Never really looked at this before , but came across this bill for a 1968 Zebra Kidd. This seems very late and I had not realised George Bolas went on this long. On checking I think it must be him as I can find bouts into the summer of 1967.
Collectively can we shout up on what occasions he was unmasked in Britain , by who etc. Did he put the mask back on next time.
Do we know if he had other matches with Nagasaki and really what was the outcome.
The book was sat on our shelves covered in dust Hack and chance to be the same again by the time i get around to looking at it again LOL. For those of you that don't have the issues of The Wrestler here are a few of Hack's snippets:
December 1964.
September 1964
Thanks Alan. So it was the British promoters causing George grief. You can put that book away now for another 30 years. When I was going through my Wrestling magazines for items on the Zebra Kid I did notice that right from the beginning and in all but one or two articles he was always named as George Bollas. For anyone with copies of The Wrestler these are the issues I found him in:
*June 1961, p 11
*July 1961, p 16
* Apr 1962 p.6
June, 1962 p. 4
* Oct 1962 p.17
* May 1963, p 8
* June 1963, p 14
* Aug 1963 p 8
* Oct 1963 p 5, 12,15, 19, 21
* Mar 1964 p20,23
Sept 1964 p. 22
Jan 1966, p 10
Sept 1966 p. 4
Jan 1968, p. 14
(* are snippets, bold are main articles)
From "The Wrestler" June 1964:
Later in the same issue.
Just had a quick deco at "Thumbs Up" in my collection. Cornelius dedicates a chapter to the Zebra Kid and it sounds like George was in a major state of depression during his stay in Britain, due to as Cornelius states promoters double crossing him out of money. The Dazzler can't convince Bolas to move / concentrate on wrestling in Germany where he may recoup his losses. Bolas is now adamant that he's going to end it all and shoot himself and starts waving a pistol about, so the police are called, it takes 6 police officers to restrain big George.
Hack is correct, not a great book, and one i haven't looked at for many years. Certainly don't let your maiden aunt read it unless you want her to have a heart failure.
It seems like he settled in the UK for about six or seven years, and I believe he had children.
And then he ups and leaves and continues wrestling in Germany.
It seems an odd personal decision to make at that time in his life.
Makes me really wonder whether he was in fact let go, in a two-year plan, by Joint Promotions. They denied him tv exposure, and made him unmask all over the place.
Maybe the promoters were all too aware of his health, perhaps his poor diet, and just didn't want the risk of an in-ring death?
Or maybe it was the gun.
In the 1980s I bought Joe Cornelius's autobiography "Thumbs Up." I ditched it soon afterwards and it is the one book I have had no desire to replace. I agree with the Amazon reviewer that Joe was a better wrestler than author. Anyway, from my thirty odd year memory I recall Joe saying quite a lot about his friend George. If anyone has the book it would be worth looking up. From memory it was a sad story. George was swindled in some way, and I think it might have been on his return to Greece in the 1960s.
I wonder if he only agreed to unmask against people who he thought were credible wrestlers, and maybe also if they had become friends?
He was also virtually top dog the following year 1968 in 3 German tournaments in Krefeld, Karslrhue & Koln.
Whatever was happening in the UK, in 1967, for the Zebra Kid, was not being reflected elsewhere. He won 39 out of 50 contests, at the tail end of that year, touring in three German tournaments, in Munich, Oldenberg and Hannover.
His only losses coming to a small handful of men; Kovacs, Iffland, Gida, Arroyo and Nador.
He won 36 out of 57 the following year in Germany.
It's brilliant to find a good few things out. Most of us new of Zebra Kid and that he was eventually beaten and unmasked and on several occasions , but what we have unearthed here is another accurate glimpse of the wrestling world and how it worked as an industry. The Zebra in the UK alone is a whole piece of history in itself that probably should be kept apart from what he did elsewhere in the world. 67/68 was clearly his swan song.
Found this, and it was 9th December, 1967. So it looks like the Zebra Kid was unmasked twice at Belle Vue.
I stand corrected I've misread my own information George was 54 when he died in 1977 so he was in and around 45 in 1968, Still many years older than Nagasaki.
From my records George Bollas died in 1977 at the age of 75. So in 1968 a young Kendo Nagasaki was defeating a man of 66 years of age, possibly at least twice the age of Nagasaki. So i would have thought George was more than likely winding down his career and helping to put over a young Nagasaki by having Kendo defeat and unmask a noted name.
Those defeats here in Britain in 1968 were in complete contrast to his exploits in the German tournaments that same year where he did exceptionally well according to the Wrestlingdata website!
Yes Sax is dead right , great record until he finally decided he was finishing. A twelve month Swan Song of unmasking.
What a great pro , he sold to Ricky in that video for all he was worth.
Have to say , he does not look anything like 20 stones plus in the early 1950,s on that video. Worth noting he also died in his 50's. He seems to have gone the very same way as The Ghoul with his weight and fitness.
Huge ring ! Thanks Ron.
Clearly the Kid liked his fish and chips and must have put on over eight stone in Britain.
After yet another loss, the question needs to be: did the Zebra Kid ever win?
Some Footage of Zebra Kid
Yes Anglo and thanks for a fascinating analysis , I do believe you are so right.
Zebra Kid seems to have finished up in parallel with The Outlaw, who also unmasked him plenty in the first half of 1968.
Only now is a big penny dropping as we continue to unravel events of years gone by.
The Outlaw was invincible and never unmasked. This profile made him suitable for tv and the proliferation of the tradition that a masked man unmasks definitively once beaten, just like Ct Bartelli.
We know The Zebra Kid was on a televised bill in 1965 against John Lees (RIP). But we also know this bout was never aired.
Zebra Kid had to stay off tv with all his unmaskings otherwise there would have been uproar in the halls.
So taking the mystery to another level, if the tradition was sacrosanct (as we all certainly believed at the time), Zebra Kid couldn't return to any hall where he had been unmasked, well, certainly not masked. I wonder if that really is the case, and whether he had to check carefully where he was going to be unmasked, as it would have to be his final appearance there?
There seem to have been scores of unmaskings, probably well over a hundred. I wonder if he or the promoters ever slipped up and had him back at a place where he had been unmasked.
If not, it was exceptionally well planned.
I never saw him wrestle. I'm wondering whether, by 1965 his show had deteriorated and the deal he could get for ongoing work was for multiple unmaskings. The decision must have been made right at the time of the Lees (RIP) bout.
A great employer's ploy to get the worker to make himself redundant!
Haha, we are all still hooked on masks and unmaskings!