Rocco v Bobby Barnes

Peter mentioned Michael LeRoy.

Seemed he was on tv in 1974. I've never heard of him.

What do we (i.e. everyone except me) know about him?

Possibly but too soon for when I was attending live matches

With that haircut the picture looks like early to mid 60's for Bobby.

Was Michael le Roy about then

No photo just a wrestler I remember from the early 1970s but cannot be sure I have given correct spelling

Could it Peter? I don't know Michael Le Roy? Is there a photo of him,,?

This photo posted by Ron. He certainly looks familiar. Someone must know. Ideas fellas?

Sigh ... guys , he has acne. Very bad acne. I think we should draw a line under this once and for all, there’s a million reason to discuss the great Mark Rocco. His skin condition certainly isn’t one of them.

I have a Rocco match from '74 when he is working as a blue-eye and has the sleeveless top that Angelo is talking about. I'm not sure if he has a skin problem or freckles, but it's noticeable. The opponent is Lee Thomas.

Can anyone help identify this opponent of early Bobby Barnes,

I am thinking perhaps a southerner , Dale Martins Man , but just can't recall him

I also have a bout with Rocco and Steve Veidor, and yes, it’s a great match up. One of my earliest memories is seeing Mark fight Bert Royal at Fairfield halls. Bert slapped Mark across the face one too many times and got one back that nearly took his head off. Ouch!

Rocco did drop kick on occasion but not to the degree of Jumping Jim apparently !

When we look back on some of the mid 70s stuff still out there, some of those wrestlers look tired and jaded...dare I say it past their sell by date. The mid late 70s needed the new breed of Rocco, Dynamite and Jones to come along and boot British wrestling up the bum. Instead of capitalising on that style and making it the norm we started to get force fed the daddy stuff....shame.....but as a kid I loved the atmosphere of the Big Daddy bouts , it was just as I got older that I started to appreciate Rocco and Jones etc. They were the real deal without question. Finlay took over when Rocco disappeared off the telly and was of course very much an equal.

My first telly memories of Rocco was in his feud with Bert Royal for the heavy middleweight title. Obviously Bert could nt fly about so much as some of Rocco's younger opponents, but I still rate those bouts. I have one on DVD that is brilliant, a different kind of Rocco match to his later stuff but still totally brilliant with 'ol Bert giving his all too ! Rocco's mid 70s bout with Steve Veidor is a good one too !

In some of the early 70s Wrestler mags there are photos (from 72 I think) of Rocco in German tournament line ups - he obviously went straight into the big time travelling from the word go to get his experience before making his mark back home. I guess it looks a bit strange as there not many small guys out there then, he must have constantly have been in with the big Continental heavyweights ?

Yeah I heard Jim was a good wrestler. I seem to recall he was a drop kick specialist. Strangly I don’t recall Mark ever drop kicking anyone, Mark did indeed have a skin issue, and quite a bad one. don’t think it’s fair we discuss that.

I also remeber him in 1971. Always with that sleeveless top, he seemed to have a bit of a skin problem on his shoulders.

As Hack says, he was solid, in an opening bout sort of way.

I think it is very hard for us, well, maybe I should speak for myself, to see undercarders becoming bill-toppers.

Rocco, Myers, Kincaid, Bridges -- nothing against these guys but the challenge to a punter like me was that I should start to pay top-dollar to see these opening-bout guys topping the bill.

I am sure this has happened for decades. We see Pallo and McManus in preliminary bouts in the early fifties.

I saw his father wrestle.He was similar in style to Rocco, non stop action and a pain in the backside to the other wrestler and the referee.

What I never saw Jimmy Hussey do was spit water all over the canvas. In my day that would not have been tolerated.

But both good wrestlers.

The film Rollerball was first shown in the cinemas in the U.K in September 1975. From old bills that I have seen posted up on the internet, Mark Rocco seems to have started being billed as Rollerball Rocco shortly afterwards.

I have seen a couple of bouts of Rollerball Rocco from 1976, against Kung Fu and Marty Jones, where he was the energetic, non-stop heel that we all know. I believe that early in his career he wrestled as a face. Was the switch to wrestling as a heel, just from when he started being billed as Rollerball Rocco in late 1975?

Only ever saw him as a badass. I get the impression he kind of kept his head down learning his trade then started making a noise once he found his feet. It wasn’t just his wrestling and his seemingly endless energy, it was also the way he could work a crowd. He had it all in my opinion, years ahead of his time. One of my biggest regrets is never seeing his father wrestle, not even on film.

I agree about it being a great bout if between the Rocco and Barnes we remember and love.

But when did Rocco become the Rocco we remember and love?

The first time I saw him was about 1971, no later than 72. He was on against Johnny Saint and lost. I didn't see him as anything special at the time. Well, other than a cockiness that he was too busy to be interviewed for the Morrell programme (Ian Campbell, Prince Kumali and Johnny Saint were happy to be interviewed that night). If I saw him again in the next couple of years I don't remember him.

So when did Mark Rocco become so special?

Agreed. I think Rollerball would of roughed Barnes’s prized blond Barnet up, just like the great Bob Kirkwood did in an early bout.

This would have been an impressive match up