SHOULD BOBBY BARNES HAVE HELD A TITLE?

According to the usually accurate ITV Wrestling website Barnes had TV wins over Marc Rocco and Tony St Clair

I think it was the bread and butter of the halls that was more important than the occasional TV appearance to a wrestler, that's where you made your money , working regularly up and down the country.

He had a long TV career and in the end this is probably all that mattered

In spite of your general adulation .... he didn't win very often!

But they're the ones we love, aren't they?

He has some excellent matches on You Tube and was certainly more worthy than some "champions" of the era

The answer is a simple yes. I remember Bobby is his early days when he was still a "blue eye" and he was obviously talented and destined to make his mark. As he became a top-class "heel" I suppose it was felt he did not need a title, as he was certainly a crowd puller, even more so with Adrian Street.

Looking back through some old results I have, I see that Bobby Barnes fought Bert Royal for the British Heavy-Middleweight title at the Royal Albert Hall on 28th May 1975 but was beaten 2-1. I am sure that there were other title fights around the country but Barnes never did hold a wrestling title. The promoters must have felt that he could already pull in the crowds without being a title holder and so did not need to be a champion.

didn't he win a title as a hairdresser

Once Street had departed for good, we could see Bobby wasn't fully into the act when he grew a moustache and stopped dying his hair. An angle could have been for him to have a sudden "straight turn" with a new straight look and become a title contender.

Otherwise, as Saxonwolf says, the gimmick wrestlers didn't need titles and left these to be shared around the non-gimmick ones. That was the balance.

Not sure a belt/title would have added any additional heat, Barnes was already a master at crowd manipulation.

I always thought Bobby was over 13 stones. he had great matches with marginally smaller men , but never looked like he could take on bigger guys.

I never saw him in a title bout but he would have made a great champion, he could have been even more of a heel than he already was, fighting high profile faces for the belt on a regular basis would been a great crowd puller