The "Rough, Tough" Wrestlers

Reading about Wrestlers who "didn't smile", and in particular, Hans Streiger, got me thinking once again about something that has been in the back of my mind for a while.

We've all heard the stories of wrestlers getting on a train to a venue, many years ago, only to find out, when they arrive, that they are facing Bert Assirati, and promptly turn about face, and leave the venue, rather than face the man.

Other stories are that Bert would back you into a corner of the ring, and then land a huge forearm smash over your nose, to break it, and have blood everywhere, to "liven things up".

Les Kellett has the reputation of being a hard man, who took liberties with people in the ring, despite his outward, public persona of the "Clown Prince of Wrestling". Adrian Street mentions in his books that not a lot of people relished facing Kellett, but Adrian did because he wasn't scared of him.

And now we hear how intimidating Hans Streiger was, a tough man no doubt.

I can't help but go back to our basic principles, that Wrestling (first and foremost) was a business. Back in the old days, the promoters tried to run the industry like clockwork, especially the well oiled Joint Promotions machine. They needed men who would be sent a list of dates, and would show up, do the job, get paid, and go home. It was no good to the promoters, the promoters agent on site in the hall, and the other wrestlers, if they were a man short because someone dare not face someone else.

Sometime genuine illness, cars breaking down, trains running late would prevent a wrestler making his agreed date, but surely the promoters didn't want anything else causing problems for them?, no internet or mobile phones back in those days, to call someone at short notice, to help out.

So what is the truth?

Bert Assirati did lose fights, he wasn't the all-encompassing "win-at-all-costs" bully that he seems to have been taken for. He "played ball" with promoters overseas, at least.

Hans Streiger?, I took a quick look and he appears to have lost way more than he won, when he was touring Canada with Stampede Wrestling, and in Germany. The German tournaments were, of course, a small group of Wrestlers, wrestling in the same city, night after night, in a round-robin format, and then moving on to the next city for a few weeks. The Stampede tours in Canada, were the same bunch of men moving from city to city, in a loop. Surely any trouble causer would wake up one morning, to find the rest of the lads had driven off without them!

Kellett?, hard to say, was he really that bad?

I am sure some Wrestlers simply did not get along with certain other Wrestlers, and may have laid in a bit hard, or worked "stiff" as they say, in the ring sometimes, but if you were the promoter, especially a national one, like Joint, surely you didn't need the hassle of your bills being disrupted because someone didn't want to go in the ring with someone else?, you would just get rid of the problem wouldn't you?

And, again, surely your bad reputation would quickly become known in such a tight knit business, where co-operation led to a well worked bout?

Maybe I/we are wrong, and there were some real tough guys who went out of their way to hurt someone in the ring, night after night, I guess we need someone from "the inside" to let us know.