Yes of course there were quite a few golden eras of British pro wrestling. The question I have would be which of those eras was THE MOST GOLDEN. I have an opinion...but I have to agree it's the matter of preferences. If we talk popularity, finances, legacy. Then more likely it was The Wrestling Boom, 1904-10 or as some call it The Hack's Era...though personally I cannot agree with that most glorious era being named after George Hackenschmidt, there were too many other influential heroes besides him.
It's so subjective, but I would go for 1955-1965, so it was going downhill as soon as I came along, which in terms of number of shows is true. In that period television was bringing it to a wider audience, the number of shows were reaching their mid sixties peak, opposition promoters were on the ascendancy challenging Joint Promotions, some wrestlers were household names known to a wider audience and it was all believable.
While I am a bit younger than some of you lads, I think you will agree that cutting off "The Golden Era", in the early to mid 70's would have deprived us of Marty Jones, Mark Rocco, Dave Finlay and Dynamite Kid in their prime. Four of the very best wrestlers to come from these shores.
When ever I look at Wrestling posters on here or Facebook etc I am immediately drawn to the admission charges and if it is in old money then that was the Golden Age for me! Could be due to many of the reasons stated above, especially Powerlock, but by the mid seventies nearly all of my favourites had either died or retired and no one had come along to replace them. Roll on Brexit and we can get back to using pounds, shillings and pence :-)
I would have said from the early 1960s to about 1975, wrestling because of it's high profile via TV and the media meant some of our wrestling stars were the most recognized people in the country. The halls were still doing fairly good business and multiple shows were being held across the country every night of the week. the decline began to show because the old guard didn't pass the torch to any real extent to the new kids on the block. we had some very good new guys but just not enough of them and with the Crabtrees not really valuing anyone except big Shirley the rot set in at Joint and a lot of very good talent began to look elsewhere for employment. A little foresight could have made it so different
I'll stick with the original Heritage bookends of 1952 to 1977. Unification, television, household names, expansion, organisation, important titles, sensations and scandals in appropriately limited measures.
Got to be a bit flexible and generous because the very nature of wrestling meant there were always some experiments that didn't quite come off (Torontos, Catweazle...) But the highlights outweighed these.
Followed by decline and desperation.
I'm sure there were great moments in the preceding years, but they were merely moments. Only the birth of Joint Promotions created an Age.
Yes of course there were quite a few golden eras of British pro wrestling. The question I have would be which of those eras was THE MOST GOLDEN. I have an opinion...but I have to agree it's the matter of preferences. If we talk popularity, finances, legacy. Then more likely it was The Wrestling Boom, 1904-10 or as some call it The Hack's Era...though personally I cannot agree with that most glorious era being named after George Hackenschmidt, there were too many other influential heroes besides him.
All in...had it's glory so did Mount Evans.
Matter of taste.
It's so subjective, but I would go for 1955-1965, so it was going downhill as soon as I came along, which in terms of number of shows is true. In that period television was bringing it to a wider audience, the number of shows were reaching their mid sixties peak, opposition promoters were on the ascendancy challenging Joint Promotions, some wrestlers were household names known to a wider audience and it was all believable.
Agree four world class wrestlers but reached their prime when attendances at live shows and TV viewing figures had long gone into decline
While I am a bit younger than some of you lads, I think you will agree that cutting off "The Golden Era", in the early to mid 70's would have deprived us of Marty Jones, Mark Rocco, Dave Finlay and Dynamite Kid in their prime. Four of the very best wrestlers to come from these shores.
When ever I look at Wrestling posters on here or Facebook etc I am immediately drawn to the admission charges and if it is in old money then that was the Golden Age for me! Could be due to many of the reasons stated above, especially Powerlock, but by the mid seventies nearly all of my favourites had either died or retired and no one had come along to replace them. Roll on Brexit and we can get back to using pounds, shillings and pence :-)
To me the «Golden Age» has to be the sixties, mainly because of the following:
- TV coverage
- Wrestlers who were household names, (because of the first point)
- Smaller promotions were popping up all over the country
- Coverage was more apparent in the daily newspapers
On the other side, the decline was mainly due to the fact that TV no longer covered wrestling.
I would have said from the early 1960s to about 1975, wrestling because of it's high profile via TV and the media meant some of our wrestling stars were the most recognized people in the country. The halls were still doing fairly good business and multiple shows were being held across the country every night of the week. the decline began to show because the old guard didn't pass the torch to any real extent to the new kids on the block. we had some very good new guys but just not enough of them and with the Crabtrees not really valuing anyone except big Shirley the rot set in at Joint and a lot of very good talent began to look elsewhere for employment. A little foresight could have made it so different
I'll stick with the original Heritage bookends of 1952 to 1977. Unification, television, household names, expansion, organisation, important titles, sensations and scandals in appropriately limited measures.
Got to be a bit flexible and generous because the very nature of wrestling meant there were always some experiments that didn't quite come off (Torontos, Catweazle...) But the highlights outweighed these.
Followed by decline and desperation.
I'm sure there were great moments in the preceding years, but they were merely moments. Only the birth of Joint Promotions created an Age.
It was suggested that the real "Golden Era" ended with the black and white TV broadcasts because with colour it became more obviously worked
It is very subjective and I would say that "The Golden Era" is the era that you loved the best and fondly remember.
In a broader sense, for me anyway, it is the World of Sport era, when wrestling was televised because it was so popular.
That is always going to be a matter of opinion.
I don't think that anyone could answer that question and be sure to be correct.