I quite enjoyed watching Steve when he had the right opponent. However my question is when did he become Southern area Heavyweight champ and whom did he beat?
Remember Steve having a long standing feud with Wayne Bridges at Liverpool. Wayne was playing a h heel turn at the time. Also featured in the first title match I ever saw live, against Count Bartelli for the Commonwealth Title. And for good measure, saw him defeat a pre "Big Daddy" Shirley Crabtree.
The Wrestler magazine rated Viedor Number 4 in the UK. He won the RAH Trophy three times. He was in title and other high-profile bouts.
I fell in with this, or fell for this. Add on lashings of Kent Walton telling us how great he was and various press and TV Times articles - he was quite simply a cornerstone of the Golden Years.
I really don't want to wallow in hindsight. We could pick holes in everything.
50 years ago, Viedor was a mainstay.
And he could make a bout work with absolutely anyone. Let's not forget who set up The Outlaw on tv in 1965, sufferingly.
I think we need to consider the other, even original, Golden Boy: Billy Walker in the mid-sixties boxing ring. He really was big at the time, even if his actual boxing record studied now over fifty years later, doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny. Does anyone else remember him? He was even in tv ads!!!
So of course wrestling had to have equivalents.
Not much point applying our all-knowing 21st Century analysis - for me this is about getting back into the sixties mindset.
The Marinos and Roberts and Viedors were essential for so many reasons, also to illustrate what the rules were and what wasn't allowed.
He was good Anglo, I was a fan. The good guys defiantly played their part but I don't think they were always essential to a good bout, McManus v Pallo? Nagasaki v Rocco? not a good guy in sight yet two of the best match ups ever and I'm sure there's loads more. As for watching two squeeky clean good guys (for me) was like having my teeth pulled but its all horses for courses and I know a lot of fans enjoyed a good clean bout. I liked blood, and the more the better ...
Yeah, I met him at his pub in Hampton long long ago and remember thinking he looked smaller than I thought he would (although very fit). Nice guy, happy to chat and very down to earth.
Tibor Szachas (think I might have spelt that wrong) was OK I guess, not one I would go out of my way to watch but there were a lot worse. wasn't he supposed to have a deadly forearm smash or something?
I was never much a fan of the blue eyed boys apart from Steve Viedor and Steve Grey. I always loved the bad guys. I can appreciate the skill of someone like say Johnny Saint but to be honest if he was wrestling on my front lawn I doubt I could even be bothered to open the curtains. And if it were The Royals or Big Daddy I'd set my dog on them.
Hi FRANK!-VEIDOR never was one of my Favourites I'm afraid!-Always thought he could have done with a couple of extra stone?!-A very Good Wrestler but too 'Pin-Up Boyish for me! TIBOR was another really
Good Wrestler Who just didn't appeal to me that much!-A similar Frame to STEVE-and they Tagged together-but almost 'lanky'-to me,he didn't LOOK like a HEAVYWEIGHT!-Saw both these Guys Live lots
but can't recall a really outstanding Bout for either of them!
He was the darling of Fairfield hall in the late 70s, they idolised him. He had a long running tag feud with Wayne Bridges as his partner against Daddy and Haystacks which was always good and climaxed in a 3 way tag with Bridges and Viedor being joined my Max Ward and Daddy and Haystacks being joined by Roger Wells. Also saw him in a great match against Rocco (yes I'm banging the drum for Rocco again) back in the day. What's he up to today? Does anyone know?
A brilliant professional wrestler, in my opinion. Easy to overlook him as a superficial Golden Boy. But he understood his role and was so clever in fulfilling it to the audience's satisfaction.
Although a very credible heavyweight, I believe he had no aspirations to shooting status. He had a nice ongoing thing with Bruno and the title, they must have wrestled each other loads of times.
But he was show, show, show.
I can't imagine Viedor v Billy Robinson - it just wasn't what Viedor was all about, he was too professional.
Poor Bruno must have done something wrong: they billed him strangely beneath the challenger and docked him two inches.
Always a late start at Croydon with six bouts to get through. Murphy v Capelli would have been a good bout, which they had performed so many times down the years.
Steve Veidor is on TV , as I am writing this, on an old "Kenny Everett TV Show" sketch, on Freeview channel, "That's TV (UK)".
Remember Steve having a long standing feud with Wayne Bridges at Liverpool. Wayne was playing a h heel turn at the time. Also featured in the first title match I ever saw live, against Count Bartelli for the Commonwealth Title. And for good measure, saw him defeat a pre "Big Daddy" Shirley Crabtree.
The Wrestler magazine rated Viedor Number 4 in the UK. He won the RAH Trophy three times. He was in title and other high-profile bouts.
I fell in with this, or fell for this. Add on lashings of Kent Walton telling us how great he was and various press and TV Times articles - he was quite simply a cornerstone of the Golden Years.
I really don't want to wallow in hindsight. We could pick holes in everything.
50 years ago, Viedor was a mainstay.
And he could make a bout work with absolutely anyone. Let's not forget who set up The Outlaw on tv in 1965, sufferingly.
Very clever guy, IMHO.
There was a bit of blood now and then Peter, never on telly tho that I can remember.
Steve was a very good worker and as Anglo says , suffered magnificently.
The main problem I had was that when Billy Robinson had gone , they gave Viedor this huge push to challenge Albert Wall for the belt.
It was a bridge too far for me. At that time Viedor worked some great bouts during the push.
My opinion though was that there ware a good handful of others that could have made Albert look as though the result was in doubt.
As it happens , when Albert finished it went to Gwyn Davies and if I was doing the pushing , Pat Roach would have been a lot sooner.
Did we get much blood in this era?
I think we need to consider the other, even original, Golden Boy: Billy Walker in the mid-sixties boxing ring. He really was big at the time, even if his actual boxing record studied now over fifty years later, doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny. Does anyone else remember him? He was even in tv ads!!!
So of course wrestling had to have equivalents.
Not much point applying our all-knowing 21st Century analysis - for me this is about getting back into the sixties mindset.
The Marinos and Roberts and Viedors were essential for so many reasons, also to illustrate what the rules were and what wasn't allowed.
He was good Anglo, I was a fan. The good guys defiantly played their part but I don't think they were always essential to a good bout, McManus v Pallo? Nagasaki v Rocco? not a good guy in sight yet two of the best match ups ever and I'm sure there's loads more. As for watching two squeeky clean good guys (for me) was like having my teeth pulled but its all horses for courses and I know a lot of fans enjoyed a good clean bout. I liked blood, and the more the better ...
But the baddies only make sense if they have a goody to work against. Viedor was perfect, and suffered magnificently.
Yeah, I met him at his pub in Hampton long long ago and remember thinking he looked smaller than I thought he would (although very fit). Nice guy, happy to chat and very down to earth.
Tibor Szachas (think I might have spelt that wrong) was OK I guess, not one I would go out of my way to watch but there were a lot worse. wasn't he supposed to have a deadly forearm smash or something?
I was never much a fan of the blue eyed boys apart from Steve Viedor and Steve Grey. I always loved the bad guys. I can appreciate the skill of someone like say Johnny Saint but to be honest if he was wrestling on my front lawn I doubt I could even be bothered to open the curtains. And if it were The Royals or Big Daddy I'd set my dog on them.
Hi FRANK!-VEIDOR never was one of my Favourites I'm afraid!-Always thought he could have done with a couple of extra stone?!-A very Good Wrestler but too 'Pin-Up Boyish for me! TIBOR was another really
Good Wrestler Who just didn't appeal to me that much!-A similar Frame to STEVE-and they Tagged together-but almost 'lanky'-to me,he didn't LOOK like a HEAVYWEIGHT!-Saw both these Guys Live lots
but can't recall a really outstanding Bout for either of them!
MAIN MASK
He was the darling of Fairfield hall in the late 70s, they idolised him. He had a long running tag feud with Wayne Bridges as his partner against Daddy and Haystacks which was always good and climaxed in a 3 way tag with Bridges and Viedor being joined my Max Ward and Daddy and Haystacks being joined by Roger Wells. Also saw him in a great match against Rocco (yes I'm banging the drum for Rocco again) back in the day. What's he up to today? Does anyone know?
A brilliant professional wrestler, in my opinion. Easy to overlook him as a superficial Golden Boy. But he understood his role and was so clever in fulfilling it to the audience's satisfaction.
Although a very credible heavyweight, I believe he had no aspirations to shooting status. He had a nice ongoing thing with Bruno and the title, they must have wrestled each other loads of times.
But he was show, show, show.
I can't imagine Viedor v Billy Robinson - it just wasn't what Viedor was all about, he was too professional.
He seemed to be a bit under used in my opinion or maybe that suited him.
It was 1976. He also won the title in November 1983 in Brighton, defeating Crusher Mason.
cheers mate.
Think that bill is about 1975.
Thanks Anglo, any idea which year that would have been?
Poor Bruno must have done something wrong: they billed him strangely beneath the challenger and docked him two inches.
Always a late start at Croydon with six bouts to get through. Murphy v Capelli would have been a good bout, which they had performed so many times down the years.