With an excellent match between Mike Brooks and Johnny Peters(Thirsk) now available on You Tube I was intrigued for Brooks to be described as Middleweight Champion of South West Africa subsequently after independence from South Africa-Namibia.
He is certainly highly impressive in this 1975 match but is this claim about as sensible as describing Tony Costas as Middleweight champion of the Middle East.
Either way both he and Peters deserved far more TV matches but for both of them this seemed to be it as far as TV was concerned
One other aspect about this TV Times article is that the same edition had an article about the Beatles. Nevertheless the full page article about Mike Brooks is the very first article in the magazine on page one.Surely a tribute to both Brooks and the popularity of Professional Wrestling in 1963
No, he would not have liked that description! Mike was definitely an evangelical minister and would have preferred the title "pastor" to "priest"
As a Professional Wrestler Mike would have increased effectiveness in his ministry reaching young fans not too interested in religion. The reverse is true he would draw some some non wrestling fans to watch wrestling.
During his 1963/1964 visit he has several TV appearances in quick succession between December and February including two versus Alan Dennison. Clearly very impressive
In his auto biographical book "Wrestling for God" (published in 1976 in Belfast) Mike describes winning the Middleweight Championship of South West Africa from Jan "Ripper" Barnard in Windhoek in 1961. He writes "I was now middleweight champion of South West Africa, a title I held until my return to England in 1970".
Personally, I find it hard to believe that he would lie in a book about this.
At this point Mike had gone out to South Africa as part of the process of preparing to train as a Methodist Minister, which he did, being ordained over there a few years later. Mike briefly returned to the UK in about 1963 for a family visit which he paid for by wrestling. He describes writing to Arthur Green in Leeds who told him that he could earn his passage plus enough "to hire a car and have some spending money as well". He writes that he wrestled Chic Purvey, Tommy Mann, Mike Donlevy and Jack Dempsey on this tour.
In the sense that each appeared not that often on tv, the WMoB once only.
And yet they both captivated the public and drew attention to wrestling.
Each was incredible in his own way.
It would be easy to imagine that each appeared far more frequently on tv thean they actually did.
Better wrestler than the Wild Man of Borneo
So the vicar reminds you of a cannibal from the jungle does he Mr Anglo Italian?
Very good.
Please, just lie on the couch and tell us all about it.
Rev Michael Brookes reminds me of The Wild Man of Borneo.
I am quite prepared to accept the promoters in South Africa billed him as Middleweight Champion of Namibia.Also based on this match he could easily have beaten Brian Maxine in a legitimate contest.One of the big absurdities of UK Wrestling that Maxine was called Middleweight Champ from 1971 onwards without seriously defending the belt
Was it “Dropkick” Johnny Peters in the bout shown? He was a Londoner and used to tag with “The Dazzler”; or had he a namesake in Thirsk?
Michael Brooks was from Overton, near Heysham, Lancashire. He was a Methodist Minister and often preached locally. I know an old chap who was at school with him. He told me Michael was a strong hard lad, always challenging his schoolmates to wrestling matches!
I understand for a time he did missionary work in Africa.
I saw him a number of times on TV, opponents I recall were Chic Purvey and Jim Mellor.
Claims to both titles were certainly made at the time but as to any legitimacy? Are we going to question a man of God?