By about 1977 I was tiring of wrestling , The Kings Hall was more and more empty , I thought some of the bills were poor although some fabulous wrestlers were coming through at the lower weights. Kendo's own TV unmasking did not go down well with me , Rocky Wall , another hero had gone , others had gone on too long and finally I switched off.
It was quite a few years before I found out that the Kings Hall had been pulled down. I thought Kendo had retired as well , only to find out much later that he came back. Over the years I went the advertising was very basic , it had actually been much better in the 1930's. And from over 100 shows a year under Dick and Jessie Rogers it seems the once a week that I saw had dropped off to just big events. At least , thats what the Evening News suggests.
I was not an 80's fan and in fact had been looking in on USA stuff in the late 80's.
Always open minded though , today I am pleased to bring you some of the final bills , quite well advertised before the closure. Make of them what you will.
If you want to keep the video , the link lasts for one week. ( My alternative to a gallery)
https://transfer.pcloud.com/download.html?code=5Zx713VZvsayd3fOzFbZEVbOZRfKPMgbmUb54nhzvkO8Aipk0t087
Torquay Town Hall was used by a small local promotion a few years ago
Living in Torquay between '84 and '88, the town and the area was a wrestling desert. In all that time the only wrestling I saw (and knew about) was one Big Daddy night. No others. In Torquay, in four years, I only saw one wrestling magazine, a six month old American mag. which was mostly of coloured pictures and poor, breathless writing. Before going back to Australia I wandered the streets of Southfields and Wimbledon looking for magazines for my son to read on the plane and visited many tiny corner shops, eventually collecting about half a dozen (all American publications). For me the '80s were Wrestling's' Armageddon!
A good story about Belle Vue and it's last night from our sadly departed Heritage member Ray Noble
https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/bloodsweatandsepeedway
Dixon also returned to the Apollo for a one-off show (headlined by the Bushwhackers) around 2002. I believe it was directly across the road from the site of the former Ardwick Stadium ("the Blood Tub") which was by then a carpet shop.
Bret Hart mentions in his book that he was on the last ever Belle Vue show.
One odd thing about Belle Vue is that they always seem to have had individual turnbuckle pad for each rope rather than a big long corner pad.
It's the same on the clip of Ricki Starr from the 1960s from the Final Bell:
Enjoyable turning point, Ron. My cycle mirrored yours very closely. One aspect of the changes and reductions was that the North-South divide of bills vanished with the same few wrestlers appearing nationwide: the same bouts featured on the south cost.
A few thoughts as I browsed:
What a dreadful photo of a (startled and white) Sheikh!
Then it seems like all the 6'1" wrestlers had a growth spurt:
And then I wonder what skulduggery was afoot through the word APPEARING and who his opponent might have been, if any:
Thanks for compiling.