By 1967 All the Top MASKED Men had Departed Our Rings bar 2!
Only KENDO NAGASAKI and THE OUTLAW Remained!
ZEBRA KID had been Vanquished (yet again) and Unmasked by THE OUTLAW at KINGS HALL
BELLE VUE-and Other Venues like ST.JAMES'S HALL-NEWCASTLE!
The Year before the Notorious Original DOCTOR DEATH had left for AUSTRALIA with his
Money from The Sell-Out of LINCOLN Promotions to JOINTS!
Also in 1966 in MARCH The Great COUNT BARTELLI had Come a Cropper in a Bloody Match-
Losing his Mask to KENDO NAGASAKI after a 20 Year Unbeaten Run!
THE MASK had been Forced to Retire with Ill-Health after a Heart Attack!
So Then there were Just TWO Career Masked Men left standing!
Surely Logic and Public Expectancy Demanded they Meet to decide Once and For All which of
them should Keep his Mask??
I asked PETER/KENDO about this Personally and he told Me that he Never Fought the Masked
OUTLAW!-He also told Me to the Best of his Memory he Never Wrestled GORDON NELSON
either!-He DID tell Me that he Fought and Unmasked The Original ZEBRA KID 'on at least 8
Occasions'!!!
What a Titanic Collision This MASK versus MASK Contest would have been!!
Who would have Prevailed?-'60's NAGASAKI was Awesome!-NELSON was Widely Regarded
as a Top Shooter!
BUT in a way KENDO NAGASAKI did Fight 'A' MASKED OUTLAW-as My Poster Below
Attests!-But what a Great Travesty that The Man he Fought This Day at NOTTINGHAM was NOT
The Original GORDON NELSON!!
WHO do YOU think would have Kept his Identiry Secret????
MAIN MASK
Op54nessie was there, he's right it was Jack Land (Karl Von Kramer) and I reckon by then not many would have cared. The regulars would have known that they weren't going to see the real Outlaw and Jack Land was no Gordon Nelson.
Could Nagasaki v Outlaw in 1968, the year of the article, have worked? Would Nelson job to this man he may have considered an upstart? Did all of Joint Promotions members have confidence that Nagasaki was a long term viable prospect? He'd only been around for four years. There could well have been a Joint Promotions conflict. Morrell/Beresford and Wryton would see value in a Nagasaki win, Nelson would be leaving the country anyway, whilst Dale Martin considered Nelson one of their own and didn't trust this northern upstart.
I was at that one. the Outlaw was Karl Kramer
That photo from the Wrestler is of the original Outlaw, mid sixties.
Who was behind the mask on that sixties bill is anyone's guess, but he was surely unmasked.
Looks a powerful guy Adrian and there were probably many fakes , but power like that really narrows it down. If I did not know better , I would be tempted to Say Rocky Wall with a mask.
But did he ever.