976 I M.C.'d him for my then friend Stuart Miller who promoted him at The Civic Hall, Nantwich. On the posters the bout was billed as Al Miquet versus The Mighty Yankee. I recall Eddie being a little surprised when he arrived at the hall to find that he was in fact The Mighty Yankee and Stuart handed him a large stars and stripes T-shirt which he was persuaded to wear to make his ring entrance. When I asked Stuart why he had done this he replied simply, "I wanted the punters to think there was an American on the bill!"
@grahambrookjazz , There has been many , many Mighty Yankees , here in the states , and most of them was masked , along with many Super Destroyers , with both to many to list here
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Dec 10, 2021
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> It's Mr. Bucket HeadTopical reference there! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckethead
I think The Mighty Yankee really was from the USA, Steve DiSalvo.
Skull Murphy always springs to mind, for me.
Super Destroyer was another, there were lots of them in the USA before Max gave the name to Pete Roberts.
The Bulk/Incredible Bulk.
Probably quite a few more.
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Dec 10, 2021
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Super Destroyer was Don Jardine. Super Destroyer II was Robert Remus, the future Sgt Slaughter. Bill Eadie also briefly called himself Super Destroyer in Mid Atlantic after the Masked Superstar got suspended.Don Jardine's other mask-name was The Spoiler which Drew McDonald appropriated
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Dec 10, 2021
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Steve DiSalvo was quite the hotly tipped rookie while wrestling for Stampede in the late 80s - he was North American champion and later as a babyface helped Don Muraco (fresh out of the WWF) beat Makhan Singh for the title in late 88.
Just a comment David.When he was at "Home" in Japan The Great Muta imo had some of the very Best Ring entrances I have ever seen,he was also a pretty good worker.
Steve Casey was an American wrestler and here in the UK we got two in the 1980s alone
in my opion and possibly off topic was the turgid bill matter ,likeable ,lanky,hilarious ,laughable etc,plus renaming off workers like Dave Ramsden to Reggie,the quality of bill matter after the retirement of the cartel reflected the dire offering on the bills.Lots of great talent woefully handled.
Nearly as bad as Orig Williams advertising wrestlers he hadn't booked,who mysteriousley "failed to turn up"
I will say when Brian Dixon put on Kenny The Sting from the USA, 15 year old me actually thought he'd got Steve Borden over for a tour!
Most of the punters didn't know the American names anyway. There were just a tiny minority who bought Aptermags and traded videotapes and much of that crowd poisonously detested British Wrestling the same way most US smart fans in 1982-1983 hated Bob Backlund and thought his push was a crime against the business.
I don't think Max gave a toss about the punters,he just wanted to bilk them out of their money .
Not necessarily name borrowing but names well used were at least 2 (probably more) Mighty Yankees along with several Cowboys including Rick Hunter and the Hart brothers. It was getting to the stage of cringe inducing by the time Max was naming stars "The Mouth Of The South" and even his own son 'Greg Valentine.' When i saw Chris Colt billed in a 1979/80 edition of the Tv Times as The American Dream Machine i automatically thought it was Dusty Rhoades, and again Max borrowed 2 Americans names to combine them as 1 in Ox Brody (perhaps a mix of Ox Baker & Bruiser Brody) to face Wayne Bridges in another televised bout. Disappointment in both cases. (To top it off the American Dream Machine bout was pulled).
This has gone way off topic, with most of the names having nothing to do with Max Crabtree.
The 1967 Pictorial History of Wrestling named many Americans and right at that time several UK pros started out, lifting names from the book:
Harboiled Haggetty
Haystacks Calhoun
Skull Murphy
Killer Kowalski (amusing when our cyclist actually became Killer; Kincaid still calls him Killer respectfully.)
Lots of old-time names rehashed in the seventies: Dynamite Kid, Wonderboy, Black Angel. I'd struggle to be wanting to credit Max Crabtree with trying to keep wrestling heritage alive. Kwango in the early fifties was already a rehash. And Tiger Woods in the sixties.
Credit to Nagasaki, Wild Man of Borneo, Bert Royal, Honey Boy Zimba, Kim Kendo, Count Bartelli, Goldbelt Maxine and others for being original.
The UK Billy Graham actually predated "the Superstar" (although that then brings up the touchy subject of where Mal Sanders got HIS nickname from).
Yasu Fuji being billef as "Mister" may have had something to do with one Harry Fujiwara.
Killer Kowalski - Wladek the ear-muncher over there, blond John over here.
Dave Duran and Jim Monroe as the Road Warriors on TV in 1988 are an interesting story as this later evolved into Johnny South as a blue-eye Legend Of Doom in the mid 90s,
About the time Steve Young first became Skull Murphy, there was another one in Memphis managed by Jimmy Hart.
I liked Max but my oh my did i get sick of the copycat names. I think Max got away with it because not many fans read the American wrestling magazines until they became more popular in the mid 1980s. These days he would need to be more imaginative. Strangler Shufflebottom, Arbuthnot The Axe and Fireball Farquarson would be my suggestions. Seriously though flicking through The Wrestling News picking any popular name got tiresome.
Bernie Wright becoming Bearcat Wright is another example, notwithstanding the fact that the ‘original’ Bearcat Wright was a gentleman of colour…..
I recall going to see Roy St.Clair versus The Mighty Yankee on a Crabtree show at The Floral Hall, Southport, and Mighty Yankee turned out to be Jim Moran. Usually Crabtree's Mighty Yankee was a large but mild-mannered man from Spennymoor, County Durham, Ian Glassmore. He would do the fisting, eyes on the ropes etc but his heart never really seemed to be in it. I saw him twice, once at The Sports Centre, Newark, against Billy Two Rivers and once at The Sports Centre, Worksop, against Shirley Crabtree. I recall the match concluding with Shirley putting the plastic bucket which he had been spitting into over Glassmore's head, grabbing the microphone from brother M.C. and wittily announcing, "It's Mr. Bucket Head. Easy. Easy."
Incidentally, with all his hundreds of bouts for various promoters over the years, Eddie Rose may well not remember this but in 1976 I M.C.'d him for my then friend Stuart Miller who promoted him at The Civic Hall, Nantwich. On the posters the bout was billed as Al Miquet versus The Mighty Yankee. I recall Eddie being a little surprised when he arrived at the hall to find that he was in fact The Mighty Yankee and Stuart handed him a large stars and stripes T-shirt which he was persuaded to wear to make his ring entrance. When I asked Stuart why he had done this he replied simply, "I wanted the punters to think there was an American on the bill!"
Black Jack Mulligan. Larry Coulton here, Bob Windham in the U.S.A.
I think The Mighty Yankee really was from the USA, Steve DiSalvo.
Skull Murphy always springs to mind, for me.
Super Destroyer was another, there were lots of them in the USA before Max gave the name to Pete Roberts.
The Bulk/Incredible Bulk.
Probably quite a few more.