The Great RON HISTORYO has,I do believe,taken Us back to the very Beginnings of
MICK MCMANUS as a Wrestler!-And from Memory-without checking-he found what was
probably MICK'S First Ever Bout in late 1947?!
But WHEN was MICK'S Last Ever Wrestling Bout?-and Who was the Final Ever Opponent?
I believe I have the Answer to this one!
On WEDNESDAY MAY 5TH 1982 at BEDWORTH-We find MCMANUS in his Last Ever
Contest against...........'FUNNY MAN' CATWEAZLE!!
The Poster for this Show states it is the 'Last Appearance of the Legendary-the One and Only MICK MCMANUS'- Was this really his Last Hurrah?-I bet he Won this Match?!
MAIN MASK
Good Stuff
Agreed, a great story.
Great story SW!
By the way, it was a chance meeting with Mick McManus in a cafe in London that started Catweazle on his life as a professional wrestler. Gary was from Armthorpe (near Doncaster) and worked in the Rockware Glass Factory after leaving school, and filled his evenings amateur wrestling at the Armthorpe Wrestling Club. He married young-ish, in his 20's but was separated (or divorced) by his early 30's and moved to London.
Not sure how the conversation started, and now I am wondering if Mick took pity on the lad and gave him a hand in getting into the business. Did he keep an eye out for the lad over the following years?
I wonder if Mick picked Catweazle himself for the final match on TV?
Reading this thread made me go and read about Mick in the A-Z (some great info on loads of wrestlers there) and found this!!
"...Equally mysteriously, it came to light in 2011 via the Wrestling Heritage Talk Wrestling forum that, in the world of music, Mick McManus wrote Hawkwind's Silver Machine. We await further evidence that this was not a hoax...."
Mick McManus did not write the 1972 top 10 psychedelic space rock song!
It was written by Bob Calvert and Dave Brock (singer and guitarist), but for some reason (to do with royalties I think, or royalty rates), they credited the song to Robert Calvert and Sylvia MacManus. Sylvia was the wife of Dave Brock and I think she used her maiden name to cover the fact up.
The televised match with Catweazle was a 1 : 1 draw and Mick was honoured with the ten bell count afterwards.
So this is a coincidence that Caswell Martin v Pat Roach was televised on McManus's final tv bill six years before the same pair wrestled the final tv bout? It was doing my head in there for a minute.
You'd imagine Mick would have chosen everything to suit himself: opponent and venue.
Why Bedworth?
I think he was on the next day at Peterborough (Bill Torontos memorial KO). Results have him losing to Steve Logan the younger on a walk out. I can't see anything after that.