Paul Lincoln

Fascinating article on the anniversary of Paul Lincoln's death. It brought back many memories of my early days watching wrestling, some of which will go against the pure wrestling members of this group.

It was around 1961 and I was in my third year of going to White Hart Lane to watch Spurs. Of course that third year of 1961 saw my team win the so-called impossible 'double' - the league championship and FA Cup. As a 16 year old who was just starting work, my free money was pretty much tied up with Spurs. But one afternoon on my way out of the company I worked with, I saw a wrestling poster stuck on a nearby wall. There was always a wrestling poster on that wall but none had ever caught my eye before even though I had gone with some friends 2 or 3 times in 1959/60 but could take it or leave it.

I later realised that the posters I usually saw were Dale Martin and to someone not particularly interested in wrestling and not knowing who the wrestlers were, they looked rather uninteresting. But on this one day I looked at the poster and it drew me in. What was the reason? I remember it to this day, over 60 years later. It was a Paul Lincoln promotion for Poplar Baths in East London and the top of the bill was Dr Blood v Dr Death. That in itself looked "interesting" even though I hadn't heard of either at the time. Then underneath in bold letters came the clincher - the loser MUST unmask! As I said, I wasn't really interested in wrestling yet I knew I wanted to see this and booked tickets.

I became an addict soon after that first event and went to any Paul Lincoln promotions within reach of my home by public transport. That was usually the Hackney Empire (on the stage), Poplar Baths and occasionally the shows at the Granada group (Edmonton or Tooting). I tried Dale Martin bills but in all honesty I didn't find them as exciting although 6 of us used to have the same box each month at their Royal Albert Hall promotion. I always thought that Paul Lincoln Promotions success against their much bigger opposition was because, whether the bills were better or not, they appeared to make those bills look so much more interesting and exciting.

As I became more drawn in, I realised that in reality the DM wrestlers were probably better at the sport but less colourful. Of course my view was wrong but that didn't matter because if that's how I saw it back then, that's how it was TO ME! It may be that I just didn't know what I was looking at, but I think that Paul Lincoln saw posters in a different light to Dale Martin or even later to Joint Promotions - the bill isn't just to inform, it's to draw punters in and PM did that far better than their opposition.

For those that haven't read any of my previous posts, that loser must unmask contest saw Dr Blood lose his mask and revealed Geoff Portz underneath it, although members of this group have since informed me that he wasn't the regular Dr Blood. At that time I had never heard of Geoff Portz but knew that I couldn't wait to go again and within 12 months I was cleaning 'Judo' Al Hayes MG convertible in exchange for tickets and the occasional introduction to other wrestlers. Off the subject but while I remember it (as you get older, that's something you have to do!!!), I remember being amazed when Al introduced me to Mike Marino and he sounded like a cockney. Of course, so far as I was concerned, he was billed as coming from Milan! Life was so much simpler back then!

Once again, thanks for the article...