As the Mammoth Sort-Out in My Vault continues apace-I came across this FLYER!
It's only LORD BLEARS!-LORD Who??
Does BERNARD Remember this Fella?-Maybe he saw him in Action at NEW ST.JAMES HALL?
This Name only vaguely Rings a Bell with me?!
He looks Toffee-Nosed to me!!
P.S.-I've come across a Load of NEWCASTLE Stuff-1945-1952 BERNARD!-When I've got this Lot
into some Semblance of Order-I'll put more TOPICS Up!!
And JOHNNY STEAD up against GEORGE KIDD!!
MAIN MASK
We have covered Lord Blears quite a few times over the years (that rhymes!), Bernard being the only poster on here to see him live, from memory.
Lord Blears story is one of those that could be used as the script for a film, and I think that a lad from a working class background in Greater Manchester, to end up living in Hawaii, and making a ton of money along the way is really uplifting.
I originally thought He was from Manchester, but in fact his birth place (I have since found out) is closer to Wigan, no wonder he became a wrestler!
In Dynamite Kid's book, "Pure Dynamite", Lord Blears is no longer wrestling, but acts as a paid agent for Shohei "Giant" Baba and his All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion. It seems that Baba would make contact with a Wrestler, and if it looked like they could do business, he would ask Lord Blears to make all the arrangements. I think I have read the pay off for Wrestling in Hawaii, when Lord Blears was involved, was very generous, and let's face it, if someone said "do you fancy coming over to Hawaii for a few weeks?, wrestling for 20-30 minutes a night, some TV work, and the rest of the time is your own, to do what you want.....", well I for one would have jumped at it!
Here is what I ended up saying to Bernard in early 2019,
"....Lord Blears was from Manchester, Bernard. Very interesting life story, including escaping the Japanese within an inch of his life in world war two, wrestling (while on shore leave, for spending money) in the USA (New York I think?), ending up living in Hawaii and became huge in the world of surfing, as well as Wrestling..."
Died at the grand old age of 92, in Honolulu.