I was reading the results of a 1969 Royal Albert Hall show and Mike Marino was a subsitute for a wrestler who couldn't appear. It was commented how old he looked.
I know many stars, Pallo, McManus, Logan wrestled very late into their lives quite willingly. But I wonder about Marino and Ken Joyce, who had other roles with promoters. Did they willingly step into the breach when their bodies were possibly past it? Was is out of loyalty for their employers and the fans? Was pressure applied to them by promoters?
That's a good point, Ron, and it all unfolded before our very eyes.
I watched McManus very carefully in his final years, He religiously took three cross ring throws each bout, as if to make this the gauge of his athleticism. At least he set himself a bar; Logan just declined very visually into immobility - whilst still being top-of-the-bill.
Just trying to recall Marino's final years, I think he stayed much more agile. But like you say, maybe I was just suckered in by the show.
The longer they went on , the more economically they wrestled , it was all crafty stuff and for the most part it worked.
Just watched an American documentary about indie wrestling called the bottom ring, it focused on a promotion leading up to their big show of the year, they usually draw 200, they were hoping for 1000 and the star attraction was Marty Jannetty who was quite open that he works shows with low three figure attendances which were 'a little different from Madison Square Garden. An indie promotion was described as the place where stars start and in most cases finish alongside wannabes and never will be's about 30 minutes long but very interesting.
I guess Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler was quite accurate. Being a star or being hated must have been very addictive.
We can never know the answer to the original question, and there may not be a generic one. I wouldn't have thought promoters pressurised anyone to carry on. In the 50s, 60s and early 70s there was a huge pool of talent and no one was indispensable. From mid 70s it seemed preferable to replace experienced men with lower paid newcomers. From what I know of wrestlers the majority would not need persuading to carry on. They enjoyed their work and many would have liked to go on forever.
I guess as he had the book, he must have chosen to carry on. I know that Jeff Kaye came out of retirement a few times. Does anoyone know if he made a living as a ref or was it more of a hobby for him? Someone else mentioned that ref Roy Harding used to do the ring and ref for £50 a night, this may just have been a living wage for him. What about seconds, were these just locals? I can't imagine people treking around the country for just pocket money.
So Mike went on for another twelve years, booking himself. Not hard to imagine he would have been fed up with his body being mistreated nightly in his fifties, but that was his trade and he probably felt it was his best earner. Probably had a family or families to feed. He kept himself as British Champion, World on special occasions, this made us fans believe we were seeing a great, all part of the hoodwinking.
I don't think their "other roles" would have paid their ways. I think the other roles were nice little extras, but five nights a week in the ring paid the bills.
He also worked in a greasy spoon on the A1, as we have often discussed.
But like so many, we still don't really know very much.